Lotus Detective series: Bind (book 1) and Melt (book 2) by donalee Moulton

Cover of Bind by donalee Mouton. Shows the silhouette of a naked woman flexing in the face of a gold watch.

Bind is the first book in donalee Moulton’s new cozy mystery series, Lotus Detective.

Kristi Yee is part-owner of Vitality+, a gym overlooking the Bedford Basin in Halifax. Inside the gym is the Asana Yoga Studio, where she holds yoga classes. Her business partner, Jaxx Taylor, runs the gym and handles the finances, while Kristi operates the yoga studio and handles the administration. They both handle the marketing, which amounts to updating their Facebook page.

“Asana Yoga is located inside a gym, Vitality+. Members join the gym and can take classes at no cost. Despite the financial and physical interconnection, the two worlds rarely meet. Gym goers grunt and sweat, look at themselves in the mirrors that line three of the gym’s four walls. They pump and preen. The yoga participants, who usually walk quickly through the gym and breathe a sigh of relief when the studio doors shut gently behind them, move quietly through poses looking for balance and, ultimately, grace.”

Kristi has several students who regularly attend her classes. There is Charlene, a retired auditor, who loves her PowerPoint presentations and whiteboards; and Lexie, who has been a comedian for more than 20 years, and started a podcast called Punchlines in 2024. She says it’s easier than stand-up and much more lucrative. Then there is Shondra Aeron, but everyone calls her Woo Woo. She is a reflexologist, Reiki practitioner, a tarot card reader, and a little… well, Woo Woo. Each morning after class, the yogis gather and socialize at the coffee shop called Java the Hutt.

During class one morning, Byron Newhouse’s $60,000 Patek Philippe watch was stolen out of a locked locker in the men’s locker room. Detective First Class Michael Terrell, a detective with the Halifax Police Department (HPD), gets assigned to the case. Was it stolen by one of the staff? Byron Newhouse’s son? Or could it have been his son’s Value Village-second-hand-clothes-wearing girlfriend?

To help out Kristi and Terrill, the yogi tribe tries to figure out who stole the watch by first figuring out how it was stolen. The only way to access the locker room is if you have a membership. The locker room is pretty busy, and the locker is locked by a key that only the arrogant and overbearing owner has. The three yogis take turns trying to get into the Men’s locker room unseen and to stay long enough to unlock a locker, take the watch, and flee.

The yogis also volunteer to help Kristi to find out what her business partner may be hiding. Whenever Kristi makes any inquiries into the business’s finances, Jaxx keeps brushing her off.

In between doing yoga poses, the yogis use their individual strengths and unique abilities to help investigate the crime. In the process, they create and form bonds of friendship and partnership.

I applaud donalee Moulton’s creative writing style. She had the yoga instructor, Kristi, assign the class an October monthly task. Each of the yogis was tasked to write their “Daily Thoughts” for the month. In this, the reader gets to see each of their thought processes and the problem-solving tactics used to form their conclusions regarding the case. I was pleased that the next book in the series, Melt, had already been released, and was able to continue reading about the three yogis. The review for Melt can be read below.

Details:

Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc (February 10th, 2025)
Paperback: 301 pages
ISBN: 9780228634089

Cover of Melt by donalee Moulton. The cover shows three layered silhouettes doing different yoga poses.

Melt is the second book in donalee Moulton’s new cozy mystery series, Lotus Detective.

Seventeen-year-old Luke Castle is looking at 25 years in a federal prison if he pleads guilty to drug trafficking. The kid is accused of a sophisticated and masterful crime. The Associate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, Justice Louise Redmond, does not think the kid has the brains to commit the crime. With a legal obligation to keep innocent people out of prison, she asks Detective First Class Michael Terrell to ask the yogis to “lend a helping hand.” Justice Louise Redmond, aka Honey, also attends yoga classes at Asana Yoga Studio with the yogis.

We meet up again with Charlene, Lexie, and Shondra, aka Woo Woo. They have invested in Vitality+ and are now part-owners with Kristi. They continue to attend her daily morning yoga classes. Detective Michael Terrell has also become a regular member of her classes and joins the yogis for their post-yoga conflab at the Java the Hutt cafe. With great reluctance, he asks the yogis for their unique assistance. He is hesitant to ask; he doesn’t want to put them in danger, especially Woo Woo, whom he has a crush on.

Why would a teen confess to a crime he didn’t commit, knowing he could spend the next 25 years in jail, ending his life as he knows it? What are they missing? Is the drug lord threatening Luke’s family? Is Luke being paid off? Is he protecting his brother? Everyone wants to know why. The yogis devise a plan to try to figure out why, each using their individual strengths and unique talents to get to the bottom of this mystery. Each is willing to do what it takes to help find the truth.

I enjoyed getting better acquainted with the yogis in Melt, especially Charlene’s dog, a Westie named Madoff. In this story, we see deeper ties formed between the yogis as the danger increases. donalee also finishes this story with a bit of a teaser of what is yet to come in the next Lotus Detective mystery.

Hidden within the story, donalee again skillfully embeds her previous works, because who better to champion her own fictional worlds and characters than the author herself? I am looking forward to reading the next installment when it gets released.

Bind:

Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc (February 10, 2025)
Paperback 5.25″ x 8″ | 301 pages
ISBN: 9780228634089

Melt:

Publisher: BWL Publishing Inc (August 1, 2025)
Paperback 5.25″ x 8″ | 386 pages
ISBN: 9780228637233

donalee Moulton is a professional writer and freelance journalist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her byline has appeared in over 100 publications across North America, including Canadian Business, Chatelaine, Equinox, Ford Times, Maclean’s, and The Globe and Mail.

Her most recent book, Cardinal, is part of a Canadian Paranormal Mystery Series. Private detective Em Montgomery is hunting for a missing woman. She expected dead ends. She did not expect a dead girl who refuses to stay buried. Now Em is knee-deep in fog, small-town secrets, and the uneasy sense she’s being watched by more than just wildlife.

Her book Conflagration! — part of a Canadian Historical Mystery Series — won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Historical Mystery Suspense. This gripping historical novel is woven around the trial of Marie-Joseph Angélique, an enslaved black woman accused of deliberately setting the devastating fire that destroyed much of Montreal’s merchant quarters in 1734.

Her other books include two mysteries involving three yogis with a penchant for solving crime, a murder mystery based in Nova Scotia, and three non-fiction books: one about effective communications, one about media relations, and another about organizational policy.

donalee is also a longtime educator. She’s taught communications and writing-related courses at several universities as well as for all levels of government, the private sector, and nonprofits in Canada and the United States. She currently offers a variety of editorial services and workshops to help authors hone their writing and get published.

Sue Slade

Sue Slade has a Bachelor of Child Study from Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax. After working with children and adults with special needs, she now has her midlife dream job of working with books. Sue manages an independent, locally owned bookstore, Dartmouth Book Exchange. Through her charismatic sharing centred around books and community, Sue has created an engaging cornerstone for authors, customers, and book lovers of all ages. Sue is an avid reader and her reviews cross over many genres.