Washington D.C. – Valerie's Musings

16 years ago today, the United States experienced the worst act of terrorism on our soil (not necessarily the worst ever in the world, but the worst on our soil). Over 3000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001. It’s a day that as Americans, we will never forget.

I certainly will never forget it. I was working as an administrative assistant at a substance abuse treatment center. We were all (clients, staff, everyone) in a seminar about HIV/AIDS. Shortly after the seminar got started, my boss’s mother paged her. She excused herself to go call her mom and when she came back she handed me a note that said “a plane just flew into the World Trade Center”. I looked at her and whispered “Really?!” and she nodded. I don’t think I could tell you a single thing that was discussed in the seminar that day.

We concluded the seminar and turned on the television we had in one of the treatment rooms. We were just in time to see the first building fall. God, my heart just stopped in my chest. And then seeing the destruction of the Pentagon and knowing that it was only the bravery of the men and women on Flight 93 that saved the U.S. Capitol from a similar fate.

While many places I knew closed for the rest of the day, we remained open because we wanted to give our clients plenty of time to talk about their feelings about what was going on. We didn’t want them to relapse over this horrible tragedy (we ended up having one relapse, but the majority of our guys held firm in their recovery).

Even now, 16 years later, it’s still hard to grasp the enormity of lives lost that day. The number of heroes that gave their lives so others might live, both those in uniform and civilians. It’s one of those times that bonds us together as humans. Everyone I know can tell you exactly where they were when the planes hit the towers and the Pentagon, and when the towers fell.

There are memorials for all three sites of destruction, tho’ I haven’t been to them yet. Someday I will be able to visit them. Until then, I will continue to remember what happened 16 years ago.

4 out of 5 stars

Today I’m happy to be bringing you a stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours blog tour for Calamity at the Continental Club by Colleen J. Shogan. I enjoyed this book quite a bit and look forward to reading more from this author!

Purchase Links: Amazon – B&N

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.

Review

This was an interesting and fascinating book. I’m looking forward to reading the other books in the series!

I enjoyed Kit, Doug, Trevor, Meg and all the other characters in this book. They’re rich, complex, and well-developed. Their antics and their chemistry kept me interested in the story throughout. I’m not a fan of the rich elite, so some of the side characters got on my nerves, but they were well-written. It was just my personal preferences getting in the way.

The plot line moved along at a steady pace, though it did seem a bit slow at times. I still enjoyed the story, but there were a couple of places where it just seemed to drag and I wanted it to move faster. However, I had no idea who was the villain until the end of the book, so the pace didn’t change that at all.

While still considered a cozy, I felt more like I was reading a logic puzzle than a cozy mystery. I don’t mean this in a bad way. I enjoyed the fact that it was more of a puzzle than other mysteries I’ve read. It felt a lot like Agatha Christie’s mysteries. I’m looking forward to reading the others in the series.

I highly recommend this series to cozy lovers and especially to those who love Agatha Christie’s mysteries!

About the Author

Colleen Shogan has been reading mysteries since the age of six. A political scientist by training, Colleen has taught American politics at Yale, George Mason, Georgetown, and Penn. She previously worked in the United States Senate and for 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. She lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Rob Raffety and their beagle mutt, Conan.

Author Links

Webpage – www.colleenshogan.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/washingtonwhodunit

Twitter – www.twitter.com/cshogan276

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1269678.Colleen_J_Shogan

Thanks for joining me today on another great blog tour adventure! If you want to visit the other stops on the blog tour, please click on the banner below! It’ll take you to the main tour page!

Tag: Washington D.C.

Remembering…