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#20in4 Summary: I managed to read only 18 hours between Friday and Monday, but I finished a bunch of books including this one, which was #49 in #Roll100. It was a fun cozy mystery that was a nice reminder of my brief time in St. Petersburg.
@Andrew65 @PuddleJumper

A principal ballerina is murdered mid-performance in 1900 St Petersburg, prompting the visiting Lady Emily to investigate. I‘ve never read this series before and this was just ok. Great setting but meh story. I read this one to my mom and the best part for me was trying to successfully juggle all the accents (Russian, British, French, German), which was fun!

Another catching up from the library book binge: the latest Lady Emily. And it‘s not bad , but the mystery felt a bit slight and I‘m getting sick of the flashback/intercut sequences from another character‘s backstory decide now. It feels like it‘s just filler and not really moving the mystery along.

I was feeling a very Russian vibe in the airport on my way home from Salem haha. I brought a book on this trip that really got under my skin...chapter 1 had some pretty intense incest, and it just put a bad taste in my mouth for that book. I spent all of the trip up here and all of my vacation without a book...hopefully these two are better 😂

I enjoyed the mystery but was not as drawn into this book as earlier ones in the series. The descriptions of St Petersburg were wonderfully evocative, however.

I‘ll read any book that has ballet in it, which is why I picked up this crime book despite not having read any in the series. It turned out I didn‘t need to - enough context was given for characters and their relationships that I could enjoy the book fully. A decent mystery (although not a huge amount of sleuthing), it gave me my ballet fix and even shared a setting and many real-life characters with my own upcoming book, which was fun!

I've spent a lot of time with Lady Emily and I've seen her tackle a variety of cases in a variety of settings but this was something a bit different. Set in Russia before the Revolution, it's the world of their famous ballet where our mystery is set. There are flashbacks (new for this series) which give a history to the suspects and Lady Emily crosses paths with the Romanovs and Faberge while solving the murder of the ballet's prima ballerina.

"I can think of no greater pleasure than knowing I can wholly rely upon you. ". Damn the book fairy is correct.

My favorite historical mystery. Every year I anxiously look forward to the next installment, and every year I'm thrilled by it. I love Emily's adventures, and the ballet elements of this one were so well done. It felt authentic, and wonderful. Lady Emily is a force to be reckoned with, and it's been great to see Tasha's world grow from book to book.