Ellen Byerrum is a novelist, playwright, reporter, former Washington journalist, and a graduate of private investigator school in Virginia. The Dollhouse in the Crawlspace, is her 12th book and her first thriller, the story of a women with memories of being two very different people. Waking out of a fog in a world she doesn't understand, she must undertake a dangerous and potentially deadly journey to find out who she really is.

Byerrum’s Crime of Fashion mysteries star a savvy, stylish female sleuth named Lacey Smithsonian. Lacey is a reluctant fashion reporter in Washington D.C. (which she calls "The City Fashion Forgot"). Two of the Smithsonian books, Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, were filmed for television by the Lifetime Movie Network. The 10th book in the COF series is Lethal Black Dress.

Her middle grade mystery, The Children Didn’t See Anything, features a pair of precocious 12-year-old twins, Evangeline and Raphael Bresette. This story was inspired from an incident in Byerrum’s youth involving a country club, a brother, and a dead body. She is at work on her next project.