George Baxt: The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Murder Case (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
It's 1953, and Hollywood's most legendary dancing duo is reunited after five years of semiretirement to dance with Russia's celebrated Baronovitch Ballet. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have consented to do their first TV special ever, and, except for Ginger's concern about her age (and looking it), they're tickled to be catching up with the times.

The CIA is convinced, however, that the company has been infiltrated by spies, and they've asked local police Detectives Herb Villon and Jim Mallory to keep a close watch on the dancers. But before rehearsal even begins, a psychiatrist is dead. Dr. Igor Romanov, who had connections to the ballet company and who was also Ginger's therapist, collapses soon after the party announcing the ballet's gig with Astaire and Rogers. The rumors fly: Was the good doctor ill, or was he poisoned?

With all the talk about communists and conspiracies, defectors and double agents, it's all Fred and Ginger can do to concentrate on the show-until there's another body, and Astaire and Rogers ore on the case.

Once again, the venerable George Baxt delivers a witty, satirical mystery set in Hollywood's heyday.

George Baxt: The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Murder Case. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312151292 (February, 1997), 200 p., $20.95.