QUICKSTEP TO MURDER by Ella Barrick

Publisher:  Signet

Published:   September 6, 2011

ISBN:  978-0451234544

Genre:   Cozy Mystery

Format:  Paperback
Obtained via:  Publisher  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

THREE HEARTS

Stacy Graysin and Rafe Acosta jointly own the Graysin Motion dance studio where wanna be pro dancers learn their trade.  Together they teach classes, prepare amateurs for dancers and compete themselves.  And, for awhile, they were engaged.  That was until Stacy found Rafe in bed with one of their students.  In a matter of moments the engagement was off and she was looking for a way to end their professional partnership.  Easier said than done because of pending competitions and seriously, were does one find a dance partner they are totally in sync with in no time at all? 

And to top it off, Rafe has been acting strange…very strange…and asking for money.  Not only that, a black limo with diplomatic plates shows up in front of the studio.  When Stacy decides to find out just what is going on with Rafe the car takes off.  But that’s not all…oh far from it.  Not long after Rafe is found dead.  Shot. With Stacy’s gun.  N the dance studio.

Accused of Rafe’s murder Stacy struggles to keep the studio afloat which would be a lot easier if she didn’t have a congresswoman demanding she help with one of her … projects or a teenaged couple with their own problem to solve.  And then Rafe’s older brother arrives in town.  Things rapidly become more complicated from there leaving Stacy to wonder if a few years in the grey bar inn might not be a lot easier than the problems swirling around her.  Can she find Rafe’s killer before she finds out about that jail sentence first hand?

QUICKSTEP TO MURDER by Ella Barrick was my first book of this talented author’s under this name.  I’ve read several of her others written under other pen names and I have to say each “name” has a very unique voice.  If I hadn’t known her other “names” I would not have associated this book with her the writing is so very different.  Entertaining and an intriguing mystery—along with a very different voice.

I liked Stacy and that nothing really got her down for very long.  The points where she was ready to throw in the towel were well done and made sense—especially when she is shot and is just plain ole bemused and why no one is getting it that she was SHOT! 

I had a hard time picturing the studio as being upstairs from her living quarters and it never did make sense to me why if she owns the house the studio is in she needed a full partner in the business.  I don’t know enough about the dance business to understand it so there was probably a very good reason I just didn’t get.

And speaking of ballroom dancing and the business thereof, the owner of the sandwich shop near my work goes ball room dancing every weekend and loves it.  Then recently I met someone else who goes regularly.  Now with reading QUICKSTEP TO MURDER I’m thinking I need to check it out myself.  Barrick makes it sound like wonderful exercise while being able to dress up in some absolutely gorgeous costumes.  The rest of the series is on my TBR because I really do want to know where Stacy’s career goes next. 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.