Bone Dance: A Crime and Mystery Collection by the Ladies' Killing Circle

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Abbotsford, B.C.

This fifth volume in the Ottawa-based Ladies’ Killing Circle series of
mystery anthologies features eight poems by Joy Hewitt Mann and 18
stories by various Canadian writers, among them the “six devious
dames” of the Ladies’ Killing Circle. The collection’s unusual and
memorable tales of murder and crime take their titles from popular
songs. Most of the stories are set in various Canadian locales.
“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” and the equally engrossing “From
This Wicked Fall,” set in a 15th-century Saint Albans town, are
notable exceptions.

Jealousy motivates characters in “There’s No Business Like Show
Business,” “When the Red, Red, Robin,” “The Night Chicago
Died,” and “When Laura Smiles” to commit murder. Revenge turns an
estranged daughter in “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” into an
arsonist, compels an abandoned daughter in “Them There Eyes” to
attempt murder, and a musician in “Brian’s Song” to murder his
rival and blackmailer. In “Three Coins in a Fountain” and “I’m
Forever Blowing Bubbles,” greed provokes murderous action. Political
mass murder emerges in the gripping and powerful “Don’t Cry for Me
Argentina,” while religion and politics combine to cause deaths in
“Minstrel Boy” and “From This Wicked Fall.”

Featured characters include unscrupulous evangelists, con artists,
thugs, a child abductress, a dementia sufferer, and a child molester.
The perpetrator is not always an outright villain, but a person who
makes questionable decisions and suffers the consequences—or not.
Clever plots, fascinating glimpses into character, witty dialogue, and
original scenarios will keep readers of many of these stories well
entertained. Mann’s poetry contributes a dash of humour even if the
title, “Unchained Melody,” erroneously identifies two different
poems.