A Cloak and Dagger Club Mystery Series

When a group of elite mystery writers publish a list of unforgivable sins in detective fiction, the crime of bad writing leads to actual murder.

Inspired by Agatha Christie’s real-life Detection Club!

June, 1931. Frank and Lucy Murray have become the most famous married couple in the crime writing world. With the media’s interest in their relationship bordering on intrusive, all eyes are on the Murrays and their colleagues in the Cloak and Dagger Club, London’s elite group of Britain’s finest mystery authors. The club has recently published their tongue-in-cheek set of rules for crime writing, entitled “The Cardinal Rules of Crime.” Inspired by plot sins they’ve identified in the works of other popular writers, the rules lay out the blueprint for the “fair play” mystery—first and foremost, all clues must be present for the reader to be able to solve the crime themselves.

The rules have generated both praise and backlash. Readers appreciate them, sick of nonsensical plot twists and crucial evidence reveals at the eleventh hour. But they’ve angered many of their author peers, guilty themselves of lazy writing and furious at the hits to their reputations. When two murders occur, each corresponding in a macabre way with the first two of rules, Frank, Lucy, and their creative colleagues must catch a killer amongst a group of maligned, mediocre mystery writers.

Inspired by Agatha Christie’s real-life Detection Club, a murder among a group of golden age mystery writers meets a second chance romance in this debut novel from author Jackie McMahon.

London, 1930. Lucy Hubbard is on the cusp of achieving her dreams. With her first mystery novel debuting with strong sales and glowing reviews, she’s been invited by Horace Hazelmoor, the king of crime fiction, to join his elite group of writers—the Cloak and Dagger Club.

Thrilled at the opportunity, Lucy finds herself swept up into Horace’s glamorous world at the Ritz hotel. She’s even willing to put up with the inconvenient presence of her former fiancé, Frank Murray, the club’s rising star who is on track to eclipse Horace as Britain’s most popular crime writer.

But when Horace is found with a knife in his back, Frank is the police’s prime suspect. Despite their complicated history, Lucy knows he’s not capable of murder. With suspects galore and the danger rising, these two mystery writers must race to solve the crime—and fight their lingering feelings for each other—before the murderer strikes again.