I totally wasn’t kidding about seeking out the previous books in the downward dog series by Tracy Weber. She’s a local Seattle area author and as such deserved a little extra of my reading time. Murder Strikes a Pose is the first in the series as well as her debut novel.

Basic Summary (Courtesy of KCLS):

When George and Bella–a homeless alcoholic and his intimidating German shepherd–disturb the peace outside her studio, yoga instructor Kate Davidson’s Zen-like calm is stretched to the breaking point. Kate tries to get rid of them before Bella scares the yoga pants off her students. Instead, the three form an unlikely friendship.

One night Kate finds George’s body behind her studio. The police dismiss his murder as a drug-related street crime, but she knows George wasn’t a dealer. So Kate starts digging into George’s past while also looking for someone to adopt Bella before she’s sent to the big dog park in the sky. With the murderer nipping at her heels, Kate has to work fast or her next Corpse Pose may be for real.

My thoughts:

Another book with ties to homelessness? hrm. It is a big problem up here. I could never figure out why though, it’s cold and rainy most of the year. I imagine that must be super uncomfortable. But Seattle seems to be a mecca like New Orleans (also super uncomfortable, 100 degrees and 2000 percent humidity, hello).

I enjoyed this book. For the most part it doesn’t read like a cozy trying to find it’s footing. There’s a little too much ruminating by the main character but it seemed in line with where the character actually was. Processing loss, learning to investigate, learning when to embrace things. So while the reading of said ruminating did irk now and then, it at least felt authentic to the character.

If I had read this one first I would totally say I am reading more to see where this goes. Since I read number 6 by accident first, I need to fill in the lines. LOL