Raiders of the Lost Corset: A Crime of Fashion Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Ellen Byerrum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2006

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....

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lacey is intelligent, insightful and spunky...Thoroughly likable." —The Sun (Bremerton, WA)

About the Author

Ellen Byerrum is a journalist in Washington, D.C., and a produced and published playwright. She holds a Virginia private investigator’s registration. A Colorado native, she lives in Virginia with her husband. Visit her Web site at www.ellenbyerrum.com.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet (July 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451219031
• ISBN-13: 978-0451219039
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ellen Byerrum writes the popular Crime of Fashion mysteries set in bustling Washington, D.C., The City That Fashion Forgot. The books feature style scribe Lacey Smithsonian, who wears vintage clothing and solves crimes with fashion clues. While she's always looking for a little respect and a better beat, Lacey examines and comments on style snafus in her Crimes of Fashion columns and Fashion Bites, included in the books.

Coming in February 2012, DEATH ON HEELS brings Lacey back to Sagebrush, Colorado, the scruffy hard-luck boom town where she earned her reporter's spurs. When an old boyfriend is accused of murder, she grabs her cowboy boots and heads West to prove he's innocent in the death of three women, all left barefoot on lonely country roads. The trip also tests whether Lacey has resolved her past romantic feelings.

SHOT THROUGH VELVET(February 2011) takes Lacey to a velvet factory in southern Virginia on its last day of operation where she finds a blue corpse in a vat of dye.

Ellen's series started with KILLER HAIR (2003), followed by DESIGNER KNOCKOFF (2004), HOSTILE MAKEOVER (2005), RAIDERS OF THE LOST CORSET (2006), GRAVE APPAREL (2007), AND ARMED AND GLAMOROUS (2008).

Two of Ellen's books, KILLER HAIR and HOSTILE MAKEOVER, were filmed as Crime of Fashion TV movies and aired on the Lifetime Movie Network in June and July 2009. They are available for download on Amazon.

While researching vintage fashions for her mysteries books, Ellen has collected her own assortment of dresses and suits from the 1940s, but laments her lack of closet space. Ellen has worked in Washington as a reporter, and she holds a private investigator's registration in Virginia. She also writes plays under the pen name "Eliot Byerrum." A CHRISTMAS CACTUS and GUMSHOE RENDEZVOUS are published by and available from Samuel French Inc.

You can find more about Ellen and her books on her website at http://www.ellenbyerrum.com/. Her blog is located at http://ellenbyerrum.livejournal.com. You can also follow Ellen on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EllenByerrum and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EllenByerrum. Thanks for visiting.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Edition to the Crimes of Fashion series. . ., September 3, 2006

By 

Librarian (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raiders of the Lost Corset: A Crime of Fashion Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

What started as an article on corsets and a possible treasure hunt for a missing corset and jewels, turns into a murder mystery when Magda Rousseau, master corset maker, dies in front of Lacey from a stab wound.

Lacey determined to fulfill Magda's dying wish to "find the corset"-a fabled royal corset stuffed with jewels, takes off to Paris and outlying areas with her conspiracy, theory friend Brooke for company. Along the way she encounters Griffin, a British jewel thief, and Kepelov, a former KBG agent, also in pursuit of the treasure. Brooke and Lacey are joined by Damon and Vic in Paris. Brooke and Damon continue working on their various conspiracy theories in the City of Light. Lacey and Vic finally consumate their relationship.

A note leads Lacey to New Orleans, this time with her stylist, Stella, in tow to continue her pursuit of the fabled corset. The Big Easy yields further clues that lead her around the French Quarter, while trying to avoid Griffin and Kepelov, who are back on her trail. Vic joins her New Orleans and with the help of Turtle Dove and his cousins, puts a stop to Griffin and Kepelov's antics. Fellow reporter Tony Trujillo is sent down to "keep an eye" on Lacey, and tries to scoop parts of the story. The mystery concludes in New Orleans with the confession of Magda's killer, and Lacey following a "fashion hunch" finds the corset.

The further development of Lacey and Vic's relationship is a relief after 3 books of them playing cat and mouse. The cast of supporting characters is expanding with the addition of Detective Broadway Lamont, and the continuing saga of Felicity and Harold at work. The author does a great job of weaving friends like Stella, Damon, and Brooke into the story allowing them in on the adventures. Though neighborhood Psychic Marie is still MIA. A reapperance from her would be nice. She was in the first 2 books, had a brief mention in the 3, but seems to have been dropped from the series.

The descriptions of France and New Orleans (pre Hurricane Katrina-as there is no mention of the Hurricane or it's destruction in the book)are fun. In addition, the history of the corsets origins is based on historic fact and completely plausible.

Crimes of Fashion is a series I truly enjoy reading and looking forward to each new book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystere tres bien. Romance internationale. And a pecan pie cake., July 12, 2006

By 

Jay (Pittsburgh PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raiders of the Lost Corset: A Crime of Fashion Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

Ellen Byerrum's RAIDERS OF THE LOST CORSET sends la belle Lacey Smithsonian to Paris and New Orleans on a wild and wacky hidden-gem chase with best friend Brooke and on-again/off-again beau Vic Donovan. Not only is RAIDERS a satisfyingly solved mystery, Byerrum's fourth in her "Crimes of Fashion" series provides a serious Time of Passion for Lacey and Vic. I'm not going to give away any more of the happily-ever-after (or not) than that--just be on the lookout for pecan pie cake.

The penultimate scene is so utterly funny and so truly cinematic, I can't wait to see RAIDERS OF THE LOST CORSET in the movies (I'm seeing Reese Witherspoon as Lacey, and Hugh Jackman as Vic). Whoever stars in the movie, there'll need to be a special "Best inadvertent use of local color in an S&M scene in a mystery-slash-comedy" award that year (and one this year in the Edgars).

RAIDERS is in general the most visually appealing of the Lacey novels, taking place as it does in one of the more artistic pockets of usually helmet-haired DC, the City of Lights, and the pre-Katrina Big Easy. And then there's Lacey and Vic's cake-making scene.

Hard to go wrong with this ajout fabuleux to the Byerrum-Smithsonian catalog.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hilarious crime caper, July 5, 2006

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Raiders of the Lost Corset: A Crime of Fashion Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

The Eye Street Observer "Crime of Fashion" columnist Lacey Smithsonian visits master corsetier Magda Rousseau as she lies dying in her workshop. With her last dying breath she begs Lacey "to find the corset". The two women were heading to France to find the expensive jeweled corset that was stolen by a Latvian soldier when the Bolsheviks killed the royal family.

She journeys to a farmhouse in Monk Saint Michel where Magda's relatives live. Magda believed it was hidden somewhere in the house but Jean-Claude Rousseau tells her that it is nowhere in the in the house and the only room locked up for decades is the coal room. When they remove the nails that keep the door permanently closed, Lacey finds a note with an address on it. There is no such number on the street in but her lover tells her there is a street by the same name in New Orleans. When she gets back to the states, she finds the address and the druggist who works there has an urn for her left there decades ago. A note inside the urn leads her to a crypt that has nothing inside but another address. When she goes there, the proprietor knows nothing about what they are looking for. After nearly being killed, Lacey continues the hunt while avoiding Magda's fate.

This is a hilarious crime caper where one has the clues to find the bejeweled corset. The support cast, including the villains act in such a clichéd manner that reader will find themselves laughing out loud. The heroine is stubborn, intractable and totally adorable as she marches a path through France and New Orleans to find something that might not even exist. Ellen Byerrum has a hit series on her hands with her latest tale.

Harriet Klausner