The Brief Luminous Flight Of The Firefly

Download or read book The Brief Luminous Flight of the Firefly written by Ellen Byerrum and published by Lethal Black Dress Press. This book was released on 2021-12-10 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It's not like it's murder.""Don't kid yourself, sister. People commit all kinds of crimes for all kinds of reasons. There's murder afoot whenever money is involved."Ambitious and idealistic, Mimi Smith leaves her home out west and pauses her college career to work for the war effort in Washington, D.C. She lands an entry-level stenographer's job at the government office that oversees rationing and black-market activities, and a rented room in Alexandria, Virginia. But Mimi's got bigger plans than laboring as a mere stenographer-she has an eye on a slot as an investigator. When she breaks up a group of drunken servicemen harassing a flashily dressed woman at a dance, her instincts kick in. She saves the young woman and tries to get her back on her feet. It's soon clear that the victim, Kitty Hawkins, is what Mimi's grandmother calls a "magdalen," a lady of the evening Kitty is trying to escape that life and outrun the desperate "quivers" she feels breathing down her neck. 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. And someone in Alexandria is murdering magdalens caught up in selling information and stolen goods. Teaming up with a skeptical local policeman and a country boy soon to enter the Navy, Mimi grapples with life, death, and a killer who has set his sights on her. 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.

Download or read book Designer Knockoff written by Ellen Byerrum and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-08-03 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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...

Download or read book Shot Through Velvet written by Ellen Byerrum and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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...

Download or read book Killer Hair written by Ellen Byerrum and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Crimes of Fashion" columnist Lacey Smithsonian delves into her latest mystery when hot new stylist Angie Woods supposedly commits suicide, but Lacey believes otherwise and teams up with a gorgeous ex-cop to find the truth, an investigation that leads her to a congressional staffer. Original.

Download or read book Among a Thousand Fireflies written by Helen Frost and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can a firefly find the one, among so many? Exquisite photographs and poetic text evoke a sense of mystery and magic. On a summer evening, just as the stars blink on, a firefly lands on a flower. Lights start to flash all around her — first one, then three, seven. Hundreds. Thousands. How will she find just one flash among them? And will he see her flash in return? In evocative photographs and lyrical language, Rick Lieder and Helen Frost, creators of the critically acclaimed Step Gently Out and Sweep Up the Sun, offer a true story of how two fireflies come together after finding each other’s light among thousands of others.

Download or read book Silent Sparks written by Sara Lewis and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An informative, entertaining, and beautifully illustrated look at the beloved firefly For centuries, the beauty of fireflies has evoked wonder and delight. Yet for most of us, fireflies remain shrouded in mystery: How do fireflies make their light? What are they saying with their flashing? And what do fireflies look for in a mate? In Silent Sparks, noted biologist and firefly expert Sara Lewis dives into the fascinating world of fireflies and reveals the most up-to-date discoveries about these beloved insects. From the meadows of New England and the hills of the Great Smoky Mountains, to the rivers of Japan and mangrove forests of Malaysia, this beautifully illustrated and accessible book uncovers the remarkable, dramatic stories of birth, courtship, romance, sex, deceit, poison, and death among fireflies. The nearly two thousand species of fireflies worldwide have evolved in different ways—and while most mate through the aerial language of blinking lights, not all do. Lewis introduces us to fireflies that don't light up at all, relying on wind-borne perfumes to find mates, and we encounter glow-worm fireflies, whose plump, wingless females never fly. We go behind the scenes to meet inquisitive scientists who have dedicated their lives to understanding fireflies, and we learn about various modern threats including light pollution and habitat destruction. In the last section of the book, Lewis provides a field guide for North American fireflies, enabling us to identify them in our own backyards and neighborhoods. This concise, handy guide includes distinguishing features, habits, and range maps for the most commonly encountered fireflies, as well as a gear list. A passionate exploration of one of the world's most charismatic and admired insects, Silent Sparks will inspire us to reconnect with the natural world.

Download or read book Hostile Makeover written by Ellen Byerrum and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-08-02 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.