Different Women Dancing [Large Print] [Paperback]

Jonathan Gash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997

Different Women Dancing is the hit debut of the Dr. Clare Burtonall series--a surprising and exotic new offering from one of Penguin's bestselling mystery authors, Jonathan Gash. Different Women Dancing stars Dr. Clare Burtonall, a beautiful and bright British medical doctor. Heading home from the hospital one day, Clare comes upon a fatal traffic accident and uneasily remembers the victim as a business contact of her husband. But when he won't answer any of her questions, Clare suspects her spouse may not be the man she married. To uncover the truth, Clare needs access to the city's underworld and asks Bonn, a sexy, street smart Romeo-for-hire for help, opening a Pandora's box of corruption and crime. Then Clare makes what may be the most surprising discovery of them all: a startling need for more than information from her suave, attractive partner, who introduces Clare to the dark side of the city and a darker, more powerful side of herself.
Viking will publish Prey Dancing, the second Dr. Clare Burtonall mystery, in August 1998

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Breaking for the moment with his beloved PI, antiques dealer Lovejoy, Gash introduces a new series featuring Dr. Clare Burtonall, a substitute-physician. Clare's life is changed forever when she attempts to save the victim of a fatal traffic accident; someone delivers the victim's stolen briefcase to her rich husband, raising unruly suspicions. Clare soon teams up with another would-be Samaritan, a well-spoken (but streetwise) male escort called Bonn, to uncover corruption and murder. As usual, Gash imbues his prose with bouncy vigor, ready wit, and colorful slang?focused here on the sex trade and gambling. Told with the author's accustomed panache; highly recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Here's something very curious from the creator of the Lovejoy novels. Gash introduces a new series character, cardiologist Dr. Clare Burtonall, but the novel is practically stolen from her by Bonn, the soft-spoken and mysterious male prostitute who helps Clare investigate a suspicious road accident. Lovejoy fans prepare for a shock: if this first novel is any indication, Gash's new series will be a lot rougher than his stories about the popular antique dealer. The novel is written in the language of the underworld, where people are coarse, sex is a commodity, and murder is sometimes the logical solution to a tricky problem. Perhaps in the series' next installment, Clare will emerge as a stronger heroine, but here the central character (by accident or design) is the charismatic Bonn--a truly remarkable creation who seems to be many things but is probably none of them. Different Women Dancing seems as though it might not be quite what Gash intended it to be. But it is, nevertheless, a compelling novel. David Pitt --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156895512X
• ISBN-13: 978-1568955124
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,006,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Excellent, January 9, 2005

By 

Standish - See all my reviews

This review is from: Different Women Dancing (Hardcover)

This is one of my favorite novels. It's not easy, no, but it's damn near brilliant--so much so that I'm at a loss to describe its qualities. If you're looking for an amusing, run-of-the-mill mystery, give this a miss. If you're looking for a series just like Lovejoy, only different, this is not that. But if you're looking for an excellent writer at the top of his game, writing about a world that is dense, skewed, and fascinating--with characters who don't fit any neat little boxes--and are willing to pay attention, you will be more than amply rewarded. Maybe this isn't a 'genre' book. I suspect that, somewhere down the line, it was not marketed properly--perhaps it couldn't have been. But--at least to this reader--it's a work of staggering art and imagination.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, medicine, real estate - a winning combination., October 23, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Different Women Dancing (Hardcover)

Fans of Jonathan Gash, author of the acclaimed Lovejoy series, will be intrigued by the new setting and characters in this book. Clare Burtonall is a doctor; Bonn an enigmatic and skilfull "goer", a paid escort deeply involved in the underworld of the gritty urban scene they both inhabit. Murder draws them ever closer in a heady atmosphere involving real estate development, medicine, sex-for-hire, and fast-moving violence. Gash is a master of language. He rushes his story at you with a new vocabulary, leaving you gasping and struggling to comprehend, but slipping in enough flashes of clarity to keep you understanding events as they rush by. Female readers may agree that he has come close to answering Freud's famous question. What women want may just be someone like Bonn.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Strange, September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Different Women Dancing (Paperback)

I didn't expect a "Lovejoy" type of new series from Gash; maybe something very different. But this book is a true oddity. It begins slow, becomes more interesting in the second half and then peters out; the momentum doesn't carry through. The dialogue is close to indecipherable and makes for very slow going. The concept of the relationship between the two major characters is interesting, which is why I gave it 3 and not 2 stars.