Tipping the Valet

Starred review from July 6, 2015
A canny sense of humor and timing elevate Beck’s series opener about a naïve Seattle valet-parking attendant’s brush with Russian mafiosi. All Tyler Benson wants to do is complete his undergraduate courses at the University of Washington, collect generous tips from his valet job at a posh Seattle restaurant, and keep his alcoholic father, Roger, from embarrassing him at work. But when Roger shows up—wearing Ugg slippers no less—on the same night that there’s a drive-by shoot-out at the restaurant, things get complicated: Tyler finds a gun. Roger loses a slipper. A dead body turns up in the trunk of a car that was parked in the restaurant parking lot. And, in a seemingly unrelated subplot, expensive cars are going missing and one of Tyler’s coworkers brags about his “other business interests.” Beck (Bad Neighbors) is masterly in pulling all these madcap threads together even as the rollicking suspense threatens to careen out of control (but never does).

September 1, 2015

Tyler Benson, parking valet extraordinaire, is excited to move up to parking at Ristorante Alba, an upscale Seattle restaurant, where tips will be better than at Donna's Casino. Yet Tyler can't escape Donna's. The Russian mob that frequents that establishment is running a car-chop ring out of Alba, with the aid of two valets there. When a corpse is discovered in the trunk of an Audi sedan, last left unattended at Alba's, Tyler is at the top of the suspect list. Trying to keep his inept and unsuccessful father out of trouble only digs a deeper hole. VERDICT Agatha Award nominee Beck ("Iris Cooper" mysteries) launches a new cozy series in which an easygoing and charming Tyler is dealing with crazy relatives. The incompetent Russian gang members lend an amiable quality. And, who knows what will happen between Tyler and lovely Flavia Torcelli, the hostess at Alba? Steer fans of Elaine Viets and Denise Swanson to this title.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015
Beck (We Interrupt This Broadcast, 1997, etc.) takes another mordant look at the underemployed in this tale of a car jockey who drives everyone crazy. Lukowski and MacNab, two of Seattle's finest, are absolutely sure Tyler Benson must be guilty of something. They're just not sure what. The kid's fingerprints are all over the trunk of Gary and Caroline Smethurst's gray Audi-the trunk containing the suitcase containing the dead body. The Smethursts, who rushed home early from their anniversary dinner at Ristorante Alba to provide homework help to their preteen daughter, who had not only a diorama, but a PowerPoint due the next day, have no idea how chop-shop technician Pavel Ivanovich Tarasov got into their trunk. Of course, neither does Tyler, who's working for Elite Valet to pay off the student loans that his father, Roger Benson, tricked him into signing for before taking the money and plowing it into Ricotteria, his failed make-it-yourself Italian takeout business. Still, the cops find it fishy that Tyler, whose usual gig is Donna's Casino, was at Alba at all on the night the suitcase was dumped, which was also the night shots were fired at zillionaire Scott Duckworth, who happens to be Roger's old boss. And that one of Roger's Ugg slippers was found at the scene. Of course, they show passing interest in cousins Dmytro and Volodya Zelenko, who, despite being Ukrainian, are reputed to be members of the Russian Mafia, along with their Georgian henchman, Sergei Lagunov. And they also eyeball Duckworth's bodyguard, Red Ott. Still, when they find a .22 in Tyler's car, and discover Tyler has a felony conviction, possible weapons possession charges seem the least of the valet's worries. Beck is back, and lovers of the antic, the manic, and the just plain off-the-wall will revel in her return.

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