Dollycas’s ThoughtsAdina is back and her roommate and “fitness freak” Lynda has talked her into trying pilates. The new gym Fun & Fitness just opened and it is near their home and Cutie Pie Rescue where she volunteers and walks dogs so maybe this class won’t be so bad. Adina is ready to snap some pictures of a new pooch at the rescue but realizes she doesn’t have her phone. Backtracking she and Lynda head back to Fun & Fitness to look for her phone. On their arrival, the phone is forgotten when they find their pilates instructor, Bonnie, on the floor unconscious with her face red and swollen and a bottle of water by her side. They also find the instructor’s phone with an open call to 911. So Bonnie knew something was wrong and tried to get help. Adina and Lynda learn the next day that Bonnie died. Police have it classified as accidental but her business partner and co-owner of the gym Piper, doesn’t believe it was.With Bonnie gone and Piper with a new baby at home, huge adjustments need to be made at Fun & Fitness. Adina volunteers to help in any way she can and she also decides to do her thing and find out what really happened to Bonnie. Her favorite detective has a lot on his plate with working at the Metro Police Department and studying for his master’s in criminology at Georgetown so he and Adina aren’t spending much time together but she will fill him in on everything when they finally meet face to face. That is if she doesn’t get in trouble before then.Adina is a strong, independent woman and she is a terrific amateur sleuth, which is a good thing because she does keep finding dead bodies. She has a huge heart. She volunteers at a pet rescue and recently adopted a pup of her own, Bonzo, and convinced her neighbor to adopt one too, Speckles. She also didn’t think twice about helping Piper after Bonnie’s death. Both women she just met but she automatically felt compelled to help. Of course, helping Piper meant she would get to check out the business’s files, Bonnie’s computer, and her home to try to find any clues that could lead to a killer. There was a big bonus too, she was able to meet Bonnie’s boxer named Harley and share caretaking duties with Piper’s husband Noah.Ms. Salem surrounds Adina with strong characters like herself in her roommates and Joan the driving force behind Cutie Pie Rescue. Her relationship with Jonathan is progressing nicely but he plays a small role in this story. I do love all the characters she has created for large roles or small, human and canine. It is a diverse cast with believable lives and they all have a purpose in the story. The dialogues all ring true too.This author also knows how to write a complex compelling mystery in less than 200 pages. She has each scene so well-plotted. It is uncanny the way Adina finds one clue after another that others just don’t see. I thought I had the killer firm in my mind and then there was a twist that as the author intended drew my attention away from that person. Then she twisted things all up again and I was chasing new leads right along with Adina. I really enjoy mysteries that make me think and Cassidy Salem’s stories always do that.Fit For Murder features a protagonist with a “gift”. A gift that just keeps on giving and that has pulled me into every book in this series. Each book in this series can be read all on its but they are even better read in order. I am really excited to read Dead Amid the Dogwoods which is available now!