The Brief Luminous Flight of the Firefly: The 1940s Prequel to THE CRIME OF FASHION MYSTERIES

by Ellen Byerrum

Overview

IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S MURDER, Mimi said.

"Don't kid yourself, sister," her boss growled. "People commit all kinds of crimes for all kinds of reasons. "There's murder afoot whenever money is involved."

It's June 1943 in Washington, D.C., midway through a world war that feels like it will never end. Rationing, victory gardens and making do or doing without have all become a patriotic way of life. Idealistic young Mimi Smith has answered the call of the war effort, laboring at the Office of Price Administration, which runs rationing and polices the black market -- as a stenographer. Mimi longs to move up to an "important job" as an investigator.

When local "magdalens," who may have dabbled in stolen goods start dying, few even care about these women who service the servicemen. But Mimi is burdened with suspicions--and a promise made to a young woman trying to leave that life behind. She teams up with a skeptical cop and a Navy-bound country boy to trap a murderer--a killer everyone has always been happy to see.

The Brief Luminous Flight of the Firefly is the 1940s prequel to Ellen Byerrum's bestselling Crime of Fashion Mysteries, featuring Lacey Smiothsonian. Mimi Smith is Lacey's great-aunt, the famous "Aunt Mimi" who bequeathed to Lacey some of her best assets: her trunk full of memories and mysteries, her flair for vintage style, and her passion for following a story to the very end.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY calls Ellen Byerrum's bestselling Crime of Fashion series "first-rate" and "as smooth as fine-grade cashmere."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949582062
Publisher:	Lethal Black Dress Press
Publication date:	12/10/2021
Series:	Crime of Fashion Mysteries , #12
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	766,750
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

MYSTERY AND THRILLER writer Ellen Byerrum is a former journalist in Washington, D.C., as well as a produced and published playwright. She tries not to repeat herself in her writing and in pursuit of research. She received her private investigator's registration in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Her latest book, The Brief Luminous Flight of the Firefly, is the 1940s prequel to her Crime of Fashion Mysteries, and features a very young Mimi Smith, the "great-aunt Mimi" mentioned throughout the series. Firefly takes place during WWII in Washington, D.C. Byerrum's screwball noir Crime of Fashion Mysteries feature D.C. fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian, whose talent for solving crimes with fashion clues leads her to bodies dyed blue, haunted shawls, and the lost jewel-filled corset of a Romanov princess. Two of her books, Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, were filmed for Lifetime television. Stretching beyond the mystery form, Byerrum has written a stand-alone psychological thriller, The Woman in the Dollhouse, which Best Thrillers says, "bewitches on page one and continues to mesmerize until its shocking conclusion." She has also penned a middle grade mystery, The Children Didn't See Anything. More recently, she published a children's rhyming picture book, Sherlocktopus Holmes: Eight Arms of the Law. In addition to her novels and stories, two of her plays (under the pen name "Eliot Byerrum") have been published by Samuel French, Inc., and are available through Concord Theatricals. Her website is at www.ellenbyerrum.com.