Staged to Death-Karen Rose Smith

Staged to Death Karen Rose Smith Kensington, Dec 3 2013, $7.99 ISBN: 9780758284846 In Kismet, Pennsylvania, thirty-two year old realtor Caprice DeLuca works with wealthy clients staging a for sale home with a theme. Her open house productions are events catered by her sister Nikki. Her current assignment is turning her friend Roz Winslow’s mansion into a Camelot castle. However, Roz’s husband Ted refuses to cooperate in ridding the place of clutter like all the swords and daggers in his antiques weapons collection room. During the gala, Caprice observes Ted kissing a woman. Unsure what to do, her indecision becomes meaningless when Caprice and Roz find Ted’s corpse with an antique dagger protruding from his back. Realizing the police focus on Roz as the prime person of interest, Caprice looks to prove her friend is innocent; though that may mean identifying the killer. The first Caprice De Luca mystery is an enjoyable amateur sleuth with a Cecil Demille size cast including the heroine’s supportive family; as the queen of family romantic dramas, Karen Rose Smith, brings her upbeat uniqueness to the amateur sleuth sub-genre. Character-driven with several suspects and a town that cares, readers will relish Caprice’s complex case as the home designer stages her initial investigation. Harriet Klausner