Overall, what did you think of The Cloak and Dagger Club? (No spoilers in this topic, please.)
This was a fun, golden-age mystery based on the real life detective group with Dorothy Sayers. It felt like a modern version of an Agatha Christie with its glamorous period settings and old-fashioned detective work. The characters felt like real people with flaws, motivations, and secrets. Overall, it worked. The victim was a terrible person. The way they worked the case made sense. It was a bit predictable, but still fun. There was only one character that didn’t serve a real purpose, in my opinion, and that was Rita. She was a pretty thin foil and the author could have done more with her or trimmed her back.
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This book was delightful. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a mystery, a story of a broken relationship, a romance and of course a “who done it”. I liked all the members of the club and I enjoyed figuring out each of their secrets. This is book one of a series. I am looking forward to reading more from this author 
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I enjoyed this book since I like a good mystery. The book kept me guessing and looking for clues. However, I did discover the author fooled me at times.
I enjoyed it. To me it fell into the “cozy” mystery genre because once I snuggled to read I had to finish.
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I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t feel much of a period piece setting until later in the story, but that did not disappoint me. The more pages I turned the more I enjoyed the story. I read quite a lot of Dorothy L Sayers when I was in high school, many years ago, and this brought back those wonderful mysteries. I will eagerly await the next installment!
Riveting and Rewarding - The Masters at Work. Superlative sleuthing by a team of professionals keeps you turning the pages and burning the midnight oil to follow it to the solution.
I enjoyed it. I thought the author did a good job with character development.
I enjoyed the book, which I found to be very much a cozy mystery which is exactly what I was in the mood for when I picked it up. There were some bits that were fairly predictable but I admit to not figuring out “whodunnit” before all was revealed, but sometimes I want the mystery to unfold rather than trying to spot the murderer. Despite the time period–London during the 1930’s–I felt like it took place earlier; also wondered about some of the verbiage that sounded more modern than the 1930’s. Overall, I’d recommend it to those who enjoy “quieter” mysteries.
I really enjoyed the action that took place at the Ritz, especially in the bar. Marcel was a classic.
I really enjoyed this book. I love a good cozy mystery, (especially during a thunderstorm, of course), and this one absolutely fit the bill. Seeing the way Lucy came into her own as the book progressed was my favorite part.
I thought this was a fun read in the golden-age mystery style.
I enjoyed the historical setting, engaging characters, and the mystery that kept me guessing until the end. The one weak spot was the ending, and without giving anything away, the author could have more clearly explained how all the characters came to converge on the murderer’s house, it felt a little rushed and hard to follow.
I read the book through twice, trying to decide how I felt about it. I enjoyed the mystery, which kept me switching between suspects several times. I also liked the members of Cloak and Dagger Club group. I was glad to see Lucy grow in confidence and strength as the mystery unfolded. Frank, however, was a disappointing choice for a hero. I thought that he was pretty much a waste of space, and that Lucy could do much better. On an editorial note, there is no way a newspaper article from the 1930s would use the modern, politically correct terms “Ms.” or “spokesperson.” Their usage seemed jarring.
When Lucy Hubbard’s first mystery novel goes best-seller, she’s excited to be invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of British crime fiction, to join the exclusive Cloak and Dagger Club, a group of select mystery writers. One of those writers is Frank Murray, Lucy’s former fiance, and the break-up was a bad one. On the night of Lucy’s first meeting with the group , Horace is found murdered, and everyone in the group is a suspect. When the police settle on Frank as the leading suspect, Lucy teams with Frank to solve the mystery. The characters are quirky and interesting, and they all have secrets. The pacing of the story is excellent, and (as is NOT always the case) the details of the investigation are specific enough to let the reader know what happened, but not so gruesome as to be off-putting. This was a quick and engaging reading experience and suspenseful to the end.
I found it quite slow at the beginning because the stage was being set; but the farther I got the more I enjoyed it. There was a lot of discommunication between Frank and Lucy which I find frustrating, but all in all a good mystery.
I enjoyed both the mystery and the romance. It’s been decades since I read Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and others from the golden age of detective stories, so this was a fun way to return to the genre. She followed the “rules” for the writers pretty well - clues were there in the story, no unreliable narrators here. Lucy followed a pretty good story of development of backbone and bravery in the course of her detecting.
I liked the descriptions of 1930s England at the Ritz. Both the murderer and the victim were satisfying characters and the drama leading up the apprehension of the true murderer was well done. A tightly constructed first novel and I look forward to reading the next installment in the series and seeing her mature as a writer.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this caper. The main characters were interesting and believable. I became invested in finding out if they would solve the murder and how their relationship would progress. And I liked the peripheral characters like Badgers and even Rita. Great setting and fun read!
I agree I also changed my mind several times on who the suspect was. Good catch on the Ms reference
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