"Fabulous Crafting Mystery set in Texas"

Berkley 1/05

This is the first book in a new series by Barbara Burnett Smith and is the first book I have read by her.

Kitzi Camden is terrific. She and her best friend Beth Fairfield are off to Camp Green Clover for the Craft Retreat. They went to this camp together when they were children. Now their friend owns it and runs the Craft Retreats twice yearly. Both Kitzi and Beth are into beads. This year they are bringing Shannon, Beth's daughter, along.

The first night of camp Shannon insists to Kitzi that she just saw her father's car at the camp. She wants to follow him. Kitzi will not let her take her car, so she drives Shannon. They end up at a hardware store where Shannon says she recently saw her father. After searching the store and parking lot, they decide to head back to camp but, Shannon sees another parking lot in back. When they investigate they find his car and him in it making out with camp crafter May Feather. Agreeing to not say anything to Beth, they return to camp.

The next day they find out that May was murdered. Shannon and Kitzi lie to the police about their whereabouts the night before. One officer doesn't believe them. Kitzi begins to look into things on her own. She is determined to find out who the real murderer is and gets into many sticky situations along the way.

I can't wait for another Kitzi Camden book. This was terrific. I loved the all characters and the setting -- the camp is located in Texas. Ms. Smith has a real winner. Kitzi is so likeable and funny.

There are plenty of suspects for Kitzi to investigate that you will have trouble figuring it out before she does. I highly recommend this book!

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted March 13, 2005

Summary

Meet Kitzi Camden, former stateswoman. When she retired, Kitzi dreamed of doing what she loves best--beading. She certainly didn't plan to try her hand at amateur sleuthing. But lately, trouble seems to find her wherever she goes-- even deep into the woods. When a young beader is killed at a beading retreat, Kitzi is faced with almost as many suspects as there are beads in her bag.