A Dance in Time

by Orna Ross

Lover. Mother. Writer. Each of these roles has meant the world to Izzy Mulcahy. But now, as she stands accused of killing her elderly father, Izzy sets out on a journey of self-discovery and finds the three roles colliding in ways that both surprise and sustain her. However, her journey also leads her to conclude that when she stands up in court her testimony will have a devastating effect on the two loves of her life, her daughter, Star, and her soulmate, Zach . . .

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

608 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Orna Ross is an award-winning historical novelist, poet, who also writes creative guidebooks for authors and others.

An international bestseller, she enjoys book sales in 120+ countries worldwide and her awards include the Goethe Historical Fiction Grand Prize Award for fiction, Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, the Romantic Novelists Association's Indie Champion Award, The Writers' Digest's Top Websites for Writers, and The Bookseller's Top 100 people in publishing.

Her novels are multi-layered, historical, cross-generational family dramas, full of mystery and intrigue, and blending Irish and international settings.

Her poetry books are lyrical companions for creative minds.

In 2009, while undergoing breast cancer treatment, Ross coined the term "creativism" to expand the concept of creativity beyond the arts, and encourage the use of creative thinking and tools to improve every aspect of daily life. This led to her Go Creative! Non-fiction series, which explores the theory and practice of creativism, the application of the creative process to everything in life.

What she describes as “the best move of my writing life” followed soon afterwards, when she took her publishing rights back from her publisher, Penguin, in 2011. The experience of self-publishing has made her a passionate advocate for the commercial and creative empowerment of authors.

She founded the award-winning, global non-profit for self-publishing writers, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) in 2012 and the creative development program for writers, Indie Author Lab, run in association with the London Book Fair and Author Nation in 2026.

Indie Author Lab Online runs through her Substack for authors and her new writing appears first on her Substack for Readers.

Browse and buy all her books on her author website: OrnaRoss.com/Books

Reviews

[Muphyn]

Abandoned after 65 pages: too many diverging plots and characters I couldn't be less interested in. Life's too short to waste it on books that don't pull Mr in at all.

[Carolyn]

The book started well but I felt it got a bit bogged down with introspection as it went on. I found it too long and was glad to finish it. Maybe it just isn’t my kind of book.

[Author Annette Dunlea]

Orna Ross’s second book A Dance in Time is now on sale in paperback. It is published by Penguin Ireland and its ISBN is 1844880532. It is an enjoyable but complex read. There are over 600 pages of Irish historical facts and gossip mixed with contemporary fiction. I loved this as I love Irish history but it is an equally enjoyable read as a family murder mystery. Izzy stands accussed of her father’s murder and instead of defending herself she tries to unravel her past. It is a journey of discovery and a tale of the burden of illegimatacy and the strains of mother daughter relationships. Orna Ross is not afraid to rewrite history and her great writing skill brings the historical figures like Maud Gonne and WB Yeats to life. The book has it all an epic saga, betrayal, revenge, suspense, murder, surprise, great characters and the brilliant twist at the end of the novel. Reviewed by Annette Dunlea author of Always and Forever and The Honey Trap.