The Homicide Hustle: A Ballroom Dance Mystery is the third in a cozy mystery series by Ella Barrick. Just like the first book, Quickstep to Murder, it is full of witty dialogue, complexity and an inside peek into the world of ballroom dancing. It gives you an idea of the amount of practice needed each day and the devotion and determination to succeed in this career.

Tav and Stacy are co-owners of the the Graysin Motion Dance Studio and although Tav stays in the background for most of this story, he finds out that the property taxes on the studio building haven't been paid for years in the past by Stacy's great aunt. A bundle of money is owed so Stacy decides to participate with other Graysin Motion dancers in a reality ballroom dance contest series. The co-producer is found dead in the Potomac. Stacy realizes that is the third murder connected with Graysin Motion so she volunteers in to find the killer as soon as possible.

She is so worried about the studio getting a bad name that she takes some unusual risks. I love that the author uses asides to the reader to add to our information and that not all the bad characters are totally evil. There is also an underlying theme about some not so good aspects of reality shows.

I highly recommend this cozy mystery. ( )

I'm not really sure exactly how I feel about this book - I really enjoyed it right up until the dreaded words "you have to figure out who did this" (implying that Stacy is better equipped than the police). After that, the book just became 'meh'. I found myself skipping entire pages of internal dialogue/repetition of suspects/inner angst. I really liked that the romance angle has been sorted, and I loved the scene where that happens. It was a good one. The murder plot was excellent - nothing obvious to me about who did it and an ending that felt sincere (if somewhat implausible).

I'm not sure I'll continue with this series, but I think it's just a reflection of my personal tastes and not the quality of the book itself. ( )