tracyweber – T.A. Henry

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

I was sliding through the library on my way to the last scheduling committee meeting, and this book just fell off the shelf at my feet. I had to pick it up and take it home; it would have been rude to leave Murder Likes It Hot by Tracy Weber just lying there on the floor, right?

Basic Summary (Courtesy of Amazon):

Newly married yoga instructor Kate Davidson feels stuck in low-energy limbo, despite her high-energy life. She’s trying to conceive a child, keep her studio afloat now that the ultra-cheap Some Like It Hot Yoga studio has opened across the street, and start a yoga program at a local resource center for homeless youth.

When a center employee is found dead, Kate sets aside her fertility and financial woes to delve into the world of teenage homelessness. While digging for clues with her German shepherd Bella, Kate discovers that family can be formed by bonds stronger than shared DNA, and she must defend it at all costs.

My thoughts:

Despite the slightly racy title, this book is feel good yoga and cozy mystery all the way. Let me just say I have to give kudos to Weber for weaving in the yoga and dog rescue work like they’re finely attuned spices in a good meal, rather than slathering it on like butter on cheap toast. I feel like the lines about yoga and animal rescue work are there to tell more about the main character, Kate, rather than pad the book.

I have this vague idea I read one of the series before and didn’t much like it. But I will say if that was the case, Weber has really hit her stride. This is book 6 in the series and I liked it enough, I will be back tracking to read the rest.

I live in the Seattle area, more or less, and the way she touched on the political issues surrounding homelessness locally was exceptionally well done.

The victim of the murder was unexpected. The bad guy was not so surprising once the actual murder occurred. I had a whole other extremely common plot line in mind as I was reading. But Weber didn’t go that way, all to the good. And extremely rare in a cozy mystery, she made me cry at the end.

I won’t even mention that she called an automatic, a revolver at one point. Except I just did. Well, no one is perfect.

Tag: tracyweber

Book Review: Murder Strikes a Pose

Book Review: Murder Likes It Hot