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A Figure Skating Mystery #5
Skate Crime
While producing a tribute to figure skater and coach Lucian Price, Rebecca "Bex" Levy finds herself skating on thin ice when Lucian dies after taking a bad fall and she discovers that someone had tampered with his skates. Original.
217 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Alina Adams
29 books118 followersAlina Adams is Jewish, lives on the East Coast, married with two kids and is the author of Berkley Prime Crime's "Figure Skating Mysteries," including "Murder on Ice," "On Thin Ice," and coming in January 2006 "Axel of Evil!"
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 24, 2026
This is not that well written and the mc Bex is insufferable. She’s a terrible pseudo detective and a slightly awful person too. Imagine your dad/husband DIES from a seemingly accidental freak fall and this lady who works for tv who you don’t even know shows up at your house to tell you and in the very same moment goes “by the way i think he was murdered, did you do it?”
She starts thinking it’s a murder longggg before she has any reason too. Of course her paranoia + need for crime is vindicated in the end because she’s the mc and we need a plot but on the surface she looks crazy going up to everyone she suspects and straight up asking them if they killed him. She goes through life being suspicious of everything it’s genuinely a problem. She finds out 2 adult skaters at the rink are dating and she acts as though it’s outrageous and must have something to do with the murder and it’s really like what the hell are you talking about. She is humbled at many turns because she assumes motives based on public information of Lucien’s relationship to these skaters but she doesn’t even know them personally so she’s wrong about a lot but it doesn’t stop her!
She gets mad when they withhold information from her and it’s like well you’re not actually law enforcement and they dk who tf you are😭 at the end she’s thinking of quitting her job because she’s disillusioned by her search for truth and how people [re]acted to her investigation and i’m crying because you work in figure skating media you’re not a detective what does any of that have to do with your job
Not even exaggerating it wraps up with the killer simply confessing not just to Bex but in front of 4 other people this wasn’t even a whondunnit there’s no real mystery solving just Bex asking people dumb questions and the killer deciding to give a speech about his motives and how he did it for no reason, nobody else aside from Bex even thought it was a murder😭
Lucien dying from a fall while skating backwards is fucking crazy fjdjsbdjdn even with the blades being dinged up that just seems super implausible that he would fall in a straight diagonal line that his head hits the ice and he dies on impact. This author wrote a biography on Sarah Hughes so she definitely knows blade btw I think she knows how ridiculous this is but we needed a perfect murder that looked like an accident I guess
There’s some decent social commentary on figure skating culture
She starts thinking it’s a murder longggg before she has any reason too. Of course her paranoia + need for crime is vindicated in the end because she’s the mc and we need a plot but on the surface she looks crazy going up to everyone she suspects and straight up asking them if they killed him. She goes through life being suspicious of everything it’s genuinely a problem. She finds out 2 adult skaters at the rink are dating and she acts as though it’s outrageous and must have something to do with the murder and it’s really like what the hell are you talking about. She is humbled at many turns because she assumes motives based on public information of Lucien’s relationship to these skaters but she doesn’t even know them personally so she’s wrong about a lot but it doesn’t stop her!
She gets mad when they withhold information from her and it’s like well you’re not actually law enforcement and they dk who tf you are😭 at the end she’s thinking of quitting her job because she’s disillusioned by her search for truth and how people [re]acted to her investigation and i’m crying because you work in figure skating media you’re not a detective what does any of that have to do with your job
Not even exaggerating it wraps up with the killer simply confessing not just to Bex but in front of 4 other people this wasn’t even a whondunnit there’s no real mystery solving just Bex asking people dumb questions and the killer deciding to give a speech about his motives and how he did it for no reason, nobody else aside from Bex even thought it was a murder😭
Lucien dying from a fall while skating backwards is fucking crazy fjdjsbdjdn even with the blades being dinged up that just seems super implausible that he would fall in a straight diagonal line that his head hits the ice and he dies on impact. This author wrote a biography on Sarah Hughes so she definitely knows blade btw I think she knows how ridiculous this is but we needed a perfect murder that looked like an accident I guess
There’s some decent social commentary on figure skating culture
June 19, 2024
A good ending to the series. I enjoyed the inside look at the skating world. Bex is a likable character and it was interesting how she was the only one who saw murder here.
February 13, 2009
I realized about 2/3 of the way through this book that I do not like the main character in the book. It sounds ridiculous - but it was actually an epiphany of sorts. The first book in this series was written rather poorly. The second was so improved that I thought - Ah Ha! Maybe this series will really get good! And it did get better. But once you realize that you don't really like the main character in the series - it's really hard to want to read any more of the books.
All that being said - I did like the story here. It of course revolved around a death on skates - but most of the story was told in flashbacks and I found the stories of the people surrounding the murder victim really interesting. It also kept the plot line off of our sleuthing reporter Bex - which probably helped as well.
Bex does have her own little epiphany toward the end of the book - perhaps showing the first signs of growing up? Sadly I think it is too late for my taste and I think this will be the last book I read in this series. There are too many good reads out there to keep reading books that don't love back.
All that being said - I did like the story here. It of course revolved around a death on skates - but most of the story was told in flashbacks and I found the stories of the people surrounding the murder victim really interesting. It also kept the plot line off of our sleuthing reporter Bex - which probably helped as well.
Bex does have her own little epiphany toward the end of the book - perhaps showing the first signs of growing up? Sadly I think it is too late for my taste and I think this will be the last book I read in this series. There are too many good reads out there to keep reading books that don't love back.
November 24, 2019
As a huge figure skating fan (I travel all over to attend US Nationals and World Championships), I’ve enjoyed this mystery series. I got a bit mixed up with who was who, due to mulitple flashbacks — although the flashbacks themselves I enjoyed — but I still got several pleasant hours of reading in the setting of my favorite sport.
June 4, 2018
Another mystery centering around the figure skating world. I did not care for all the references to skating politics, abuse, etc. It may be part of that world, but it's not a part I really cared to dwell on.
June 3, 2010
I love Alina Adams' complex, compelling take on the skating world, and her signature style is very much in evidence in Skate Crime, but there are definitely changes from the previous books.
There has always been a healthy dose of darkness and betrayal in Adams' breathless portrayal of the skating world, but this time, it seemed more intense and somber. I'd tentatively label Skate Crime as a black comedy.
Format-wise, Adams makes the interesting choice of telling us the backstories of various characters directly through their eyes. It's very well-done and convincing, but I did notice that the only characters we heard from were the ladies.
Another format twist is the use of forum posts at the head of many chapters to highlight the absurdity of fans. At first, it's entertaining but seems quite random. Later in the book, however, I became aware there was a more thematic reason for these entries.
As always, I devoured this book and particularly enjoyed Bex's blundering on more fronts than usual. Her proactive sleuthing is back with a vengeance, though I did feel as if her reason for jumping to a conclusion of murder needed to be fleshed out more initially.
Looking forward to another book in this series, but hoping this is the bottom line for its darker edge.
There has always been a healthy dose of darkness and betrayal in Adams' breathless portrayal of the skating world, but this time, it seemed more intense and somber. I'd tentatively label Skate Crime as a black comedy.
Format-wise, Adams makes the interesting choice of telling us the backstories of various characters directly through their eyes. It's very well-done and convincing, but I did notice that the only characters we heard from were the ladies.
Another format twist is the use of forum posts at the head of many chapters to highlight the absurdity of fans. At first, it's entertaining but seems quite random. Later in the book, however, I became aware there was a more thematic reason for these entries.
As always, I devoured this book and particularly enjoyed Bex's blundering on more fronts than usual. Her proactive sleuthing is back with a vengeance, though I did feel as if her reason for jumping to a conclusion of murder needed to be fleshed out more initially.
Looking forward to another book in this series, but hoping this is the bottom line for its darker edge.
March 17, 2008
Apparantly this author has written other books in the same genre and this book is one of a series. Bex is a producer for a sports network and she mostly covers skating stories. When Lucian Pryce a renowned coach dies in a skating accident on the eve of a tribute show in his honor, Bex is the only one who thinks it's murder and not an accident. I like how the author tells each different characters stories. I wish I would have read the other mysteries in the series first as they are referred to often and I didn't really know what was being referred to. The ending was anti-climatic.
May 31, 2011
This book was fun to read, but I found it hard to keep the characters straight. There was also not quite as much suspense as I like and the romantic story line for the main character lacked depth. At least the author has a good knowledge of figure skating and dealt with the details of the sport realistically.
December 5, 2008
Apparently there are several other of these skating mysteries - and it would have been good to read them before this one as text assumes one already know several of the other characters that are referred to. Not important for the plot, really, but detracts from story overall. Characters flat.
October 30, 2011
This series got a lot better as it went along but I never warmed to the main character.
This book was about the murder of a male skating coach in his 60s. You would never know it from the picture of young female legs in white female skates on the cover.
This book was about the murder of a male skating coach in his 60s. You would never know it from the picture of young female legs in white female skates on the cover.
December 7, 2011
A friend was nice enough to pick this one up for me because of my ice-skating obsession:) It was a good Sunday afternoon mystery read and the author didn't take it too seriously so that made it just kitschy and fun..
January 25, 2017
Great fun and entertaining!
I have read the series, frone right after another...I just wanted to continue
Iread the entire series one right after another, didn'T WANT IT TO END.
I have read the series, frone right after another...I just wanted to continue
Iread the entire series one right after another, didn'T WANT IT TO END.
January 9, 2010
Amazon received
August 7, 2011
This was an interesting look at the world of skating. Not the kind of book I usually choose but it was well written and kept you guessing.
October 4, 2015
The best of the series. The mystery itself wasn't huge, but the character insights into the figure skaters and the moral ambiguity of the ending were very compelling.
February 4, 2016
I've enjoyed the previous figure skating mysteries by this author but this one didn't quite measure up. Still, enjoyable and light and I've always enjoyed her inside look on the skating world.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews