Murder in First Position: An On Pointe Mystery
Traditional Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Level Best Books (November 24, 2020)
Paperback: 260 pages

Synopsis

Ballerina Leah Siderova knows the career of a professional dancer is short. But rarely is it as brief as that of her rival, Arianna Bonneville, whose rise to stardom ends when she is stabbed in the back.

New York City police detective Jonah Sobol fixes upon Leah as the prime suspect. After all, she was the one who found the body, she had the most to gain from Arianna’s death, and it was her name Arianna whispered, just before she died.

Leah is desperate to clear her name, and she begins her own investigation, collaborating with her best friend and her ballet coach. As the three dancers sort through backstage intrigues, attempted blackmail, and a tangle of romantic liaisons, the noose around Leah’s neck grows tighter.

Ballet, with its merciless discipline, is all Leah has ever known. Is that enough to keep her one step ahead of the police—and the killer?

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Character Guest Post

Today we are lucky enough to have Ballerina Leah Siderova sharing her thoughts on what it is like to be in the spotlight.

From the audience’s perspective, everything is beautiful at the ballet. Talk to any ballerina, however, and you’ll soon learn life as a professional dancer is brutally hard. And brutally short. The fierce and unrelenting competition engenders plenty of backstabbing, but that’s supposed to be a metaphor. Not actual murder. And anyway, I didn’t do it.

Of course, everyone says that, but in my case it was true. On that fateful day when my scheming rival tried to take over my life, the morning began as it always does, with plenty of coffee and no breakfast. Several hours later, it wasn’t the lack of food that made me ill. It was the sight of my rival’s dead body. It didn’t help that the costume mistress found me holding a pair of bloody scissors. And I really wish the dying girl’s last words hadn’t been my name.

Nearly all of my colleagues have deserted me, the press has written me off, and social media trolls are exploding the capacities of their various platforms. In other words, the police are getting ready to send me away for a very long time. Well, maybe not that one really good-looking detective. He seemed sympathetic. But everyone else is eager to convict me for a crime I didn’t commit.

I do have some friends. Madame Maksimova, my longtime teacher and coach, believes in me. So does Gabi, my best ballerina friend, who is now a wife and mother. And speaking of supportive mothers, hell hath no fury like an Upper West Side mom determined to clear her daughter’s name. I don’t have quite as much confidence in my lawyer, Uncle Morty. He’s an expert in real estate law, so if your problem in nonpayment of rent, he’s your guy. Felony murder? Not so much. But he is family, and in my situation, that counts for a lot.

I wish I could tell you about my life outside ballet, but honestly, ballet is my life. Occasionally, I think about getting married, or even having a kid, but so far, those items haven’t made it to the top of my to-do list. My most recent boyfriend pulled the plug on our relationship when I was on tour in Paris, and by the time I returned to New York, he was otherwise engaged. As in, engaged to be married. It’s only a matter of time before that two-timing creep and his fiancée move to Brooklyn, have an environmentally sustainable wedding, and start having gifted children.

I’m not bitter, of course. They’re doing the normal things I’ve heard normal people do but have never had the time or inclination to explore for myself. The possibility of a long prison sentence is another potential hurdle to learning how other people live.

I’m facing a grim future. But with the same determination and dedication I’ve brought to the most beautiful of all the arts, I’m going to survive. And I’m going to dance again.

About the Author

Brooklyn-born Lori Robbins began dancing at age 16 and launched her professional career three years later. She studied modern dance at the Martha Graham School and ballet at the New York Conservatory of Dance. Robbins performed with a number of regional modern and ballet companies, including Ballet Hispanico, the Des Moines Ballet, and the St. Louis Concert Ballet. After ten very lean years as a dancer she attended Hunter College, graduating summa cum laude with a major in British Literature and a minor in Classics. Her first mystery, Lesson Plan for Murder, won the Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy Mystery and was a finalist in the Readers’ Choice and Indie Book Awards. Murder in First Position is the first in her new mystery series, published on November 23, 2020, by Level Best Books.

She is currently working on the second book in both series. She is also the author of “Accidents Happen” a short story that will appear in the 2021 Malice Domestic anthology: Murder Most Diabolical. Robbins is a vice president of the NYC chapter of Sisters in Crime. She is also a founding member of the Damsels of Distress, a group that offers writing workshops and book readings. She is an expert in the homicidal impulses everyday life inspires.

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