"Combines murder and figure skating -- GREAT"

This is a great cozy mystery. It is the first mystery I've read that combines murder and figure skating and is very well written.

Rebecca "Bex" Levy is a figure-skating researcher for the 24/7 network. It is the World Figure Skating Championships in San Francisco -- the end of her first season. The Russian skater, Xenia Trubin, is awarded the Gold medal and the U. S. skater, Erin Simpson, is awarded the Silver medal. The 24/7 broadcasters, Diana and Francis Howarth, state on the air that they believe Erin skated better and should have been awarded the Gold. They go on to imply that the Italian judge was bribed to vote with the ex-Soviet bloc of judges. Bex is appalled.

Then Silvana Potenza, the Italian judge, is found dead. The police believe it was an accident. Bex finds a printout of an email sent to Silvana the morning before the ladies' long program. It lists the ladies' finish order as Xenia first and Erin second. The email was signed Sergei Alemazov, Xenia's coach.

Bex finds there are so many suspects and so little time -- she has promised her boss Gil that she'd figure out who killed Silvana before their big show in two days.

I am a fan of figure skating, so merging it and murder together truly interested me. I like Bex, she's a very likable character. Her job as a researcher helps her have access to and information about the people involved that most people couldn't find. Ms. Adams has done a great job in creating this character.

Bex' boss Gil is a bit over the top, but that's what makes him so great. The Howarth's are very believable and are utilized at the right times in this book. This was a great book in what I hope will be a long series. I can't wait to read the next one. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book.

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted October 10, 2003

Summary

In the spotlight: the all-new figure skating mystery series. From the author of Sarah Hughes: Skating to the Stars. Figure skating is a cutthroat world. Just ask Rebecca "Bex" Levy, figure skating researcher for the 24/7 skating network-and Prime Crime's newest sleuth.