1960s Jazz dancer
November 22nd, 2021
Victoria born and raised, Mary Spilsbury Ross’s writing credits include the bestselling cookbook, Frugal Feasts (Doubleday Canada, 1996) and five years as a Black Press food columnist with “A Matter of Taste.” Her first novel No Intermission (Pina publishing $23 hc) is an historical mystery. Margaret (Maggie) Dinsdale longs to dance with the Royal Ballet in post-WWII London, England. It’s a long shot for this dancer from North Oyster on Vancouver Island, but she has a dream. Maggie falls under the spell of an elegant ballet master of an edgy jazz troupe. The not-so-glamourous life of a professional jazz dancer in the 1960’s brings danger and deception as Maggie grapples with wartime devastation, Nazi-looted masterpiece smuggling, anti-Semitism, and a little belly dancing. Her journey is not the audition she signed up for—but No Intermission transports the reader on Maggie’s passionate dancing and other compelling missteps. It’s all a dance, after all. Ross divides her time between Victoria and North Oyster, writing, painting, and creating new dishes for her next cookbook. 9781943493548
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