Death in St. Petersburg

Ballet, murder, and revolution come together in Tasha Alexander's Death in St. Petersburg.  Shortly after Christmas, 1899, Colin Hargraves traveled to St. Petersburg on business, and a few days later Lady Emily and her friend Cecile du Lac followed to welcome in 1900 a second time (Russia still used he Julian calendar at the time). After a performance of Swan Lake, they discover why Nemesteva's understudy (and childhood friend) Katenka performed the final act; the star ballerina's body is lying in a pool of blood near the theater's back entrance.  Did Katenka kill her rival/friend? Or was it her brother, Nemesteva's former lover? Perhaps the killer is one of the revolutionaries Colin is tracking at the behest of Queen Victoria (grandmother of the Czarina). Once again, Alexander uses parallel narratives (here, the second narrative is Katenka's diary) to dole out clues and motivations, creating a well-supported solution that the reader solves at about the same time as Colin and Emily.