The Drop-Dead Chic Woman Behind the Summer Novel All the It Girls Love: Plum Sykes Does Texas (and Lives to Brag About It)

Plum Sykes has always been drop-dead chic. It’s fitting then that her third novel is a murder mystery. Party Girls Die in Pearls is not a crime novel though. It’s a glitzy crime comedy, dripping with Sykes’ signature satire and unrestrained glamour.

The author, a Vogue contributing editor, and socialite stopped by Burberry Northpark in Dallas and the Burberry in Houston Galleria earlier this month to toast to the launch of her new book, which released May 9.

Plum Sykes is a longtime friend of the fashion house, and is holding launch parties at select Burberry stores across the country. Nasiba Adilova hosted the event at Burberry Northpark, where guests were invited to mingle with the author, and shop the brand’s new DK88 bag collection. A portion of the evening’s proceeds were donated to TWO x TWO.

True to Sykes’ style, the party was intimate and fashion-filled, bringing out Dallas’ most stylish set, from Tina Craig to Ellen Winspear.

The author looked sharp as ever in a delicate Burberry blouse with lace details, black trousers, and embellished satin pumps. She exudes a particularly British poshness in both her life and her writing.

Her latest novel was partially inspired by Sykes’ tenure at Oxford, where Party Girls takes place.

“I thought Oxford was a great location for a high society drama,” Sykes tells PaperCity. But the author wanted to do “something more than a romantic comedy.”

A devotee of Agatha Christie, Sykes got the idea to take the novel in a dangerous new direction. Despite its grisly premise, Party Girls Die in Pearls is as lighthearted and witty as the author’s previous best-sellers, bringing the excesses of the 1980s back to life. As for page-turning scandal, the bar has been raised.