Fans of literary detective fiction will enjoy this elegantly crafted novella that explores how the tenderest emotions can be subverted through the alchemy of evil.
After graduating college, Vladimir Petrovsky joins his beautiful mother, a former prima ballerina, at her ballet school in a mansion overlooking the Hudson River where they lead an isolated, self-indulgent life . . . until the disappearance of one and then another dancer alters their lives forever. The local police chief asks P. J. O'Malley, a retired NYPD detective, to help in the investigation. Over time, nearly everyone becomes convinced that the girls' disappearance is the work of a sinister stranger. O'Malley is not so sure.