OverDressed for Life

She was tall, with attractive silver blonde hair which refused to be contained in its entirety by a plait, and she wore a suit which was sober only in its coloring; no part of the outfit had escaped little finishing-off touches and Penrose, who had never realized that black could be so expressive, searched in vain for a square inch of plain material; even the gloves on the table were attached to velvet flowers, while the hat, which was too big to go anywhere else but on the floor beside its keeper, was the most creative mourning attire that he had ever seen. What was most remarkable, though, was that Alice Simmons carried it off with a dignity and composure which few people achieved with straight lines and understated simplicity.

– From the novel An Expert in Murder: A Josephine Tey Mystery, by Nicola Upson.

I enjoy mysteries but good ones are very hard to find.  Ms. Upson, a former journalist, has written a series based on the real 1930s mystery writer Josephine Tey. Pretty well written and full of period details.