Natalie M. Roberts, Tutu Deadly

Tutu Deadly

Natalie M. Roberts

Berkley, Apr 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0425214869

Who would ever believe that providing ballet lessons to children could be hazardous to one's health? One person who would believe that is Jenny T. Partridge who owns a dance studio in Ogden, Utah. She struggles with the demands of "psycho moms" who order her to give the best parts in her annual recital of the Nutcracker to their offspring.

Detective Tate Wilson takes Jenny to the station for questioning in the murder of a mother of one of her students since the two women had a public argument witnessed by the dance pupils. Jenny swears she never delivered the arsenic-laced cookie dough to Sandra Epstein. In fact, she avows that another psycho mother, Emma Anderson, was to deliver the dough to her, but the woman and her daughter have conveniently vanished; so has Sandra's daughter. Jenny is attacked and shot at while her studio is bombed yet she insists to a bewildered Tate she has no idea why someone wants her dead or for that matter is killing the psycho mom clients.

This is one of the more amusing cases this reviewer has read due to the kvetching of the heroine as she deals with one crisis after another because she has the experience of dealing with things worse than bombs: psycho moms. The characters, especially the leads, are refreshing and unique as Tate is not sure whether to handcuff Jenny and arrest her or handcuff Jenny because the heat is on. Albeit a police procedural, amateur sleuth fans will want to kick off their heels and dance with TUTU DEADLY.

Harriet Klausner