Overview

"""It's not like it's murder,"" Mimi told her boss. ""Don't kid yourself, sister. People commit all kinds of crimes for all kinds of reasons. There's murder afoot whenever money is involved."" In wartime Washington, D.C., stolen sugar, illegal moonshine, ladies of the evening, and shortages of goods converge in murder. It's June 1943, halfway 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. But the flip side of patriotism is hoarding, profiteering, theft, and black marketeering. A young Mimi Smith has gone to Washington to work for the war effort. Yet Mimi's got bigger plans than laboring as a mere stenographer at the government agency that investigates black market activity. When two ""magdalens"" who were selling information and stolen goods are murdered, Mimi traces a connection to a killer that no one else suspects. While others don't care about the women who service the servicemen, Mimi can't turn away from a promise to a friend. She teams up with a skeptical policeman and a country boy soon to enter the Navy to trap a killer that everyone has been happy to see. The Brief Luminous Flight of the Firefly is the prequel to the bestselling Crime of Fashion Mysteries, featuring Lacey Smithsonian. Set decades before Lacey plies her trade as a journalist in D.C., Firefly explores Lacey's Great-aunt Mimi Smith's wartime journey that brought her to Washington, the parallels between the two women, including their love of fashion and the clues people wear without knowing it, and the origins of Mimi's trunk full of mysteries, the trunk Lacey later inherits. And both Mimi and Lacey discover they have a passion for finding out how the story ends."

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9781949582079

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Reviews

Engrossing mystery set in a meticulously researched and fascinating historical context. (Paul Donnelly, award-winning playwright) The story is compelling and mysterious and the attention to everyday historical realities brings the era to life. (Martha Horstman-Evans, award-winning director and playwright) Readers already familiar with the Crime of Fashion series will appreciate the connection between Mimi and Lacey as they learn of Mimi's love for fashion, the origin of the trunk of mysteries, and the two women's love of learning how a story ends, no matter how dangerous the journey. (Claire A. Murray, KRL News & Reviews)

"""Engrossing mystery set in a meticulously researched and fascinating historical context."" (Paul Donnelly, award-winning playwright) ""The story is compelling and mysterious and the attention to everyday historical realities brings the era to life."" (Martha Horstman-Evans, award-winning director and playwright) ""Readers already familiar with the Crime of Fashion series will appreciate the connection between Mimi and Lacey as they learn of Mimi's love for fashion, the origin of the trunk of mysteries, and the two women's love of learning how a story ends, no matter how dangerous the journey."" (Claire A. Murray, KRL News & Reviews)"

Author Information

"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. Readers can follow her online at www.facebook.com/EllenByerrum."

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