A dancer falls to her death when the wire she was suspended from is severed. The company's assistant publicity officer investigates because the police's main suspect seems to be the dancer's understudy, his girlfriend, and he had unwittingly handled the pair of shears which served as the murder weapon.

Competently enough done but doesn't really have the spark I've always enjoyed with Gore Vidal. ( )

Well read and decent characterisation but really quite boring. You could probably think of a better plot easily. I listened to this because of the ballet connection and I find audio a really accessible format for me. Wouldn't have persevered with the paper book. ( )

Gore Vidal's mysteries are really satirical comedies poking fun at a society that dared to black list him. Short on mystery, but high comedy. ( )

This is not a good mystery, nor is it a good book.

Partly, I suppose, the early-1950s sensibility grates, especially in the handling of women, gay men, and lesbians. None of the characters came alive for me; they were all cardboard figures doing what the plot- such as it was- required, not acting like people. The plot was very timely at the time, but structurally weak; at the end, it looks like Our Hero uncovered the murderer only by accident, since his "aha!" of guilty knowledge from the guy was contradicted by someone else having casually mentioned it to the "guilty" one, which pretty much left the whole deduction ambiguous- not that this concerned our hero for more than a moment.

Also: why is it "lecherous" for other men to ogle ballerina's tits, but normal and healthy and even alluring when Our Hero does it? (It sure seemed to get the Pretty Girl to fall into bed with him promptly.)

So, in short- a badly-plotted, badly written pseudo-mystery with 100% cardboard characters. ( )