Dancing Made Easy

Flap Tucker #4

by Phillip DePoy

For the beautiful victims, it was the last dance. For a psychic detective, the waltz has just begun....

Lesson One: The Tarantella

She had been young, pretty, a budding ballerina. Now, beneath a streetlight in the cold Atlanta dawn, she's pirouetting at the end of a rope, a note pinned to her lapel: "Number One--The Tarantella." A dance of evil has commenced, a sinister medley of malice that will unfold over time as a ruthless killer leads Flap Tucker through the steps of a pattern only he can unravel.

Lesson Two: The Tango

The next dangling corpse sends Flap spinning blindly through Atlanta's underside, where two mobsters duel violently for love and money, a brilliant musician sidelines in secrets, and a monster circles close to Flap's cherished friend, Dalliance Oglethorpe. As he struggles to find his footing--blocked from his Zenlike ability to glimpse the truth behind reality's curtain--the murderous beat quickens around him, and a deadly dancer moves in perfect time to claim one last partner.

Genres: Mystery

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 9, 1999

About the author

Phillip DePoy has published short fiction, poetry, and criticism in Story, The Southern Poetry Review, Xanadu, Yankee, and other magazines. He is currently the creative director of the Maurice Townsend Center for the Performing Arts at the State University of West Georgia, and has had many productions of his plays at regional theaters throughout the south. He is the recipient of numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the state of Georgia, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Arts Festival of Atlanta, the South Carolina Council for the Arts, etc. He composed the scores for the regional Angels in America and other productions and has played in a numerous jazz and folk bands. In his work as a folklorist he has collected songs and stories throughout Georgia and has worked with John Burrison, the foremost folklorist in the south and with Joseph Cambell.

Reviews

[Judy Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flap Tucker is the best private detective you've never heard about. After reading this third novel I'm still loving every twist and turn author Phillip Depoy wants to dish out in his series with the most multi-faceted character I've had the good fortune to meet in a good while. Flap does his thing in Atlanta, Georgia along with his very good friend - from childhood even - Dalliance "Dally" Oglethorpe, owner of Easy the jazz bar in Atlanta. This series of stories keeps the reader on their toes with literary and artistic references mixed liberally with Flap's preference for really good red wine and his gift for centering himself so he can see the big picture - he just might not be able to interpret it all right away.

This novel focuses on a serial killer who hangs his victims from street light poles and pins obscure messages on their clothing. So if it's a serial killer doing this, how does the murder of another woman fit into the picture since she was smothered with a pillow? Flap begins to lose confidence in his mental "thing" when so many people, including the police, are urging him to use it to spot the clues which will lead to catching this definitely deranged killer. Of course it doesn't help any that Flap is on the scene when each of the hanged women is found along with a local character named Joepye whose brain is almost totally picked from alcohol consumption. Stir in Mickey "The Pineapple" Nichols a crook who takes pride in his highly commendable vocabulary (seriously!), Foggy Moskovitz the best car thief along the Eastern seaboard, and a great jazz bass player and you've just begun to line up the characters who make this such an interesting novel. I will tell you that I never ever would have guessed the resolution to these crimes. It absolutely blindsided me.

Fans of this author will be glad to know that Depoy has given Foggy Moskovitz his own series of novels. The first one is called COLD FLORIDA and it is every bit as excellent as the Flap Tucker stories.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Endeavour Press.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phillip dePoy's "Dancing Made Easy" is a murder mystery that cross over from Atlanta's jazz scene to the mafia and back again. Psychic detective Flap Tucker is brought to the scene of a murder by Joepye Adder, current homeless drunk and erstwhile professor of electronics at Georgia Tech. The woman's corpse has a note on it: "Number One: The Tarantella."

The next corpse has a note as well: "Number Two: The Tango." With nothing but these obscure dance references, Flap and police detective Burnish Huyne start putting together the pieces -- and discover that there is a third murder in the offing.

In a rare circumstance, as I read a great many mysteries, I did not see the end coming at all. I found the book enjoyable and entertaining, with lots of unexpected twists and turns.

[Linda Branham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flap Tucker's meditation clues are short circuited and he's confused by the messages his brain is telling him to follow.
Four AM and Flap is rousted from bed by an aging drunk, Jeto view a body swinging from a lamp post by an apron, not a rope. Pinned to the body is a note saying: The Tarantella. The next victim is an artist (a neighbor of Dally's) who is found in the identical manner with a note stating The Tango. A robbery occurred quite a while ago in which three toxins were stolen. The first two were used to murder the victims. Flap uses his gift to seek the link between the deaths and the CDC before the third deadly poison is used.
A police detective seems to be at odds with Flap - is this detective interested in Dally?