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Doris Valentine had a wonderful time in Thailand. She came back looking "very rested," as the Hollywood tabloids used to say. She brought back wonderful silk fabric, fantastic stories, and a small Buddha to deliver for a man she met overseas. The Buddha isn't one of the sitting, smiling, chubby ones. He is standing, thin, with fragile hands and he is wrapped in a dirty silk rag, which Doris throws away and Betsy rescues in hopes of cleaning it up because she loves the embroidery on it. Doris delivers the Buddha to an antique store in St. Paul, as requested. The owner is a little taken aback that she has opened the package, but is quite pleased with the condition of the statue. As Doris leaves, she sees a woman get out of a green Hummer and go into the store; she assumes it is the buyer of the Buddha. Later that night, Doris comes home to find that her apartment has been ransacked and some of the silk she brought back for Thailand is missing. Then she is questioned because the owner of the antique store has been found murdered and the Buddha she delivered is gone. What has Doris gotten herself into? The woman (at least Doris thinks it is the same woman) from the antique store threatens Doris with a gun and demands the "Thai silk." Doris hasn't a clue to what she means. Betsy is the one who makes the mental leap and thinks that perhaps the silk being sought is the rag wrapped around the Buddha. She and Doris's friends in The Monday Bunch decide to figure out what is going on. Mike, the local policeman who never encourages Betsy to investigate, is actually mildly supportive this time around. Betsy, with the help of her friends, does solve the mystery. Monica Ferris has been writing mysteries of one sort or another for a long time. She’s good at it. She knows how to plot, she knows when a description has gone on long enough, and she knows how to build a character with a short phrase here and a paragraph there. This may or may not be the best needlecraft mystery ever, but it is certainly right up there. Ferris, time after time, just keeps her readers satisfied and wanting more. That’s no mean feat these days.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, November 2008
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