Corpse de Ballet: A Nine Muses Mystery: Terpsichore [Hardcover]

Ellen Pall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2001

It's not as if Juliet Bodine wishes that she'd stayed an English professor instead of becoming a successful romance novelist. It's just that writing, though interesting, is never easy, and she will do almost anything to avoid her desk. So she succumbs to the pleas of her friend Ruth, a renowned choreographer, to help translate Dickens' Great Expectations into ballet form.

Watching the magnificent dancers work is fascinating. But Juliet soon finds the company plagued by jealousies, subterranean liaisons, ugly sabotage, and-sudden death.

Could it be murder?

NYPD detective Murray Landis is skeptical. But Juliet-who is startled to recognize in Murray the budding sculptor who dated her college roommate years ago-disagrees, and turns her novelist's sense of plot and character to detection. Can she and Murray unmask the ruthless choreographer of a pas de death?

Fast, witty, and literate, Corpse de Ballet marks the dazzling debut of the Nine Muses Mysteries featuring Juliet Bodine and Murray Landis.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Terpsichore, the ancient Greek goddess of dance, must be smiling down from her home on Mt. Helicon at Pall's (Back East) splendid first entry in this cleverly themed series with its insights into the egos, jealousies, pains and passions of a Manhattan ballet company. Juliet Bodine, a successful writer of Regency novels and ex-professor of English literature at Barnard, puts aside her own deadlines to give literary advice to her longtime friend, Ruth Renswick, choreographer for the Jansch Ballet Company of New York, who is creating a new ballet based on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. A ballet fan herself, Juliet is fascinated by the personalities of the company and the process of creating a new production. When a lead dancer dies suddenly, she's convinced it was murder, but her old Harvard friend, police detective Murray Landis, concludes the death was a suicide. Case closed, but not for Juliet. From the executive director to the lowliest member of the corps, the characters come alive through Juliet's astute observations and the extremely well-crafted dialogue. Vivid settings capture summer in New York, and one can almost feel the heat and steam of the ballet studio. Both mystery fans and ardent balletomanes will be left with great expectations and eager anticipation for the next in the series.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In this new series, Regency romance writer Juliet Bodine helps her long-time choreographer friend Ruth Renswick iron out some glitches in a dance production of Great Expectations. Her observant eye also notes a bit of sabotage in the practice room that injures a lead dancer. Murder ensues, threatening to unhinge the production. Events in the practice room helped alleviate Juliet's writer's block, but now she must contend with detectives one of whom happens to be a friend from college days. A wonderful plot, a fascinating look at the world of ballet, and a unique approach to sleuthing recommends this to most collections. Pall is a novelist (Among the Ginzburgs) and freelance journalist.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (June 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312280335
• ISBN-13: 978-0312280338
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,745,221 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb overture to what I hope will be a long series, July 2, 2001

By A Customer

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This review is from: Corpse de Ballet: A Nine Muses Mystery: Terpsichore (Hardcover)

Corpse de Ballet is an excellent book. Its mystery elements are a bit weak, but that does not matter. The book's virtue lies in the fact that it is both extremely well written and a remarkable portrait of the world of ballet. One rarely gets any trip behind the scenes of a ballet production, let alone the vivid excursion this book involves. So well-written is this portrait that the reader cannot tell whether the author loves ballet for its art and beauty or hates it for the terrible physical and emotional tolls it imposes on its practitioners. One must surely call into question the value of any art form that requires that its adherents be both anorexic and cut-throat and that ultimately physically and emotionally destroys those who choose dance as a career.

Another aspect of this book worthy of note is the relationship between the two detectives. I will enjoy watching what is clearly an incipient romance develop. Ellen Pall is clearly experienced in the art of creating a convincing romance. Indeed, so well-written. .... .... ....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a Look-See Even for a Non Balletomane, January 12, 2003

By 

Sires "I enjoy mysteries, historical and proc... (Chesapeake, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corpse de Ballet: A Nine Muses Mystery: Terpsichore (Paperback)

I'm torn on this book. On one hand, the author has written some of the few Regency romances since Heyer's death that did not assume the reader was a higher brain function deficient as Fiona Hill. This book is well written-- Pall turns a very neat sentence-- and the world of professional ballet is entertaining. (I admit to not being a balletomane. I like modern dance, but would probably gouge my eyes out if I had to sit though another classical ballet.) On the other hand, the mystery lacks urgency and the conclusion is almost anticlimactic.

Some good things about the book: Pall's portrayal of a regency romance writer at work (or tryng not to work as the case maybe.) She breaks with the tradition of a lot of romance writers as portraying their profession as filled with sexually frustrated spinsters. I also liked the relationship between Ms Bodine and her friend Ruth Renswick. It's nice to see such an imperfect but clearly affectionate relationship between mature women. As I said, Pall writes beautifully and sensually about the professional dancers. They are not caricatures and there is almost a voyeuristic pleasure in watching them interact with one another.

On the downside, the romantic interest is not particularly interesting and, as I mentioned, the resolution lacks punch.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brava! Encore!, July 16, 2002

By 

kellytwo "kellytwo" (cleveland hts, ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corpse de Ballet: A Nine Muses Mystery: Terpsichore (Hardcover)

Oh, to be an author of Regency Romance novels even half as successful as Juliet Bodine, otherwise known as Angelica Kestrel-Haven! But then, dreams are always wonderful to have, regardless. Even as successful as A K-H is in her work, the very real Juliet still finds boredom a steady visitor, and is always eager to do almost anything other than write.

When her college friend, Ruth Renswick, a choreographer for the Jansch Ballet in Manhatten, asks for help with her new venture, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, Juliet is drawn in like flies to honey. And the readers are drawn in by the very realistic descriptions of life in and around a ballet troupe. This is the first of a new series on the nine muses; this one, of course, is in honor of Terpsichore, goddess of dance.

Unfortunately, the lead male dancer soon turns up dead, and another college friend turns up as the investigating detective. Murray Landis is also a sculptor who plays a wicked game of softball on the side. The two of them--Juliet and Murray--dance their own pas de deux while sorting out the clues that lead everywhere but to the proper conclusion.

If you've ever read any Regency novels by Fiona Hill, you'll be prepared for the excellent writing of Ellen Pall, her alter ego. If not, you'll have a wonderful treat with this very witty, very literate, very enjoyable mystery novel that doesn't believe in rushing around, working up a sweat, looking here, there and everywhere for clues. The dancers do enough of that, thank you, but you will also, no doubt, enjoy the vicarious pleasure of visiting Juliet's upper West-Side apartment. It's to die for!

So pull up a cozy rocking chair, and settle in for some of the best word-play to be found in recent years. And don't be in such a big hurry that you'll miss any of the enticing and tantalizing hints of things to come. This was the first of a series; I'm really looking forward to book two! Which muse will it be this time?