. arts and dining .
the LITERARY HILL A Compendium of Readers, Writers, Books, & Events by Karen Lyon
Dad Jokes, Illustrated
teacher who adopted DC as her second home when she moved here in 2011. She provided the endearing Hill Rag cover that featured a colorfully attired child at one of the iconic aqua distribution boxes. Other samples of her work, including sprightly illustrations of local landmarks like the Tune Inn, Radici, and East City Book Shop, can be found at www.lidflutters.com.
It only takes a few pages into “Good Jokes Bad Drawings” before you realize that something’s screwy. These jokes are anything but good—in fact, they’re really awful—but the drawings… well, they’re downright inspired. Welcome to the Vineyard provides visual acworld of Christine Vine- Christine companiments to more than 125 “dad Capitol Hill yard, “where everything jokes” in “Good Jokes Bad Drawings.” is a joke, right down to Quagmire the title.” “Welcome again to Vineyard says she the Library of Conloves cheese—“the gress,” says the head cheesier and cornier, the librarian to Hill staffer better!”—and her new Kit Marshall. “It’s the book provides abunlargest library in the dant proof of her pasworld. And now…” sion. Know what you call she said, swallowing cheese that’s not yours? hard, “the scene of a Nacho cheese. Did you ghastly murder.” hear about the kidnapIn “Larceny at ping at school? It’s okay, the Library,” Colleen he woke up. What did the fish say when it ran into Shogan’s latest mystery, Kit and her the wall? Dam. friends are faced with their biggest These and more than 125 other groaners are acchallenge yet: finding out who beaned companied by Vineyard’s delightfully whimsical wathe Assistant Librarian of Congress tercolors. Her rendering of the overweight psychic with a bust of Thomas Jefferson and (i.e., the “four chin teller”) is alone worth the price made off with some priceless items of the book, but every illustration is a little gem, refrom Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on flecting not only Vineyard’s goofy sense of humor the night he was assassinated. but also her consummate skill with a paintbrush. PerAdding to the pressure is the fact fectly timed to coincide with removing our masks, that Kit’s husband, Doug, is suspect“Good Jokes Bad Drawings” provides a great excuse ed of the crime. “It was bad enough to let loose with those big grins we’ve been hiding all trying to solve a homicide, but now these months. Head slapping is optional. I had to clear my husband,” she laChristine Vineyard is a visual artist and art ments. Happily, the amateur sleuth of 82 H HILLRAG.COM
Capitol Hill and her trusty entourage never pass up a snooping opportunity (or a happy hour). “We’ve found ourselves in several quagmires in the past,” she modestly admits, before retiring to Bullfeathers for a round of libations. In “Larceny at the Library,” there’s no dearth of suspects—including a member of Congress—and Kit and her cohorts have their hands full, checking out alibis that “have more holes than Swiss cheese” and exploring the “eccentricities and foibles” of a host of characters. Could the guilty party be an insider with a grudge? A demented history buff ? A terrorist? Even the magnificent architecture of the Jefferson Building can’t disguise the fact that there’s some ugliness afoot. “This is the Library of Congress,” says one suspect. “People don’t die here. This is where they come to learn.” But will Kit learn the truth in time to save her husband’s reputation, let alone herself ? In Colleen Shogan’s “Larceny at the In the end, it becomes a race Library,” the stakes are high but to find the killer before the amateur sleuth Kit Marshall and killer finds her. her team are up to the challenge. Colleen Shogan previously worked as a staffer in the US Senate and as a senior executive at the Library of Congress. She is currently the Senior Vice President at the White House Historical Association and Director of the David Rubenstein Center for White House History. This is her sixth Washington Whodunit mystery, with
