I must confess....I've never heard of the Algonquin Round Table Or the Vicious Circle. My only excuse is that I have never had more than a cursory interest in the prohibition/flapper/post WW1 era. That may change with this book. Any group of literary/artistic talent acquainted with each other fascinates me and I really enjoyed this novel.I found the witty banter very fun and the tension between the main characters satisfying. The mystery was interesting. Overall, a good read and one I look forward to exploring more of. Maybe I need a new category of cozy on my Goodreads bookshelves? Amazing historical fiction + cozy? J. J. Murphy takes some in-depth research into Dorothy Parker and the Algonquin Round Table folks and makes a cozy that is better than average (and I tend to love them all) so I was thrilled to read this one over the long weekend.There are very few missteps in her telling of this strange little murder mystery and she weaves in clever tidbits about the lives of Groucho and Harpo Marx, Douglas Fairbanks and the birth of New Yorker magazine while she leads the reader through to the end. It's a small matter of a few paragraphs and we learn that the dead man was an enemy of many at the round table and then young William Faulkner is introduced (inspiring the title of her book?) as a possible suspect in the murder. Dorothy takes "Billy" under her wing and begins to solve the mystery to save him from prison.Parker was known for her clever wit and her close friendship with Robert Benchley and J. J. Murphy uses this friendship as the main storyline in her cozy. Dorothy and Robert use their wit when they are faced with death in an alley, death in a taxi, death at the hands of Mickey Finn and death in a printing warehouse (I might have missed some now that I think of it) and it is funny in a way that makes you think that this cozy must have been a delight for the author to write. It was a delight to read and I'm hoping she keeps it up in the next Dorothy Parker book - I liked it so much I'll be keeping it around here and might just take it to the cottage for a re-read.
I enjoyed this book, it was great fun to read. Looking forward to reading the next in the series.
—neha
I didn't like this book at all- I thought I would because I really like Dorothy Sayers.
—Nellie
Screwball comedy? Yes. Mystery? Not so much. (I solved it in, like, two chapters.)
—Lamaso
couldn't get in to it
—Caseyking393
Not my cup of tea.
—GinwyneKindle
