Dead On The Dance Floor

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic romantic suspense
Review: Having attained first prize in every ballroom competition that she competed in, everyone agrees that Lara Trudeau is the dancing queen though all agree that the Prima Donna is a detestable nasty egomaniac. Currently, she is expected to triumph again as she vies for the trophy of the Universe of Champions event. However, this time during one of her classy moves Lara abruptly dies fittingly on the floor where she reigned as the monarch of dance.

Quinn O'Casey heads the investigation into the ballroom dance queen death that seems so suspicious. However, he goes undercover to learn what he can about the regulars, employees and owner of the Moonlight Sonata Dance Studio. His deepest interest is in the owner Shannon MacKay, but he is not sure if he wants to handcuff her as a criminal or as the woman he is falling in love with.

Police procedural romance readers will take great delight with the terrific DEAD ON THE DANCE FLOOR. The story line hooks the audience from the first step until the final pirouette. Because Lara is universally loathed, Quinn has too many suspects to contend with, but Shannon is the most obvious of all. Adding to his tension is he wants to not only believe in her innocence he wants to dance with her preferably in the bedroom not the ballroom. Shannon is his ideal partner so that the audience obtains a fine story that in many ways feels like a modernization of the classic film Laura.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Do you want to dance?
Review: Heather Graham is one of my favorite authors. I read a great deal and some authors I buy because of their name.

Dead on the Dance Floor, is a good book. If you like the world of dance you will probably like it. It has alot about dances and dancers.

While I find it hard to tell a tango from a cha-cha, The murder mystery was well written. I liked the main characters but somehow there was little doubt who the murder was. I figured out who, early. It was only near the end I figured out why and how. When the author gave us alittle more information.

As far as the secondary characters, I found it hard to care about people who had nothing better to do than spend a great deal of time and money on dancing contests, bars, and flashy costumes.

These were some of the most unlikeable characters I've ever read about. Somehow the Dr. and his wife were the worst.

Frankly, by the end I didn't care who killed her.

For the best read by Heather Graham, I recommend DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS or PICTURE ME DEAD.

Rating:
Summary: Another entertaining and intriguing mystery from Ms. Graham!
Review: I enjoy reading Heather Graham mystery novels. They have unique situations, characters and plots. There is humor and human interest and "Dead on the Dance Floor" is no exception. It was very interesting to enter the world of professional ballroom dancing and to meet various personalities as you might expect in the real world. Ms. Graham did a great job on research and making the story come to life. I enjoyed the character development on both primary and secondary characters in the book and wish there could be a sequel/follow-up book on them! A fun read and wonderful surprises!

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't even get through it.
Review: I have enjoyed some -- but not all -- of Heather Graham's works. Dead on the Dance Floor had a promising premise, especially since I'm a dancer myself. However, I couldn't even get through this one. I finally gave up. Graham often has too many minor characters in her books which muddle the story. This one had a lot of those with all of the teachers and dancers at the school. It was difficult keeping track of who was who.

Rating:
Summary: Muddled, as usual
Review: Though this book was better than the last few I've read by Heather Graham, I'm still wondering how on earth she could ever have earned the distinction of "New York Times Best-Selling Author."

I don't know what her obsession is with the words "hell" and "damn" that she feels the need to insert them at least once a paragraph. It comes off sounding as if her characters are a bunch of kindergardeners who just learned a new word that their parents told them not to say, so they overuse it to the point of ridiculousness. It's not a speech pattern in a character -- it's every single character in every single book she writes. I'm not sure if it's meant to make her books more "mature," or to make her characters sound tough, but it's distracting and makes her dialogue annoying to read.

I'm also not sure why she feels the need to fill her books with so many characters. I've finally learned that when reading a Heather Graham novel, it's impossible to keep track of everyone, so I no longer try. And don't even try to figure out why the culprit killed anyone, because he and his reasons get so lost in the shuffle of all the characters and their roles in the story that it'll take you an extra week to try to figure it all out.



Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable romantic suspense
Review: When beautiful dancer Lara Trudeau dies while dancing of a drug overdose, the police are quick to write it off as another tragic accident of perscription drug abuse. But one cop isn't so sure--and he gets his brother, ex-FBI profiler and private investigator Quinn O'Casey to look into the case. The obvious suspect is another dancer, Shannon Mackay. Shannon has lost her partner and her lover to Lara several years earlier and an 'accident' on the dance floor had cost her her competitive career. But Quinn likes Shannon--likes her a lot. Of course, there's really only one thing he's sure of--his own judgment is fatally flawed.

Quinn puts Lara's case together with several other drug-related deaths that seem connected to the dance studio where Lara and Shannon worked. It could be coincidence, but Quinn doesn't believe in coincidence. He signs up for dance lessons, starts to fall for Shannon, and learns that she is chased by her own demons--or maybe by something far more real than mythical demons. It's tough enough solving a case, but both Shannon and Quinn have major issues they need to work for before they can deal with the attraction that flows between them like, well, like a dance.

Author Heather Graham writes convincingly of the world of ballroom dance and of sultry southern Florida. Damaged but hunky Quinn makes a great foil for frightened but spunky Shannon. Their issues parallel and they find that working through together gives each of them strength to admit their true goals. Of course, before any kind of long-term romance can develop, they'll have to stay alive. And someone seems intent on making sure that doesn't happen.

DEAD ON THE DANCE FLOOR is an enjoyable romance.