At the same time the investigation is on-going, Sissy's brother Martin is robbing liquor stores and planning a bombing - things he would rather do without the police around asking questions about Sissy. Also involved in the investigation is Clyde's girlfriend Sonya, the district attorney. As the investigation begins to bring out long buried secrets of some of the most prominent local citizens, Dewey is certain nothing good will come out of this for anyone.

As the players in the murder investigation get caught up with in Martin's schemes, Jeremiah begins to wonder if there is a connection he's missing, but once he figures it out, he realizes that the investigation has become very personal. He must decide at what cost he wants to protect his family.

The Night of the Dance is a very detailed, very complex mystery that is also very confusing. The characters of Dewey, Jeremiah and Clyde often blur and making it hard to keep track of who’s who. The tense of the narrative switches from present for things that are happening now to the past tense when describing a past incident, passages that are not set off in the text and that are not always evident as flashbacks. The language used, especially by the African American characters, is often over written so that it becomes stereotypical rather than an effective device to show local speech.

Although Sissy's father is the local preacher, the reasons for the emphasis on the her murder investigation are never satisfactorily explained, especially since ten years ago when she was missing, no one looked very hard for her. Jeremiah's care for his family is very touching and the willingness he has to give everyone one more chance is admirable.

Too much detail and a large cast of characters brings down this first novel which is otherwise filled with great elements: sex, blackmail and all kinds of red herrings and possible suspects all with unique motives.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry