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First Impression: A tough read because the translation includes numerous odd phrases a native wouldn’t say, which distracts from the story.

the dancer in blood book cover

With its title, A Dancer in Blood, by Kate Green, this book captured my intention. It sounded intriguing and I was curious as to who would want to kill a dancer, and why. Upon opening the book, it jumped into the action immediately describing the state Liza Metreveli was left in. The wretched twenty-year-old, with a husband 15 years her senior, lies in a pool of blood having been electrocuted and stabbed whilst home alone. Described as a quiet girl that only has disagreements with the dance troupe, the murder seems misplaced and incredibly violent. It begs the question, what don’t we know?

Despite my overall thoughts, which we will get into in a moment, I thank Kate Green for the opportunity to review The Dancer in Blood.

It turns out there were an awful lot of secrets. Unfortunately, I found these to be unrealistic. A lot of the story rested on an indecipherable diary written in strange symbols and was the go-to response by several characters when they got stumped. I also felt it odd that a lead ballerina in her prime who was the best her troupe had to offer would actually have time to engage in a relationship, let alone get married.

The characters were largely undeveloped. This is probably because there was an endless number of suspects (again, very unrealistic for the victim they were describing) that each got their 15 minutes of fame. In this case, less may have been more. By concentrating the investigation on a smaller number, it would have allowed a more intimate portrait of everyone and revealed little by little about them all as the investigation progressed. Despite the large cast, there was an absence of adequate subplots to provide them each with a purpose.

The biggest criticism I have about the book is the language. Despite the acknowledgement giving special thanks to the translator and the editor, I found the finished product to be lacking. It is overtly clear that the book has been translated to English because it has been done poorly and is evident throughout the entire book. For example, a native English speaker would not phrase, ‘Experts could only find the trace of the thick leather sole of the shoe on the spot, approximately the size of ten,’ in this way. Nor would they say, ‘The workers moved up construction materials to the upper floor using the elevator.’ What started out as minor soon became an overwhelming distraction and made it hard to follow the story closely.

Without a huge overhaul, I would struggle to recommend this book. For a dancer, so little time was spent with the troupe or experiencing their talent. In essence, the victim could have had any career to create The Lawyer in Blood, or The Doctor in Blood, or any other role. Although there was a good balance between showing and telling, the dialogue was unrealistic and failed to really engage me as a reader in several places particularly when you expected a character to say something with empathy. Consequently, my recommendation at this stage is to skip it, which is a shame because it actually has quite a good ending that would have been great if the book had actually sprinkled some breadcrumbs that might have led the reader to working this out just before the big reveal. This is where the book should have finished but instead, another character was inserted into the book for seemingly no reason before the book abruptly ended. Overall, the book is an enigma, but not in a positive way.

Quick Rating: ⭐ / PG-13

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