Dancing Made Easy: A Flap Tucker Mystery (Flap Tucker Mystery Series) [Mass Market Paperback]

Phillip Depoy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Flap Tucker Mystery Series | Publication Date: November 9, 1999

For the beautiful victims, it was the last dance. For a psychic detective, the waltz has just begun....

Lesson One: The Tarantella

She had been young, pretty, a budding ballerina. Now, beneath a streetlight in the cold Atlanta dawn, she's pirouetting at the end of a rope, a note pinned to her lapel: "Number One--The Tarantella." A dance of evil has commenced, a sinister medley of malice that will unfold over time as a ruthless killer leads Flap Tucker through the steps of a pattern only he can unravel.

Lesson Two: The Tango

The next dangling corpse sends Flap spinning blindly through Atlanta's underside, where two mobsters duel violently for love and money, a brilliant musician sidelines in secrets, and a monster circles close to Flap's cherished friend, Dalliance Oglethorpe. As he struggles to find his footing--blocked from his Zenlike ability to glimpse the truth behind reality's curtain--the murderous beat quickens around him, and a deadly dancer moves in perfect time to claim one last partner.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

DePoy's fourth installment in the Flap Tucker mystery series (after Easy As One, Two, Three) finds the easy-going Atlanta PI embroiled in a series of bizarre lamppost hangings. Flap discovers the first of the murders when a disoriented, homeless acquaintance leads him to the body of a young woman. The woman's uncle asks Flap to investigate her death and he accepts, despite his heavy workload: he is already committed to solving the murder of a friend, collaborating with a cagey police detective who seems more intent on implicating Flap and stealing his girlfriend than solving the case. Flap is pulled further into the investigation when he discovers a link between recently stolen disease samples from the Centers for Disease Control and the cryptic notes found pinned to the victims' bodies. DePoy skillfully lays out the surprisingly complex story line, creating intrigue with Flap's approach to sleuthing (a special blend of meditative Zen skills) and his often humorous underworld characters. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Praise for Phillip DePoy and the Flap Tucker mystery series...

"This series is clearly one of the most entertaining regional mysteries on the market today."
--Harriet Klausner, BookBrowser

"Sit back and spend some smooth, sly Southern time with one of the coolest P.I.'s ever to open a bottle of Château Cantenac-Brown."
--Charles Mathes, author of The Girl at the End of the Line

"The Flap Tucker mysteries are real jewels. Phillip DePoy has style!"
--Debbie Macomber, bestselling author of Moon Over Water

Easy as One, Two, Three:

"There seems to be a feel to Phillip DePoy's Southern mysteries rarely seen in other novelists' works. The Flap Tucker novels are getting better and better."
--Harriet Klausner, Book Browser

Too Easy:

"Now this is a voice! Any time Phillip DePoy wants to bring back Flap Tucker, I'm ready."
--S. J. Rozan, Shamus Award-winning author of Concourse

Easy:

"A promising debut in a series that accomplishes the tricky task of being satisfyingly different. The first person voice of Flap is a good storyteller, funny and witty."
--Mystery News

"Easy is populated with wildly appealing characters and an unusually engaging detective."
--The Independent Reader

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dell (November 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044022618X
• ISBN-13: 978-0440226185
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,409,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Phillip DePoy is an Edgar Award winning playwright, and author of more than a dozen published books. His play Lamb on Fire was produced in New York. He has been called "a master Southern storyteller" by Kirkus Reviews and "adept at clever word play" by Publisher's Weekly. THE KING JAMES CONSPIRACY has been compared, in BookList, to Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE. In a recent review, Kirkus said of his new novel A CORPSE'S NIGHTMARE, "Nobody writes Southern better than DePoy." In addition to his other pursuits, the author is currently Director of Theatre at Clayton State University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Three Dances -- Three Bodies, January 28, 2010

By 

Nash Black "Troubadour" (Jamestown, KY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dancing Made Easy: A Flap Tucker Mystery (Flap Tucker Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Phillip DePoy's DANCING MADE EASY is delightful. Flap Tucker's psychic powers are short circuited and he's confused by the messages his brain is telling him to follow.
Four AM and Flap is rousted from bed by an aging drunk to view a body swinging from a lamp post by apron strings.
Clues abound, but they are dead ends. A neighbor of Dally Oglethorpe is the second victim to be discovered in the same bizarre fashion. Will there be a third as the killer promises?
You will be guessing along with Flap as you turn the pages of this well written novel that is full of twists and allusions.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome & Strange in one:), May 29, 2005

By 

Michele A. Arnold "Book Lover" (Antioch, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dancing Made Easy: A Flap Tucker Mystery (Flap Tucker Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book was so weird, but as one said very complex and had me on the edge of my seat:) I'm happy now that i've read all the books, i'm reading Dead Easy over again in some spots cause i had started with Easy & Dead Easy not knowing the other 3 were in the middle but did wonder about stuff in Dead Easy, some has been like "O i get it now" when something was referred to another book:) But this book was strangeeee & fun in one:) I wish we can have some more of Flap but me thinks Dead Easy is the last:) Atleast this book explained to me how Burnish, and Flap met & why the angst:) Even tho the ending was like it was for Dally/Flap Dead Easy explained ALOT about why nothing ever really happened with them:) Get the whole series if you want some good stuff to read:) *Thumbs WAY UP*:D

5.0 out of 5 stars Zen Detective just gets better and better, August 22, 2000

By 

Marki Shalloe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dancing Made Easy: A Flap Tucker Mystery (Flap Tucker Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the 4th in the Flap Tucker Zen detective series and it's a great one. I've really enjoyed these novels - the characters are unusual, likeable, they drink wine and make chahmin' double entendres while solving murders...kinda like a drawlin' Thin Man. I understand the 5th in the series comes out in late Fall. It is right up there with Lawrence Block as my next have-to purchase. These are a real find.