weaselweader's review against another edition
2.0
"Overture ... curtain, lights! This is it ... we'll hit the heights!”
When New York Assistant DA Alex Cooper teams up with her police colleagues, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, to solve the murder of prima ballerina and outrageous diva, Natalya Galinova, readers are treated to a backstage tour of the New York music and theater scene that any arts-loving tourist would give their eye teeth for. We meet the dancers, actors and musicians, the show girls, the technicians, the on-stage grunts, the administrators and management, and the über-wealthy production financiers whose pockets are, to all appearances, bottomless. We tour the orchestra pit, stage front, backstage, refreshment loges, balconies, dressing rooms and rehearsal halls. We learn of the architecture and history of the buildings – Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, City Center and the Belasco Theatre.
Unfortunately, despite this fabulous backdrop (did you catch that stage reference?), the plot that Fairstein has woven for her readers manages to be at once byzantine, pedestrian and melodramatic. The Berk family on which most time is spent becomes cartoonish. Admittedly, the alleged bad guys in a thriller aren’t supposed to be lovable folks but their self-centered narcissism, their overweaning pomposity and arrogance, their self-indulgent sexual perversion and their outrageous misogyny dominated the narrative and simply became tedious.
In the meantime, the secondary plot which showed so much promise in the opening chapter becomes a missed opportunity and is all but ignored through most of the novel. Drug assisted sexual assault, the ethics of DNA databases, bail versus release on an alleged criminal’s own recognizance, flight risk and international extradition – all that meat smelled so delicious when it first got dropped onto the grill but the chef walked away and left this reader hungry with his stomach rumbling loudly.
Weakly recommended for fans of the Alex Cooper series. I hope this one doesn’t mean that her curtain is about to come down.
Paul Weiss
When New York Assistant DA Alex Cooper teams up with her police colleagues, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, to solve the murder of prima ballerina and outrageous diva, Natalya Galinova, readers are treated to a backstage tour of the New York music and theater scene that any arts-loving tourist would give their eye teeth for. We meet the dancers, actors and musicians, the show girls, the technicians, the on-stage grunts, the administrators and management, and the über-wealthy production financiers whose pockets are, to all appearances, bottomless. We tour the orchestra pit, stage front, backstage, refreshment loges, balconies, dressing rooms and rehearsal halls. We learn of the architecture and history of the buildings – Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera House, City Center and the Belasco Theatre.
Unfortunately, despite this fabulous backdrop (did you catch that stage reference?), the plot that Fairstein has woven for her readers manages to be at once byzantine, pedestrian and melodramatic. The Berk family on which most time is spent becomes cartoonish. Admittedly, the alleged bad guys in a thriller aren’t supposed to be lovable folks but their self-centered narcissism, their overweaning pomposity and arrogance, their self-indulgent sexual perversion and their outrageous misogyny dominated the narrative and simply became tedious.
In the meantime, the secondary plot which showed so much promise in the opening chapter becomes a missed opportunity and is all but ignored through most of the novel. Drug assisted sexual assault, the ethics of DNA databases, bail versus release on an alleged criminal’s own recognizance, flight risk and international extradition – all that meat smelled so delicious when it first got dropped onto the grill but the chef walked away and left this reader hungry with his stomach rumbling loudly.
Weakly recommended for fans of the Alex Cooper series. I hope this one doesn’t mean that her curtain is about to come down.
Paul Weiss
sarahpottenger's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of bleak--everyone was a sleaze. But it was a good mystery, with a good final clash, and the relationships between the main characters were interesting.
psalmcat's review against another edition
4.0
OK. Could have used a little tighter editing--there were some "wait, she already knew that!" moments, and clear seams where chapters had been reworked and moved around.
Still, if you're into the New York theatrical world, this is an interesting look at the backstage antics of some major players. Also, drugged date rape hits this series.
Still, if you're into the New York theatrical world, this is an interesting look at the backstage antics of some major players. Also, drugged date rape hits this series.
suzmac's review against another edition
3.0
Murder mystery by a first female and longtime assistant district attorney in NYC. Setting is the MET which was educational. I must get there sometime. I understood this author's life was partly the inspiration for Law & Order. So... story was quite adequate and reeled me in from page 1. But I prefer my other mystery author guilty pleasures with their fallible, colorful investigators. This was no courtroom drama, which is kind of what I was seeking.
sariggs's review against another edition
1.0
I originally gave this four stars for its nyc setting and nyc history background and the main female character, but I took all my stars back because I cannot separate the artist from the art, and this author defended Harvey Weinstein and is largely held responsible for prosecuting and convicting the children known at the Central Park Five for a rape they didn’t commit.
dogtown's review against another edition
2.0
I've wanted to read this series for a while and happened to pick up a used copy of this book at our vacation resort. I probably should have started with #1 in the series before jumping right into #8. I found it hard to invest in the characters because so much of their back story remained unexplained - the author seemed to bank on the fact that the reader had read the previous books. It's probably worth me going back and starting with #1 in order to get a true sense of whether I will enjoy this series.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
2.0
How can I fairly judge Death Dance? Though I once read only books, it is rare now that I read a mystery. Last year, out of the 158 books that I read, only two were mysteries.
So what would make me, a rare mystery reader, pick up this book? The same things that would make me pick up any book. I look for characters that interest me and a story that is compelling. The blurb on the back offers up the story in a way that appeals to me; I was intrigued by the idea of dancers.
That's enough for me to pick up the book, but it's not enough to keep me reading. To keep me in the book, the author has to surprise me. Death Dance did not surprise me. I forced myself to read through the book, but it felt more like assigned reading than pleasure.
So what would make me, a rare mystery reader, pick up this book? The same things that would make me pick up any book. I look for characters that interest me and a story that is compelling. The blurb on the back offers up the story in a way that appeals to me; I was intrigued by the idea of dancers.
That's enough for me to pick up the book, but it's not enough to keep me reading. To keep me in the book, the author has to surprise me. Death Dance did not surprise me. I forced myself to read through the book, but it felt more like assigned reading than pleasure.
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