As owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, Betsy Devonshire has become skilled at weaving suspicious threads together. Just back from a trip to Thailand, Doris Valentine is eager to show her stitching friends her souvenirs, which includes dazzling Thai silk. She also has a small stone Buddha that she agreed to deliver to an antique store in St. Paul. It's wrapped in a dirty rag, which she throws away. When she meets the dealer, he is surprised that she unwrapped it, though relieved the statue's delicate hands aren't damaged. The next night, Doris's apartment is broken into, and the things she bought in Thailand are taken. The antique shop owner is found murdered and his shop ransacked. The Buddha is gone. Then someone confronts Doris with a gun, demanding the "Thai silk." Meanwhile, Betsy starts to wonder about the dingy wrapper she retrieved from the trash.
"Among the many souvenirs Betsy's friend Doris Valentine brings home from a Thailand vacation is a stone Buddha to be delivered to a St. Paul antiques dealer. When Doris discards the dirty cloth the Buddha was wrapped in, Betsy rescues the cloth, which turns out to be valuable silk more than 2,000 years old…After someone ransacks Doris's apartment and murders the antiques dealer, Sgt. Mike Malloy
Publishers Weekly
"Betsy Devonshire and the other Monday Bunch regulars eagerly welcome back Doris Valentine from a trip to Thailand…Doris also shows them a small stone Buddha that she has agreed to deliver to an antiques store in St. Paul. Then the store owner is murdered, [and] the statue stolen…Excelsior police officer Mike Malloy and Betsy are soon trying to unravel the clues…This mixture of believable action,
