From Publishers Weekly
Los Angeles, 1953. A visiting Russian ballet company, America's legendary dancing partners, the era's anti-Communist hysteria and a pair of Hollywood detectives mix to a leaden effect in the latest in Baxt's celebrity series (The William Powell and Myrna Loy Murder Case, etc.). Sol Hurok has brought the legendary Baronovitch Ballet Company to America and will feature them with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a highly touted TV special. A huge, celebrity-laden ball is given in Hollywood to welcome the corps. The CIA, urged on by the House Un-American Activities Committee, asks Fred and Ginger to spy on the troupe. The KGB spies on the CIA; romantic liaisons and clandestine meetings proliferate; and, when Ginger's psychiatrist, a Russian emigre and possible double agent, is poisoned at this fete, suspicion falls upon just about everyone. Two seasoned Hollywood police detectives and a henna-haired friend, who makes her living selling gossip, speed to the doctor's home and mix puns, wisecracks and nasty asides with their perfunctory police work. Zingy one-liners and zany cameo appearances by bygone celebs aren't enough to keep this tale on its toes.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Baxt has made a career of putting stars from Hollywood's golden age into the middle of mysteries. This time, it's 1953, and Fred and Ginger are reuniting in a rather unlikely project. Joining the Barnovitch Ballet, they will be performing Rasputin and the Empress, and while the rest of the company will be on their toes, Fred (Rasputin) and Ginger (the empress) will be tapping their way across Russia. Impresario Sol Hurok, who is staging the extravaganza, throws a lavish Hollywood party to introduce the project. The place is crawling with KGB and CIA, and then there's that unfortunate murder of Ginger's Russian psychiatrist. Who has time to tap? Although not the best of the series (too many Russians, too much plot), this is still a comedic caper. Baxt's fans will certainly appreciate another foray into La-La Land, complete with all the requisite gossip and glamour. Ilene Cooper
From Kirkus Reviews
What better way to reunite America's favorite dancing couple in 1953 than in a ballet version of Rasputin and the Empress, danced with the USSR's famed Baronovitch Ballet? And what's more likely than that the CIA would be all over the company because it just might be honeycombed with, well, Reds? The stage is set for tension even before the news that half of the Baronovitch entourage is linked to the mysterious death of Stalinist advisor- turned-traitor Nikolai Vanoff. But instead of tension, Baxt provides fusty foreign intrigue, Sol Hurok's endless malapropisms, and more cameos than a wholesale jeweler. This 12th dip into the Hollywood pot (The William Powell and Myrna Loy Murder Case, 1996, etc.) turns up lots of poison (the cameos are particularly nasty) but little sustenance. Better take a cue from Astaire and stay on the sidelines. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
In 1953 Hollywood, dancing legends Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers prepare to dance with Russia's Baronovitch Ballet, but the two have trouble concentrating on the show while investigating a murder.
