Open Your Heart

by Neal Pollack
Thomas & Mercer, 222 pp., $3.99 (Kindle)

Successful in sleuthing the untimely death of billionaire L.A. yoga guru Ajoy Chaterjee in Downward-Facing Death, the first installment in local Austin novelist, recent Jeopardy! champion, and aging pseudo-punk rocker Neal Pollack’s serial yoga murder mystery series, stoner detective Matt Bolster enters into follow-up Open Your Heart with more fame and followers. The success earns the retired LAPD homicide detective a chance to teach at the Gathering, one of the most prestigious and, subsequently, eccentrically yoga-tastic retreats in the country. Bolster’s there simply to teach, but soon realizes that his knack for cracking murder cases is what this campground really needs. Published 10 months after Downward-Facing Death, this new installment plots differently but still leans heavily on the background established by its predecessor. That said, Pollack’s grasp of the obsessive Southern California yoga culture should make any self-aware hobbyist smirk. Those who don’t should practice some yoga. (Find Neal Pollack at TBF on Sunday, 2:45pm, at the Capitol Extension, Rm. E2.030.)

This article appears in October 25 • 2013.

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