A Killer Retreat

November 24, 2014
Weber’s entertaining second Downward Dog mystery (after 2013’s Murder Strikes a Pose) takes Seattle yoga instructor Kate Davidson to Orcas Island in Puget Sound for a working vacation. Teaching yoga classes at the Elysian Springs resort seems like a good idea, until Kate finds the body of Monica, a guest attending the wedding of resort caretakers Emmy and Josh, in the spa. Nearly everybody heartily disliked Monica, including Kate, who becomes the primary murder suspect. A quirky lawyer helps her stay out of jail for the time being, but Kate and her boyfriend, Michael, will have to find the real killer with the help of Kate’s German shepherd, Bella. Meanwhile, Bandit, an intensely annoying Jack Russell terrier, terrorizes Bella and the resort’s guests, while Monica’s distraught husband, a cranky chef, also distracts from the investigation. Cozy readers will enjoy the twist-filled plot. Agent: Margaret Bail, Inklings Literary Agency, LLC.

November 1, 2014

Hired to teach yoga at the Elysian Springs resort on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, Kate Davidson (Murder Strikes a Pose) arrives with her boyfriend, Michael, and her rescue dog, Bella. Kate believes this will be a great opportunity to drum up some new business for her yoga studio; plus it makes for a romantic getaway with Michael. But getting in the way is the tension-filled wedding of Kate's friend Emmy. The worst is between Emmy's mother and her stepmother, Monica. When Monica is found dead in the hot springs, Kate is the prime suspect. Kate and Monica almost came to blows the previous night over Monica's casual cruelty to everyone in the wedding party. VERDICT For a yogini, Kate can be annoying, but her path to enlightenment is a fresh element in cozy mysteries. Our protagonist's best quality is her absolute devotion to her special-needs dog, and her friends are admirable and supportive. The mystery is not complicated, but, somehow, the whole comes together as an entertaining read.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2014
A yoga teacher's romantic getaway almost gets her jailed for murder. Kate Davidson reluctantly agrees to a vacation with her boyfriend, Michael, and her German shepherd, Bella, to a health resort on an island in Puget Sound, where she'll teach some yoga classes to pay for their stay. Kate, who has control issues and a hair-trigger temper, is enraged when a walk turns dangerous. Bella, a formerly abused dog who suffers from EPI, a life-threatening disease controlled by special food and drugs, does not play well with others, and when an overdressed woman lets her terrier, Bandit, run loose, the dog is lucky to escape a mauling. Back at the resort, Kate again meets Bandit's owner, Monica, the stepmother of Emmy, who with her fiance, Josh, is refurbishing the resort. Kate and Michael's accommodations are small and Spartan. Despite the beauty of the place, everything goes wrong soon after Kate's best friend, Rene, and her husband, Sam, arrive. Rene's sick, Sam's upset, and Kate's afraid that Michael will pop the question. Dinner at the vegan restaurant is spoiled by Monica's insistence that she must have meat. She fights with both Chef Kyle, who refuses to cook flesh, and Emmy's mother, Helen. Later, at a party, Kate rashly jokes that she'd like to poison Monica. When Monica is found strangled in the spa with her dog's leash, Kate is first on the scene, and the lone island police officer takes her in for questioning. Michael gets her a lawyer, a down-home type who runs a goat rescue on the island but is a former defense attorney. Everyone but the lawyer and Rene begs her not to investigate; after all, she almost got killed in her maiden attempt at sleuthing (Murder Strikes a Pose, 2014). Despite lots of red herrings, yoga lore and ways to treat EPI, Kate's second lacks a strong mystery. And sometimes you just want to shake the temperamental heroine.

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