Calamity at the Continental Club (Washington Whodunit)
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Camel Press (July 1, 2017)
Paperback: 272 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1603813358

Synopsis

The Mayflower Society is about to hold its annual meeting at Washington D.C.’s swanky gathering place for the elite, the Continental Club. That means Kit Marshall’s upper-crust future in-laws, Buffy and Winston Hollingsworth, are coming for a visit. Annoyed that Kit has not set a date to marry Doug, Buffy wants her to commit to a high society wedding at the club. Kit, though chief of staff for a congresswoman, feels uncomfortable with Buffy and Winston’s crowd.

Kit receives an unexpected reprieve in the form of murder. En route to her morning jog, she encounters the corpse of the leader of the Mayflower Society, conservative multimedia tycoon Grayson Bancroft. On the security cameras, no one was seen entering or leaving the club, which means the culprit had to be an overnight guest. Little love was lost on Bancroft, but the police have their prime suspect: Doug’s father.

Buffy and Winston, formerly disdainful of Kit’s sleuthing, urge her to investigate. With her future in-laws’ freedom and reputations at stake, Kit sets out once again to solve a murder mystery, this time aided by her fiancé Doug in addition to her friends Meg and Trevor and her dog Clarence. Her search for clues will take her from the club to the Smithsonian Museum, the National Archives, and Mount Vernon.

Book 3 of the Washington Whodunit series, which began with Stabbing in the Senate and continued with Homicide in the House.

Guest Post

Museums, Archives, and Historical Homes:  Oh My!

The third installment of the Washington Whodunit series finds our amateur sleuth extraordinaire, Kit Marshall, in unfamiliar territory. Kit is a congressional staffer who deeply understands the haunts and characters of Capitol Hill. In Calamity at the Continental Club, Kit solves the murder of a billionaire Washington, D.C. cultural philanthropist. Consequently, her chase to find the killer takes her to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, the National Archives, and Mount Vernon. The cast of characters couldn’t be more different from the politicians she’s used to dealing with – but that doesn’t mean they’re less deadly.

I wrote this book at a time when I was making a transition in my own career. From 2005 until 2015, my “day job” revolved around providing policy analysis and support to Members of Congress. I worked in the United States Senate for almost three years and seven more at the Congressional Research Service. But then I switched gears and accepted a senior leadership position at the Library of Congress, focusing on the consolidation and promotion of the Library’s successful public programs. The new gig enabled me to learn about the challenges of cultural institution management, including exhibit design, visitor services, development, and educational/scholarly support. There’s still a lot to learn, and most days offer opportunities for growth and creativity. Above all, I like that my job is focused on finding ways that Americans of diverse backgrounds can interact with the Library’s tremendous collections and resources.

When I began to sketch the plot of my next mystery, it made a lot of sense to incorporate several of my favorite local cultural institutions. As part of the preparation for writing the book, I scoured each of the locations as a typical tourist, absorbing the sights and experiencing the crowds. Each site provides Kit with one or more clues about the identity of the killer, so be sure to pay special attention when she visits these historic Washington, D.C. gems.  I hope you like reading Calamity at the Continental Club as much as I enjoyed the on-the-ground research!

About the Author

Colleen J. Shogan is a senior executive at the Library of Congress. She is the former deputy director of the Congressional Research Service and previously served as a staffer in the United States Senate. A political scientist by training, Colleen has taught American government at Georgetown University, Penn, and George Mason. Colleen is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her BA from Boston College and her doctorate from Yale. A member of Sisters in Crime, she lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband Rob Raffety and their rescue mutt, Conan. Her first book, Stabbing in the Senate, won the Next Generation Indie Award for Best Mystery in 2016.

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