Jane Reads: Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogan

The Blurb

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 [reviewed here].

Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogan
Series: A Washington Whodunit, #3

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Publication Date: July 15, 2017

Publisher: Camel Press

Paperback: 272 pages

ISBN-10: 1603813357
ISBN-13: 978-1603813358

eBook File Size: 2141 KB

ASIN: B073QZ622R

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The Excerpt

My Fitbit buzzed, its annoying way of reminding me it was time to get moving. Somehow Gertrude Harper had managed to remain slim without jogging around Dupont Circle. I wasn’t so fortunate.

I turned away from her portrait to head back toward the main staircase. In the far corner of the room near the entrance to the club’s library, I spotted a man’s dress shoe. How odd. The Continental Club wasn’t the type of place where patrons had one too many glasses of wine and lost their footwear en route to bed. That went double for the Mayflower Society crowd who occupied the vast majority of suites inside the building.

Curiosity got the better of me. The library entrance was adjacent to another Continental Club treasure I’d wanted to check out, the bronze bust of Benjamin Franklin. During the Second World War, when the club met inside Dolley Madison’s former house, the Franklin statue adorned the room where key discussions about nuclear fission and the atomic bomb took place. Now it resided on a perfectly engineered pedestal in front of a prominent arched window, inviting photographers strolling along the nearby street to take advantage of the striking profile it provided when the light was just right.

I didn’t get much of a chance to admire Franklin or read the detailed inscription at the base of the statue. A guest who’d unwisely overindulged hadn’t abandoned his shoe the night before. Instead, the shoe belonged to a man whose body lay flat on the floor of the library.

The Review

I just read an amazing book, y'all — Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogan. Let me tell you a little about it.

Calamity at the Continental Club is a fun, quick read. It's a great follow-up to Books One and Two in the series, Stabbing in the Senate and Homicide in the House. The protagonist, Kit Marshall, is well-written, believable, and easy to like.

Because of the events chronicled in the earlier books, Kit has acquired a reputation as a sleuth, not that she actively seeks out opportunities for investigation.

"Who said anything about investigating? I had good reasons to get involved in the two murders we encountered on Capitol Hill. The detective on this one seems well equipped to figure out who did this."

"Give me a break, Kit. You're not the least bit interested in solving another homicide? It's practically your second job."

Sometimes Meg knew me better than I knew myself.

In the earlier books, Kit was assisted in her crime-solving by her friends Meg and Trevor, and her dog Clarence. But, often was heard a discouraging word from her boyfriend Doug, who was not at all supportive of her sleuthing. Imagine her surprise in Calamity at the Continental Club, when Doug actively participates in sleuthing with her.

I'd had enough. It was time to find out why Doug felt the need to snoop. "Why are you so hell-bent on learning everything about this murder? You're the one who's always telling me I should mind my own business and not get involved in catching killers. Did you take a potion last night and wake up as Encyclopedia Brown?"

I enjoyed all the pop culture references Author Colleen J. Shogan included in Calamity at the Continental Club. In addition to the aforementioned Encyclopedia Brown, there are mentions of such icons as Jabba the Hutt, Night at the Museum, and Girl Scout Cookies.

The climax is great! Kit and her co-conspirator Meg solve the murder in a most clever and unusual manner. Kit reaps an unexpected and surprising reward from her successful sleuthing. The ending of Calamity at the Continental Club is wonderful. I love the part that Clarence plays in the final scene. He's just the Best Dog ever!

I totally enjoyed Calamity at the Continental Club, and recommend it to all fans of cozy mysteries. I think it will particularly appeal to those who are history buffs or frequent visitors to Washington DC.

I love Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogan, and bestow upon it our highest rating of Five Kitties!

Five out of five kitties

Note: I voluntarily reviewed Calamity at the Continental Club.
All opinions shared are 100% my own.

You can read an Author Guest Post for
Calamity at the Continental Club on my blog for July 25.

The Author

About Colleen J. Shogan

Colleen J. Shogan has been reading mysteries since the age of six. She writes the Washington Whodunit series published by Camel Press.

A political scientist by training, Colleen has taught American politics at Yale, George Mason University, Georgetown, and Penn. She previously worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative staffer in the United States Senate and as the Deputy Director of the Congressional Research Service. She's currently a senior executive at the Library of Congress, working on great outreach initiatives such as the National Book Festival. Colleen lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Rob Raffety and their beagle mutt, Conan.

Find Colleen on the web at

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