Actually, given the horrible surprise Michael gives our heroine on her thirty-something birthday, I think she would be justified in dumping him. She doesn't, at least not for now, anyway, but matters are strained. Seattle seems rather small all of a sudden and Kate takes off to Oregon, to walk her German Shepherd, Bella, and do some relaxing yoga in the wide open space of the beach at Arcadia State Park. Bella uncovers a shoe from the sand, and there's a body attached. Someone Michael knew, and might just possibly have wanted to kill.

The fraught situation keeps escalating, with Michael's relatives revealed as complicit in not giving Kate the full facts, and Michael looking a lot more human and daft than the paragon of previous books. Can their relationship last, if he isn't guilty? We learn about various sides of the situation which serve to make the victim more fleshed-out but don't help Kate to make up her mind.

I don't want to spoil the outcome for anyone, so I'll just say Kate ends up with a kitten, of all unlikely things, and the bracing sea air does keep the tale moving swiftly. Author Tracy Weber, who lives in Seattle with her family, is a certified yoga therapist and keeps a German Shepherd herself, so she knows all about controlling large, alert dogs. PRE-MEDITATED MURDER is fifth in her series and focuses on the central characters she has made so popular.