Shot Through Velvet

Home of the helmet hairdo and congressional comb-over, Washington, D.C., is a hotbed of fashion faux pas.  If anyone should know, it's "Crimes of Fashion" columnist Lacey Smithsonian.  She dishes out advice to the scandal-scorched and clothing-clueless, doing her part to change this town - one fashion victim at a time... 

DEATH AND DYEING 

With newspapers folding across the country, fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian's latest story hits a little too close to home.  Touring a failing Virginia velvet factory on its final day of operations, Lacey finds more than fading fabric - she finds a body.  Workers nicknamed the hated manager the Blue Devil, and now he's blue, indeed.  Rumors spread quickly that the killer is the Velvet Avenger - his calling card a length of blue velvet ribbon.  But when a ribbon appears at Lacey's paper, it could be more than her job at stake - it could be her life...

I honestly thought that I would have finished this book sooner, but home life had other plans.  Not only did I get stuck with a sick child at home, we are still renovating that same child's room.  Ah well....Life.


Anyway, I enjoyed the book.  It was nice to see the usual characters, I find that I get attached to them as much as I would the main character.  Funny, isn't it?  It's truly an ensemble performance that keeps me coming back for more.


I liked how the author is incorporating what is happening around us in the book, factory closures, newspapers going out of business, people losing their job because those jobs are going over seas. This is real stuff, but combined with the fiction it was very entertaining, and I was "glued" to book (whenever I could).  I usually get a feeling on who the murderer is early in the book, but with this one I was completely surprised, and in the end it made sense.


I'm looking forward to reading the next book.  I wonder what mess Lacey will get into next?! 


Shot Through Velvet by Ellen Byerrum (3.5/5) Mystery; Published: Obsidian Mystery (2/2011); Series: #  7, Crime of Fashion; Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge 2012 (2); Library; Books 2012 (9);