Grave Apparel: A Crime of Fashion Mystery

by Ellen Byerrum

Book Overview

Why is Lacey Smithsonian Ruining Christmas? EVERYTHING GOES WRONG for fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian this Christmas season. She tangles with "Sweatergate," a newsroom feud over garish holiday... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451221788
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Signet
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.5"

Customer Reviews

great story, well written

I've enjoyed all of Ellen Byerrum's "Crime of Fashion" series and I think that they have gotten better with each book, a rare thing among series mysteries! "Grave Apparel" is no exception, I liked it a lot and I think everything about it was well done. The story is set at Christmas, but it doesn't have that "Christmas episode" throw away feel to it. The holidays are integral to the story and provide a funny episode as a start of the mystery plot. The bit of Lacey's life in this story is set mostly in the newsroom of her paper, the Eye Street Observer. I liked the further development of some of her colleagues that the setting gave. I also was happy for a break from Stella the stylist, who makes only a brief appearance. Vic's Mom looks to be a great addition to the cast of characters too. I was happy that Byerrum avoided her plot device of Lacey attending a big ball or other high social event as the ultimate "discover and confront" the bad guy venue. It had become predictable. There is still plenty of opportunity for Lacey to dig into her trove of vintage apparel and the Observer's holiday party is a grand event, Lacey just doesn't reduce anyone to a bloody pulp at it! "Grave Apparel" is a great story and it is very well-written. For genre fiction it is less shallow both in content and in character and plot development than many others on the market. I'd recommend all in the series!

Christmas Crime of Fashion

"Grave Apparel" is the fourth book in this mystery series about Lacey Smithsonian, a newspaper fashion reporter who works for "The Eye Street Observer" and who seems to follow her fashion sense nose into some weird and wonderful murder mysteries. Lacy is fortunate, she is an attractive career woman, she has good friends, and she has a glamorous vintage wardrobe, stored in a wonderful old trunk and inherited from her aunt. All this and more: Lacy also has a handsome ex lawman, turned security expert, for a lover, and he is also RICH! However, Lacy yearns to be a "real" reporter not just a fashion editor, and because of this, she has previously placed herself in situations where she has had to confront cold-blooded killers to solve mysteries. However, after several close calls, she is reluctant to do so ever again. But...this is the Christmas season and once again Lacey stumbles on a crime. Lacy gets placed in the middle of the battle between mother earth, anti-materialism editor Cassandra Wentworth, and the food editor Felicity Pickles. Cassandra is attacked in an alley during the Eye Street Observer's holiday party and Felicity's Christmas sweater is left at the scene. Lacey comes to Cassandra's help after a phone call from a young child dressed in a shepherd robe who witnessed the attack and who runs away before talking to the police. Despite her reluctance to get involved since she dislikes both women, Lacey is pressured into investigating by nearly everyone at the Eye, and because a child is involved as a witness, and the police seem determed to place the guilt on this young boy, Lacy decides to investigate the crime. Once again, her detective boyfriend Vic, her free-spirited friend and hairstylist Stella, and her lawyer/friend conspiracy theorist Brooke, help Lacey to solve the crime. The Author, Ellen Byerrum's experience as a Washington DC journalist, shines through and helps to make this a fun and facinating series.

'Tis the Season for Murder

Gaudy Christmas sweaters may be a crime against fashion, but they shouldn't be a reason for capital punishment. However, newspaper columnist Lacey Smithsonian nearly discovers the contrary after she is blamed for an editorial attacking the sequined and glittery fashion faux pas. Lacy gets placed in the middle of the battle between the real culprit, cranky anti-materialism editor Cassandra Wentworth, and the food editor Felicity Pickles, who boycotts cooking her holiday treats until Cassandra recants. Instead, Cassandra is attacked in an alley during the Eye Street Observer's holiday party and Felicity's Christmas sweater is left at the scene. Lacey comes to Cassandra's aid after being summoned by a phone call from a young child, a street urchin dressed in a shepherd robe who witnessed the attack and escapes before talking to the police. Despite her antipathy towards both women, Lacey is pressured into investigating by nearly everyone, from Felicity's and Cassandra's two paramours to her fellow reporters who are suffering from the withdrawal of Felicity's baked treats. Against Lacey's better judgment she's soon interrogating Cassandra's fellow radicals as well as her stalker, all in an effort to discover who has it in for the unlikable woman. Much more important to Lacey though, is the desire to rescue the missing witness whose life may be in danger from the would-be fashion murderer. The reluctant fashion columnist Lacey Smithsonian continues to be an entertaining heroine in this fifth entry in the Crime of Fashion series. The fashion tips never intrude on the plots, although they do often provide valuable clues. The reader sympathizes with how poor Lacey is virtually railroaded into starting an investigation, but it's her softer side compels her to find the sassy and savvy urchin who is homeless during the holidays. Again accompanied by her steadfast and resigned detective boyfriend Vic, her unique and free-spirited friend and hairstylist Stella, and her other BFF conspiracy theorist Brooke, Lacey shines through with her sharp wit and determination. Author Ellen Byerrum brings in her experience as a Washington DC journalist to reveal the fascinating - and hilarious - side of newspaper journalism to this continually enjoyable series. This is the perfect treat for the holidays or any other time the reader needs some Christmas spirit.

Chick Lit ...? Sure, but something more, too

If any book is positioned at Ground Zero for contemporary Chick Lit, this one is. The canny author, who is a member of a group of authors calling themselves "The Mystery Chicks," for Pete's sake, has hit just about all the points. "Grave Apparel" is a breezy-spirited book about Lacey Smithsonian, the attractive young woman with the glamorous wardrobe, the glamorous job, the (conventionally) wacky friends and the handsome hunk for a lover--a handsome hunk who has just unexpectedly turned out to be a RICH, handsome hunk. In tried-and-true Chick Lit form, all is not perfect in Lacey's apparently glamorous life. She's trapped in her newspaper's fashion reporting ghetto--except for the odd occasions, that is, when she finds herself, by accident as it were, tackling cold-blooded killers with whatever improvised weapon might be at hand. But not to worry, that hardly happens more than once per book. The glamorous wardrobe may be both terrific and free, but in the four previous books in this series, it has led directly to those intimate encounters with the aforesaid cold-blooded killers, an unfortunate side-effect that some might regard as a definite buzzkill. And about that handsome, rich hunk, of course she's full of angst: Does he love her? Is he faithful to her? More important, should she be faithful to him? How does he REALLY feel about that unspeakable, clingy ex-wife of his? WHAT direction will her relationship with the hunk take, and WHERE will it all END? Golden lads and lasses must, like chimney sweeps, come to dust. And so it is with mystery series: they must pay obeisance to the holidays. This is Lacey's Christmas Adventure. The holiday season--and tensions--in the District of Columbia make for a pleasing and slightly unfamiliar backdrop. Naturally we are presented with Lacey's chick lit shopping anxieties: how to make time to get to the stores and once there what to get. Can Lacey possibly give a gift to match one which she has received? And naturally, there are adorable moppets to fire up strong maternal emotions. Canny Byerrum is not foolish enough to change an effective plot that has worked four times before, so here is the plot of "Grave Apparel" [SPOILER ALERT!]: By a series of coincidences related to her job as a fashion reporter, Lacey stumbles on a crime. Lacey reluctantly, even half-heartedly follows up on the mystery, much to the annoyance of her colleagues who believe that she is poaching on their reportorial territory. Lacey delves into a trunk left to her by a dear departed Aunt that contains a treasure trove of 1940s and 50s high fashion stuff which just happens to suit her perfectly. [Say, how big is that trunk, anyway? It seems inexhaustible.] Almost by accident, Lacey finally confronts an individual of distinctly homicidal proclivity ... and goes into Wonderwoman-mode, stabbing, beating, bonking, bashing or otherwise seriously discommoding the aforesaid antisocial individual. That is the plot of

Joy to the World! A Smithsonian Christmas story.

I have a weakness for Christmas stuff, so for me, this isn't just the latest volume in the Lacey Smithsonian canon, but a perfectly festive way to celebrate Christmas in July. I bought and brought my copy home, cranked up my a/c, made myself some Christmas tree cookies with red and green sprinkles, and settled in for a long summer's read of this latest in Ellen Byerrum's series. As usual, it does not disappoint. There are all the Smithsonian usuals: Lacey's fashion clues, Felicity's feeding foibles (including a baking strike this time around), and Lacey's characteristic skewering of DC's self-important class. This time though, instead of honing in on the helmet-haired, Ms. Byerrum gifts us with everything you've ever wondered about the ecologically-correct irritatingness that is Cassandra Wentworth, her cronies, and an acrylic (eww!) Christmas sweater at the center of a controversy so heated, it becomes known as Sweatergate. I don't want to give away too much of the plot. I'll just say that besides Cassandra and this sensational sweater, a lot hinges on Lacey's relationship with a child who can't find a place to live in DC in December. I know Lacey has a hate-like relationship with Felicity and her feeding frenzy, but I wish Ellen could provide us with a recipe or two for Felicity's fine foods, e.g., this book's hot chocolate pudding cake with peppermint pieces. If you're the buy-it-when-you-see-it kind of Christmas shopper, you can cross a lot of people off your list by buying GRAVE APPAREL now. Or gift it to someone now for Christmas in July. Either way, don ye now your GRAVE APPAREL.