Saturday, May 25, 2024

Review: A Pose Before Dying by Alex Erickson

 



About the Book


Genre
Cozy Mystery

Format
E-ARC

Publisher
Kensington Cozies

Release Date
May 21, 2024


Synopsis from Goodreads:

From the bestselling author of the Bookshop Cafe Mysteries, the first in an exciting new series featuring a young female entrepreneur who’s just opened her dream business – a yoga studio filled with adorable, adoptable cats! If only helping humans fund balance and felines find homes didn’t also require she investigate the purrfect murder…

Sure to appeal to fans of Miranda James, Cate Conte, Eileen Watkins, Laurien Berenson, and all lovers of cozy mysteries featuring animal companions!

Finding this killer will be a real stretch . . .

Ashley Branson has a lot to prove with her new cat yoga studio, A Purrfect Pose. It's a place for humans to find inner wellness—and adopt adorable cats from the local shelter. It’s also a chance for Ash to run her own life, out from under her overbearing mother and a stifling relationship. So far, so successful. Until she discovers one of her new clients, a much-disliked college professor, dead in her studio, locked in child’s pose . . .

To make matters worse, Ash’s hapless always-in-trouble brother, Hunter, instantly becomes the cops’ prime suspect. Determined to clear his name and save her business, Ash does a deep lunge into the surprising—and strange—connections the victim had with her other clients. But countless suspects, contradictory leads, not to mention people desperate to see her studio shut down, mean Ash will have to stretch to the max to outthink a clever killer who’s ready to strike her red in tooth and claw . . .

My Review

Ashley Branson is excited to open her new yoga studio. It’s not your typical yoga studio since it also is a place to adopt cats.  Each client can do their yoga exercise with a cat by their side and, possibly, even take the cat home.  It takes quite a bit of work to get a new business started, but Ashley is determined.  Until…tragedy strikes.

She finds one of her clients posed in a yoga position in her studio.  He is very much dead.  The police immediately close down her studio until the case is solved.  The police have their sights set on Ashley’s brother as the guilty party.  Although her brother is always in some kind of trouble, he’s not a killer.  She intends to prove it.  Time is of the essence to save her brother as well as save her business.

A yoga studio with cats?  I’m there for it.  I’m not a yoga person, but I am a cat person, and I was immediately drawn into this one.  I’ve seen books with cats at cafes or libraries but not a yoga studio filled with them.  That’s a unique take.  

I loved Ashley right away.  The rest of the cast still needs to be developed a bit more, but there’s so much potential for a fun group of supporting characters.  Ashley’s family, alone, are quite interesting and I want to know more about them.

The story moved along at a fast pace.  I was surprised at who the killer turned out to be and I do like a book that surprises me.  I was captivated right from the start. I enjoyed going along with Ashley to figure out “whodunit”.

I’m anxiously awaiting book two in the series.  I can’t wait to see what mischief Ashley gets into next.

For reading challenges:

The Purrfect Reading Challenge 2024
What An Animal Reading Challenge 2024
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2024
Literary Escapes Reading Challenge 2024 (Ohio)


FTC Disclosure: I voluntarily reviewed a free Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions expressed are my own.


3 comments:

  1. If I had time, I'd go back to doing yoga and if cats were involved, it would be even better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm definitely a fan of a yoga studio with cats! I love yoga and cats would make it even better - I'd just have to make sure I had taken some serious antihistamines before I went!

    ReplyDelete

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