Lethal Black Dress

When does a little black dress become a lethal black dress?When it becomes unexpectedly weaponized at the most security-conscious event in Washington, D.C.-the fabled White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian is delighted to finally take her place at the legendary D.C. insider bash, but she senses something is amiss with a pushy TV reporter’s vintage Madame X gown with its stunning emerald lining. When the woman takes a tumble with a tray of champagne and dies of something other than embarrassment, Lacey taps into her ExtraFashionary Perception and follows her hunch that this was no freak accident. Juggling her investigation with her love life and future in-laws complicates matters, while spies and lies and an enemy close to home bring Lacey face to face with danger and jealousy, the green-eyed monster. But this time, will the style sleuth discover that green is also the color of death?This book is the 10th in the Crime of Fashion Mysteries.

Ellen Byerrum writes the popular Crime of Fashion mysteries set in bustling Washington, D.C., The City That Fashion Forgot. These action-and-fashion-packed books feature style scribe Lacey Smithsonian, who wears vintage clothing and solves crimes with fashion clues. While she’s always looking for a little respect and a better beat, Lacey examines and comments on style snafus in her Crimes of Fashion columns and Fashion BITES, which are included in the books. Byerrum is a novelist, playwright, reporter, former Washington journalist, and a graduate of private investigator school in Virginia. Lacey Smithsonian and her creator have a lot of history in common: a balcony view of the Potomac River, a love for vintage clothes, failing surveillance class in private eye school, and a humorous viewpoint on life, love, mystery and fashion. And a window seat on the wild and wacky world of Our Nation’s Capital. Byerrum is at work on her next writing project.