Caprice De Luca is doing very well in her new staging company. She works with realtors and stages properties on the market to make them more appealing to buyers, for both upper-end residences and businesses. The home she is staging now is castle-like in appearance and Caprice has chosen a Camelot theme for it. It's a large mansion with very valuable objects that the owner refuses to put out of sight for the open house party that is coming up. The owners, Roz and Ted Winslow, are trying to sell and downsize. Ted collects sabers, daggers and knives and wants these on display to potential buyers, much to Caprice's chagrin. On the night of the open house Caprice is wandering through the house ensuring things are going well and when the stager peeks in the master bedroom she sees Ted kissing someone other than his wife. The next time Caprice sees Ted he is dead and a very valuable dagger encrusted in precious gems and made of solid gold is believed to be the murder weapon. Ted had bought this as a gift for Roz, and it is not in its showcase. Naturally his wife Roz is the prime suspect for this killing.

Caprice and Roz were friends in high school and Caprice knows her friend could not have killed her husband, but the police have tunnel vision and are not looking at anyone else for this killing. Looking for clues as to who might have done this is part of the storyline, but the bulk of this book is more about introducing way too many characters that should be introduced separately as the series unfolds, Including two likely romantic candidates interested in attracting Caprice's attention.

Karen Rose Smith has peopled STAGED TO DEATH with very well defined characters, but there are just too many of them for one tale, and all of their story lines are left hanging loose and flying hither and yon which is distracting from the plot. Ms. Smith's culprit is a real surprise!