Crime of Fashion Mysteries
11 primary works
Book 1
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 Angie is found with a drastic haircut and a razor in her hand, the police assume she committed suicide. Lacey knew the stylist and suspects something more sinister-that the story may lie with Angie’s star client, a White House staffer with a salacious website. With the help of a hunky ex-cop, Lacey must root out the truth…
Book 2
When fashion columnist Lacey Smithsonian learns that a new fashion museum will soon grace decidedly unfashionable D.C., it's more than a good story-it's a chance to show off her vintage Hugh Bentley suit. And it's not long before the dapper designer himself spots Lacey in the crowd. A reporter at heart, she manages to get all the juicy details about his past-including a long-unsolved mystery about a missing employee. Could it be linked to the disappearance of a Washington intern or the recent Bentley boutique robbery? Lacey sets out to unravel the murderous details in a fabric of lies, greed-and (gasp!) very bad taste...
Book 3
As makeover madness sweeps the nation's capital, reporter Lacey Smithsonian interviews TV show makeover success story Amanda Manville. But with Amanda's beauty comes a beast in the form of a stalker with vicious intentions—and Lacey may be the only one who can stop him.
Book 4
Lacey is busting with excitement for her first trip to France. She’ll be with her friend Magda Rousseau, corset creator for D.C.’s wealthiest (and kinkiest) citizens. And—best of all—the trip’s on her newspaper’s dime, since she’ll supposedly be there to report on haute couture.
The real reason for the trip, though, is the Rousseau family mystère: the whereabouts of a lost corset lined with jewels supposedly stolen from Russia after the assassination of Czar Nicholas’s family. But just before the big adventure, someone poisons Magda. Could it have something to do with the priceless corset?
To find out, Lacey must follow a thread from Normandy to New Orleans....
Book 5
Book 6
Trench coats— hot or not?
Unchallenged and unappreciated, fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian slips on her trench coat and high-heeled gumshoes to pursue a course in private investigation and a shot at a better job.
When a wealthy and erratic D.C. socialite is discovered quite dead outside the classroom, Lacey gets to test those sleuthing skills. Was the victim on her way to share a dangerous secret with Smithsonian? And what does it have to do with a missing Louis Vuitton vintage custom makeup case?
Lacey must mix style with substance to unravel these tangled threads before she, or one of her best friends, gets caught in the sights of a cold-blooded killer…
Book 7
Fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian is touring a failing velvet factory in Virginia on its final day of operations-and finds one of the factory owners dead, lashed to a spool of velvet and soaked in blue dye.
The workers are delighted, since they blamed the "Blue Devil" for killing their jobs. But when another nickname, the "Velvet Avenger", makes the rounds, and ribbons of blue velvet start popping up, it could be more than Lacey's job at stake-it could be her life...
Book 8
When fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian moved to Washington, D.C., from rugged, small town Sagebrush, Colorado, she thought she’d never look back. But when her former boyfriend, cattle rancher Cole Tucker, is arrested for the murders of three women, Lacey digs her cowboy boots out of her closet and hops on the next plane.
She is certain of Tucker’s innocence, until he abducts her during a daring courthouse escape. Is Tucker capable of murder, too? Or is there a larger conspiracy in the small town? Lacey needs to rustle up all the help she can get for this case before her old flame is snuffed out for good…
Book 9
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….
SHAWL TALE
Washington, D.C., fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian has always believed clothes can be magical, but she’s never thought they can be cursed. Until now. Lacey’s best friend, Stella, is finally getting married, and at her bachelorette party, fellow bridesmaid—and fortune-teller—Marie Largesse arrives with a stunning Russian shawl. A shawl, Marie warns, that can either bless or curse the wearer. When a party crasher who mocks the shawl is found dead the next day, the other guests fear the curse has been unleashed. But Lacey has her doubts, and she must employ all her Extra-Fashionary Perception to capture a villain who has vowed that nobody at this wedding will live happily ever after….
Book 10
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?
Book 11
Behind the Masque of Murder
Fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian has never seen such a gown. The 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 emigre 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. Assaults, burglary and murder follow this stunning gown wherever it goes. But who would want it enough to kill for it? Crazy theatre people? Costume collectors? Or even Russian spies?
In Washington, D.C., Lacey discovers, spycraft and stagecraft seem to have much in common. Shadows and deceptions lead her and the Red Dress into a macabre dance with an assassin--and a masquerade with death.