A story to fill in an interval in Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels... amusing for one who's read that series. The story here is cute, though the tone differs somewhat from Angela Thirkell. It centers around the arrival of Glamora Tudor, the actress often mentioned but never seen in the original books. She has released dozens of movies, each with a new leading man, and by now must be the other side of 40 but is still trying to fit into the roles of an ingenue. Her producer, a big-time American with GMG motion pictures, comes to England to film "Send Me No Lilies," the latest tripe from the pen of Mrs. Rivers (also known to fans of AT's books). Along the way young and older people will fall in love and life courses will alter direction, but all in a pretty cute, cozy way. Not bad. ( )

In the 1920s during a ballet performance one of the dancers is killed. While the police are left clueless Madame Koska investigates. Madame Koska although English pretends to be Russian and so in her speech, she replaces the 'w' we a 'v', quite an annoying writing style.
For me I found the style of writing slightly stilted, and the story very slow, with too much description and not enough mystery.
But overall a decent cozy mystery.
Received ARC ( )

I love Ballet, and I love mysteries. And, I am a costumer. And, this book came through on all three aspects. It was an excellent story about life in a ballet company, had a murder most mysterious, and the costumes were as exquisite as the characterizations! ( )

Madame Koska & Le Spectre de la Rose had a classic Agatha Christie feel to it—the time period, the amateur sleuth, the details, the red herrings, the length. I liked the characters and the mystery, but I think there were a couple of plot points left unexplained that might have been tightened up with another round of editing. I would read another Madame Koska book with no hesitation. ( )

In this second Madame Koska adventure, she is asked to design costumes to a famous Russian ballet group who are staging a ballet about Icarus. She soon becomes aware of tensions within the group, but no one is prepared for a murder to occur mid-performance. It is Madame Koska's intuition, information she has gathered along the way and determination to be at the right place at the right time that eventually solves the mystery. I liked Madame Koska very much and found this book an enjoyable read. ( )