Hi Everyone! I’m Leah Siderova, a ballerina with American Ballet Company. Until very recently, I lived the life other dancers dream about. On a typical day I take company class, rehearse, and perform. Most evenings I climb five flights of stairs to my tenement apartment and collapse. Black coffee and Diet Coke are my two major food groups. In other words, my life is not as glamorous as you might think.

I would prefer not to reveal my age. As an ordinary human being I’m nowhere near old, but as a ballerina with fragile knees, I’m practically ready for a retirement home. Occasionally, I think about getting married, or even having a kid, but so far those items haven’t made it to the top of my to-do list. My most recent boyfriend pulled the plug on our relationship when I was on tour in Paris, and by the time I returned to New York, he was otherwise engaged. As in, engaged to be married It’s only a matter of time before that two-timing creep and his fiancée move to Brooklyn and start having gifted children.

I’m not bitter, of course. They’re doing the normal things I’ve heard normal people do. A ballerina’s job is to transcend what is normal—which is not going to be possible unless my reconstructed knees get with the program. The possibility of a long prison sentence is another potential hurdle.

Even without a murder conviction hanging over my head, life as a ballerina is brutally hard, and the competition is fierce. There’s plenty of backstabbing in any dance company, but that’s supposed to be a metaphor. Not actual murder. And anyway, I didn’t do it.

Of course, everyone says that, but in my case it was true. On that fateful day when my scheming rival tried to take over my life, the morning began as it always does, with plenty of coffee and no breakfast. Several hours later, it wasn’t the lack of food that made me ill. It was the sight of my rival’s dead body. It didn’t help that the costume mistress found me holding a pair of bloody scissors. And I really wish the dying girl’s last words hadn’t been my name.

Nearly all of my colleagues have deserted me, the press has written me off, and social media trolls are exploding the capacities of their various platforms. In other words, the police are getting ready to send me away for a very long time. Well, maybe not that one really good-looking detective. But everyone else is eager to convict me for a crime I didn’t commit.

I do have some friends. Madame Maksimova, my longtime teacher and coach, believes in me. So does Gabi, my best ballerina friend, who is now a wife and mother. And speaking of supportive mothers, hell hath no fury like an Upper West Side mom determined to clear her daughter’s name. I don’t have quite as much confidence in my lawyer, Uncle Morty. He’s an expert in real estate law, so if your problem in nonpayment of rent, he’s your guy. Felony murder? Not so much. But he is family, and in my situation, that counts for a lot.

I’m facing a grim future. But with the same determination and dedication I’ve brought to the most beautiful of all the arts, I’m going to survive. And I’m going to dance again.

Murder in First Position is the first book in the NEW “On Pointe” traditional mystery series, released November 24, 2020.

Ballerina Leah Siderova knows the career of a professional dancer is short. But rarely is it as brief as that of her rival, Arianna Bonneville, whose rise to stardom ends when she is stabbed in the back.

New York City police detective Jonah Sobol fixes upon Leah as the prime suspect. After all, she was the one who found the body, she had the most to gain from Arianna’s death, and it was her name Arianna whispered, just before she died.

Leah is desperate to clear her name, and she begins her own investigation, collaborating with her best friend and her ballet coach. As the three dancers sort through backstage intrigues, attempted blackmail, and a tangle of romantic liaisons, the noose around Leah’s neck grows tighter.

Ballet, with its merciless discipline, is all Leah has ever known. Is that enough to keep her one step ahead of the police—and the killer?

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Meet the author
Brooklyn-born Lori Robbins began dancing at age 16 and launched her professional career three years later. Robbins performed with a number of regional modern and ballet companies, including Ballet Hispanico, the Des Moines Ballet, and the St. Louis Concert Ballet. Her first mystery, Lesson Plan for Murder, won the Silver Falchion Award for Best Cozy Mystery and was a finalist in the Readers’ Choice and Indie Book Awards. Murder in First Position begins her new series, published by Level Best Books. Robbins is a vice president of the NYC chapter of Sisters in Crime and an expert in the homicidal impulses everyday life inspires.

Visit her at lorirobbins.com.

All comments are welcomed.