Kate McKenzie is in over her head – professionally speaking. As the owner of Stacked in Your Favor, an organizing business, she has been tasked with organizing the Nethercutt mansion. Daniel Nethercutt has recently passed on and his widow, Amelia, has hired Kate to add a little order to her late husband’s eclectic (and valuable) collections.

Kate has barely had time to get the regrettably daunting task underway when Amelia herself is found dead. Suspicious eyes are now looking in Kate’s direction. The shock has barely set in when Kate finds one of the Nethercutt treasures hidden in her home. Suddenly, it seems Kate is being set up for murder and theft. When it seems like all of the evidence is stacked against her, Kate and her friend Meg swing into action to stack the deck in her favor once more.

Organized for Murder is the first book in the new Organized Mysteries series by Ritter Ames. It’s the second novel by Ritter Ames that I have read. Both are splendid, each in its own way.

In Organized, Ames has created an all-American family in small town Vermont. Kate is down-to-earth and accessible to the reader. She’s a mom to twin girls, married to a former hockey star, and an entrepreneur trying to get her business off the ground. Each chapter is headed with handy organizing tips, which I thought enhanced the book as a whole. (Especially given my own personal penchant for keeping home and office neat, tidy, and organized to the utmost degree. The tips and ideas spoke to my OCD soul.)

Ritter Ames crafted a clever plot for this cozy mystery, with a plethora of possible suspects, each with plausible motives for murder. My suspicions ping-ponged back and forth between a handful of Nethercutt family members, but never for a moment settled on the true culprit. (Brilliant!) Organized for Murder is a great read – engaging and full of memorable characters that leave the reader eager to return to Hazelton, Vermont for more mysteries (and tips) from Kate McKenzie.

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