Hostile Makeover (Crime of Fashion Series #3) by Ellen Byerrum
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(Mass Market Paperback)
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- 288pp
- Sales Rank: 19,893
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: August 2005
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
- Format: Mass Market Paperback, 288pp
- Sales Rank: 19,893
- Series: Crime of Fashion Series, #3
- ISBN-13: 9780451216168
- ISBN: 0451216164
Synopsis
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.
Publishers Weekly
What if a radical plastic surgery makeover changed its subject's personality for the worse? Byerrum asks in her playful third Crime of Fashion mystery. Street-smart D.C. fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian meets uber diva Amanda Manville (a former ugly duckling whose appearance on TV's The Chrysalis Factor made her a supermodel overnight), while covering Amanda's new clothing line for the Eye Street Observer. Amanda's tendencies to slap assistants and take credit for her sister Zoe's designs are no big sin compared to the death threats Amanda receives daily-and she asks Lacey to investigate. After a murder occurs, Lacey's sheltered mother and sister drop in, putting the brakes on Lacey's romantic weekend with protective cop Vic Donovan and making the case a family affair. A revolving door of quirky characters like donut-scarfing "death-and-dismemberment" reporter Harlan Wiedemeyer keep the plot skipping happily along, and inside jokes about Burberry accessories in Washington are snicker-worthy. The unsurprising conclusion is a bit silly, but the read is as smooth as fine-grade cashmere on an autumn day in the Federal City. Agent, Donald Maass. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and RecommendationsCustomer Reviews
Hostile Makeover: A Crime of Fashion Mysteryby Anonymous
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August 10, 2005: Ellen Byerrum pulls another superlative Crime of Fashion out of her vintage cloche, simultaneously sticking a hatpin in America's spinning-out-of-control passion for makeovers. Now, Byerrum spins a mystery out of (very luxurious) whole cloth with the best of them, featuring characters we come to know and love a little bit more each time (Lacey Smithsonian, her boss Mac, sometime paramour Vic, best friend Brooke) and even some we've come to know and not love (evildoer-with-sugar-and-chocolate, food editor Felicity). But her talent for creating memorable one-off and secondary characters is positively Dickensian. This time, we meet devil's spawn dress designer Amanda Manville, who won a makeover contest that turned her as ugly on the inside as she became beautiful on the outside Tate Penfield, Amanda's secretive ex-fiance jinxman Harlan Wiedermyer (read the first couple of paragraphs of the book and laugh out loud) my favorite new characters, Lacey's mom Rose and her former cheerleader sister Cherise and on down to a waitress in a donut shop spotting her potential 15 minutes of fame. All these wonderful characters combine with Byerrum's gift for clever plotting and snappy dialogue to fashion a perfectly entertaining, keep-em-guessing-til-the-end whodunit. I look forward to each installment in Ellen Byerrum's Crimes of Fashion series. Be sure to read the first two Lacey Smithsonian novels, DESIGNER KNOCKOFF and KILLER HAIR, if HOSTILE MAKEOVER is your first. Just by coincidence, Bob Woodward's book on Deep Throat happened to be the book I read right before this new book of Ellen's. This DC expatriate will take Lacey Smithsonian's wacky Washington world any day of the week over the real Washington, DC, of Watergate and other, more recent, evildoings.
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