Killer Hair: A Crime of Fashion

by Ellen Byerrum

Book Overview

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... An up-and-coming stylist, Angie Woods had a reputation for rescuing down-and-out looks-and careers-all with a pair of scissors. But when...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451209486
• ISBN13: 9780451209481
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Got me!!

A premiere success! Ellen Byerrum's characters are colorful, hip, and quirky (in a very good way). She is fabulous at bringing color and detail into this fun mystery read which is true to her personal wit. There are some humorous subtleties directly targeting those who live and work in the DC "world", which caused me at times to break out in delighted bursts of laughter while reading. It was over much too soon. There's something about a mystery novel that manages to fool me at the final conclusion that I just gotta love. I'm nearing the end of Ellen's second book in the Lacey Smithsonian series and finding it just as delightful. Brava Ellen!

So good I tell strangers about it.

I loved this book. The characters are slightly quirky and the dialogue is snappy enough to remind me of those wonderful old romantic comedies--and in which Lacey's clothes would fit pefectly.I have passed this around two writers critique groups, and told total strangers about it in the bookstore. If you're looking for a light read, not much blood and gore, and characters that make you laugh (one believes Washington DC men are victims of a plot that blocks pheromones, rendering men unattracted to the women in town) you'll appreciate Ellen Byerrum's launch of Lacey Smithsonian. This is a hoot!

Stiletto Wit Skewers Washingtonian Sneaker-Wearers

Don't try to read this book on the subway. You'll either miss your stop while reading, or even start some conversations with the eye-catching cover and title.Here's a mystery for the intelligent reader with a better-than average vocabulary. Besides having an obvious inside knowledge of the capital city, the author shows an attention to research and detail. ...and nuance, of course. Who doesn't admire that kind of sensitivity? (Not to mention the ability to use and pronounce French words.)This book is not for the humor-impaired, but it can be enjoyed by the unstylish. I recommend applying a little extra mascara before reading, just to keep from feeling intimidated.

Really unique, funny mystery

My girlfriend was bugging me to read this book cause she loved it, and it's getting great reviews on a bunch of mystery websites, so I did and I actually really liked it. It's really not like a lot of amateur detective-type mysteries where some gourmet chef or something turns out to be this incredible Sherlock Holmes supersleuth. Lacey Smithsonian is a reporter who's gotten sort of suckered into being a fashion reporter (but she sort of hates it), and now she gets herself sucked into investigating this suicide-but-might-be-murder, totally against her better judgment, but she eventually figures out that she's the only one (along with her crazy hairstylist) who clicks on the fashion clues that the DC cops could care less about. And the Washington DC stuff is really sharp and right on (Yikes, I used to live there!). By now she's in too deep anyway, and her main crush is an ex-police type who ought to be pretty helpful in a murder investigation but is mostly cute and clueless. Lacey is kind of a sweet smartass chick who's lots smarter and funnier than most of the guys around her (duh, does that sound like me and my friends' lives or what? Probably yours too). If you like funny mysteries that are more like what life is really like for real women, check this one out.

A great start in this new mystery series

Nobody wants to make an enemy of their hairdresser, so when her stylist Stella Lake asks her friend Lacey Smithsonian to attend a viewing, she goes. The dead woman is a young hairdresser named Angie who has a bald do and cut wrists. The police think she committed suicide especially with the bloody note written on her mirror in the salon. Stella knows that Angie was murdered and she wants her reporter friend Lacey to prove it.Lacey is a fashion columnist not an investigative reporter and at first rejects the idea out of hand. After thinking about it, she realizes that Angie's hair is missing. She writes a column about Angie and through a combination of circumstances finds herself in the middle of the investigation especially when another hair dresser dies and Lacey is the only one who sees the link. She continues to dig for information and ends up being stalked by a killer who wants to make her his next victim.The protagonist's running commentary on social mores in Washington D.C. is hilarious and her pithy observations about fashion and its relationship with scandal, the law and murder will have readers in tears of laughter (don't wear fashionable mascara). The who-done-it is intelligently plotted and there is a plethora of suspects who could be the guilty party. The audience will go crazy trying to figure out who the killer is while the heroine goes nuts trying to figure out if a sexy security guard from her past is interested in her or her murder theory.Harriet Klausner