The body was blue.

Not merely wearing blue, he was blue-and not the blue pallor of death. He was sapphire from head to toe, a deep shade of mood indigo.

The last velvet factory in Virginia is shutting down for good, killing off many jobs and a dying small town. Fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian is there to cover its sad last day on the job. But with her own job in danger and her newspaper in deep financial trouble, this story hits a little too close to home. And the centerpiece of Lacey's factory tour? A dead body found spooled in the velvet, the manager everyone hated: the "Blue Devil" in a vat of blue dye.

Motives, suspects and rumors run riot as murder follows murder. Is this a killer on a purely personal vendetta, or a mysterious "Velvet Avenger" bent on revenge for the velvet workers' shuttered factory and lost jobs? The murderer's calling card is chillingly clear: a blue velvet ribbon. Is the killer just using Lacey for publicity-or is she too on the Avenger's list? As the killer strikes ever nearer, Lacey finds she has much more at stake in this story than just her job.