A Day In The Life of Home Stager Caprice De Luca by Karen Rose Smith

I’m worried about my sister, Nikki. Her catering business, Catered Capers, has been growing in success. She considered taking on a partner, Drew Pierson, but that didn’t work out. She didn’t exactly tell me why which is unusual. We tell each other everything. Anyway, Drew now opened his own catering business in direct competition–Portable Edibles–and Nikki’s business has declined. Why? He’s going after her clients! Nikki is going to be giving the public a taste of her food at a wedding expo that’s coming up soon. Maybe she can find new clients there.

Uncle Dom is still living at Mom and Dad’s and interviewing for a new job. I think he needs to find out what he really wants to do and put his heart into. He’s really great with my animals. I wonder if he’d consider pet sitting?

A family dinner is coming up next weekend. Grant will be going with me. He’s always fit right in with my family, ever since he went to law school with my brother Vince. But now Grant and I fit together well too. I’m even starting to have wedding bells dreams. Can that be possible? Is he really ready to move on from his tragedy and his first marriage? I’m so hopeful.

I staged Bella’s house and I hope it sells quickly. She and Joe need a new place since their family has grown with little Benny. Her online kids costume-making business is really taking off and she needs room for that too. She’s still working at my best friend’s Roz Winslow’s dress shop. But maybe soon she can just concentrate on costumes and christening outfits. And speaking of Roz… She and Vince seem to be headed into deeper relationship waters. Fingers crossed for them.

Nana is enjoying her kitten Valentine. When I get stumped either on staging a house or in my personal life, she always gives me good advice. I hope I can do that for my grandchildren some day.

The oven timer just binged! Nikki has given me her carrot cake recipe to try. She’s thinking about giving samples of it at the Expo. It smells wonderful. Now let’s see how it tastes.

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Silence of the Lamps is the fifth book in the Caprice De Luca mystery series, published by Kensington, April 2016.

Caprice’s house staging is disrupted by Drew Pierson, a caterer who opened Portable Edibles, a business in direct competition with her sister Nikki’s Catered Capers. Nikki turned down Drew as a possible partner and he seems determined to undermine and bury her. However his successful launch of a deal for his blackberry barbecue sauce must have stirred up his enemies. When Nikki visits the house where Drew lives with his grandmother to resolve differences, she and Caprice find him dead–murdered with the base of a valuable Tiffany lamp.

Caprice discovers clues about Drew’s sly business dealings–from stealing recipes from another chef, to friends who hold grudges, to a sister who will now inherit half of her grandmother’s estate since Drew is dead. In the midst of her own romantic relationship upheaval, helping her uncle set up his pet sitting-business, assisting a friend care for a pregnant stray cat, Caprice follows the suspect trail, inadvertently putting herself in danger once more.

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About the author
USA Today Bestselling Author Karen Rose Smith’s 95th novel will be released in 2016! Her passion is caring for her four rescued cats. Her hobbies are gardening, cooking and photography. An only child, Karen delved into books at an early age. Even though she escaped into story worlds, she had many cousins around her on weekends. Families are a strong theme in her novels in both her mysteries and romances. Find out more about Karen at karenrosesmith.com and at karenrosesmithmysteries.com. She’s recently working on her Caprice De Luca Home Staging mystery series as well as her Daisy Tea Garden mystery series and her Search For Love series. If you’d like to chat with her, you can find her on Facebook at KarenRoseSmithBooks and on Twitter @karenrosesmith.

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