Bøger af Ellen Byerrum

It's 1934. PROHIBITION IS OVER!Champagne corks are popping and guns are blazing!When Broadway's hot new female playwright crosses paths with a handsome (and mysterious) private eye, there will be drama (and comedy too.)"It occurred to me that if I hadn't tried to do a good deed and return the gold watch Mr. Scavullo left at the lunch counter, a strange man wouldn't be holding me at gunpoint. That was the problem with good deeds. Unintended consequences."Comedy, mystery, and romance intertwine in a frothy mix in CROOK TALES FOR TWO, a caper set in New York City in 1934 with an Art Deco verve. Prohibition is over and those with money pop the bubbly, dance the nights away, and attend the latest plays.Mere days before her first Broadway opening, playwright Esmé de LaForet discovers what happens when good deeds go awry: murder, mobsters, reporters, dangerous dames from high and low society, and nerve-wracking opening nights. Esmé has enough on her plate. She doesn't need the complications that come when she tries to return a lost watch to its owner, a man she's seen at church. There's a lot about this Scavullo guy she doesn't know. She follows him with the watch and sees him duck into an empty school, so she does the same. That's when shots ring out and she seeks safety in a supply closet, only to be discovered by a stranger--with a pistol in his hand. He claims to be one of the good guys, but he's dressed like a flashy mobster.Scavullo's murder kicks off their first meeting with a bang, and Esmé finds herself playing cat-and-mouse with this secretive stranger, private investigator Graydon Chase, while coping with gold-digging debutantes, mothers and butlers, lurking mobsters, and a major dose of romantic chemistry. This detecting duo dig, clash, crash, and match wits, while juggling temperamental-yet-dramatic actors, unpredictable gangsters, and a deadly virus sweeping the city. Oh, and with Esme's life at risk from an unknown killer, she might also be trying to dodge a case of love.CROOK TALES FOR TWO is an effervescent, fun and delightful read with a stylish Nick-and-Nora vibe.

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.

Grandma thinks the children didn't see anything, but they saw EVERYTHING that day at the club. Meet inquisitive Evangeline. She's one-half of the precocious twelve-year-old Bresette twins. Their summer plans? The usual: Swim. Play. Squabble. Try to cope with their exasperating lawyer parents. But then a woman dies at the country club, and Evangeline notices something curious: The corpse is missing a pair of diamond earrings.Just an accidental death and petty theft? Or murder? No one but Evangeline thinks the death is suspicious, and she wants the truth. Her twin brother Raphael wants to leave it to the grown-ups, but the grown-ups haven't a clue. Armed with her wits, her curiosity, and her Barbie Doll Crime Scene Reconstruction Team, Evangeline launches her own investigation into the mystery.She discovers her search for the truth will be far more dangerous than she ever imagined.

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 sweaters. The food editor refuses to bake the usual seasonal treats. The office Grinch is brutally assaulted with a giant candy cane, and Lacey's only witness is a homeless child in a stolen shepherd's robe. And who's getting blamed for "ruining Christmas"? Lacey, of course. Christmas in Washington, D.C., is a glitzy season of celebration. But Lacey's encounter with the little lost shepherd sends her on a quest that reveals a tragic side of the holidays: There's no room at the inn for the cold, the hungry, and the homeless. Lacey must search the snowy back alleys of D.C. on an urgent mission to rescue a homeless child - and to keep a killer from ruining Christmas.

"FIND THE CORSET!" A dying corset maker's last words send Lacey Smithsonian across the sea on a high-stakes scavenger hunt-and a race against the old woman's killer.Magda Rousseau's dark family secret: Her grandfather had stolen the jewel-filled corset of a dead Romanov princess. Who wouldn't kill for it? The fabled lost corset would be the find-and the fashion story-of the century. For Lacey this treasure hunt also means a trip to Paris, the City of Light, and a break from her romantic woes."Bloody thread, knock 'em dead!" Magda's favorite saying, a theatre costumer's good-luck wish. If the seamstress pricks her finger sewing a costume, her drop of blood ensures the play's success. But murder ends Magda's luck, and her dream of finding the legendary corset.Lacey must follow a twisted thread of clues across two continents, tangling with jewel thieves, spies, and her fellow treasure hunters. But will Magda's "bloody thread" finally lead her to the fabulous lost corset? Or bring her face to face with a killer?

"Fashion scribe Lacey Smithsonian has never seen such a gown. This dress is crimson, flowing, fabulous, and infamous. The actress who first wore it on stage died on closing night--playing Death in 'The Masque of the Red Death' at a Russian aemigrae theatre. Is the notorious red dress cursed with bad luck? Or is the truth even stranger? It's up to Lacey and her so-called ExtraFashionary Perception to find out once and for all. If the Red Dress of Death doesn't get her first..."--Back cover.

Originally published: New York: Signet, 2004.

If you lost your memories, would you lose your soul? "In my memories, my eyes are always green." Following a devastating accident, a young woman finds herself recovering in a memory research facility near Washington, D.C., in this new psychological suspense thriller. Her eyes are brown, not green as she remembers; her memories are broken ." She struggles to recover her memory and identity. The crash, her recent past, years of her life? It's mostly blank, She begins to remember being not one, but two very different women. Which one is real? Is she Tennyson or Marissa? Or neither one? If she can't trust her mind, her doctor, or her own eyes, who can she trust? To save her sanity, she begins writing a secret journal between the lines of a forgotten copy of Homer's Odyssey. To save her life, she begins her own harrowing odyssey into the secrets of her past and present. Note: Formerly titled The Dollhouse in the Crawspace Reviews: An ingeniously crafted psychological thriller that bewitches on page one and continues to mesmerize until its shocking conclusion. Fans of The Girl on the Train will love it. -- Best Thrillers This book delivers with spot-on pacing and a voice that pulls you in and grips you. And it's deliciously creepy! What more could you want from a suspense novel? ---Author Mollie Cox Bryan

LACEY SMITHSONIAN PROMISES her new guy, Vic, she'll try to stay out of trouble. Long enough for a big romantic weekend getaway, at least. But on Lacey's crazy Washington DC fashion beat, trouble follows her like static cling on a silk skirt. First she scores a hot interview: reality TV star Amanda Manville, whose miracle surgical makeover has morphed her into a Supermodel Diva From Hell. Amanda has enemies, secrets, stalkers, and death threats, and she begs Lacey to find out who's trying to kill her. More trouble! Lacey's mother and sister land in DC, plotting an "extreme makeover" on her entire life. And worse: Vic's ex is in town too, and she wants him back-bad. What's a sensible fashion reporter to do?! Stride stylishly into harm's way! To save the day, Lacey must dodge screaming divas, drive-by shootings, a speeding stolen car (her own!), grumpy homicide cops, and even the newspaper's infamous office jinx. And she might discover that makeovers really can be murder.

STOLEN SUGAR, ILLEGAL MOONSHINE AND RATIONING converge in murder in wartime Washington, D.C. as a young woman from out West teams up with a cop and a Navy-bound country boy to trap a murderer everyone has been happy to see.