Murder in Second Position

Praise for the On Pointe Mystery Series

"Robbins, an ex-ballet dancer and author of Lesson Plan for Murder, deploys her tartly witty prose to offer a delicious, well-observed sendup of the ballet world... Readers will root for Leah as she sleuths her way through the troupe's comic excesses.

A graceful mystery that pirouettes around a cast of entertaining narcissists." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The mystery component is just as lively as the dance company descriptions and the performances themselves. Robbins brings all to life with a style that performs deftly and artistically, and this will attract both dance-oriented readers and those with little experience with the world of ballet. The result is an engrossing murder mystery that operates on many different levels to bring readers on a rollicking ride through death, achievement, and ballet politics alike as a murderous rampage threatens more than one life." - D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer

Midwest Book Review

Ballerina Leah Siderova belongs onstage. Not in an interrogation room at Manhattan's Twentieth Precinct. And yet, for the second time in less than a year, that's where she has a starring role. It wasn't her fault someone murdered the autocratic new director of American Ballet Company. And it wasn't her job to find the killer.

Leah is determined to stay as far away as possible from the murder investigation. After all, if she were going to kill someone, it would have been the woman who's been relentlessly trolling her on social media. And that's where things get complicated. Because when dancers say, "ballet can be murder" they don't mean it literally.

Most of the time.

Brooklyn-born Lori Robbins began dancing at age 16 and launched her professional career three years later. She studied modern dance at the Martha Graham School and ballet at the New York Conservatory of Dance. Robbins performed with a number of modern and ballet companies, including Ballet Hispanico, the Des Moines Ballet, and the St. Louis Concert Ballet. After ten very lean years as a dancer she attended Hunter College, graduating summa cum laude with a major in British Literature and a minor in Classics. Her first On Pointe Mystery, Murder in First Position, won first place in the Indie Book Awards for Best Mystery, was a finalist for a Silver Falchion, and is on the short list for a Mystery and Mayhem Book Award. Her debut novel, Lesson Plan for Murder, won the Silver Falchion Award and was a finalist in the Readers' Choice and Indie Book Awards. It will be re-released by Level Best Books in June, 2022. Short stories include "Accidents Happen" in the anthology Murder Most Diabolical and "Leading Ladies" in Justice for All. She is an expert in the homicidal impulses everyday life inspires.