Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner
Backstage Murder
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Shelley Freydont
Class/Genre: Mystery Theater Senior Sleuths
Series: Linda Haggerty # 1
Kensington, Oct 1999, $20.00, 320 pp.
All of Broadway once toasted Lindy Haggerty for her very successful dancing career. Still, she moved with her spouse and their two children to New Jersey because she felt the suburbs were healthier for raising a family. Over a decade has past since she performed professionally, but Lindy has shown no regrets until her former dancing cohort Biddy McPhea calls her.
Though too old to dance anymore, Biddy works as a rehearsal director for the Jeremy Ash Dance Company now performing at New Jersey’s Endicott Theater. Biddy persuades Lindy to attend a performance. Lindy finds Biddy using crutches and the troupe heading to Broadway. The only problem seems to be mean-spirited Carlotta Devine, who could cost the company its stay on the bright lights of the Big Apple. Lindy signs on as a rehearsal assistant whose prime assignment is to control Carlotta. However, the task quickly ends when someone kills Carlotta. Many people have motives, but that does not stop the two retired dancers from investigating the murder.
Shelly Freydont has developed as her lead protagonist a person in the midst of a mid-life crisis caused by empty nest syndrome. Returning to a dance company provides Lindy with something fresh and a new purpose in life. She meets a retired police officer and their attraction should make for an interesting relationship in future novels. Contradictory as it seems, the victim also serves as the villain as she appears so hateful that readers will think she must be a satirical version of someone famous. The polished and professional who-done-it entertains the audience and they will want Ms. Freydont to return with more works starring Lindy and company.
Harriet Klausner
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner
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