A Hopeless Case

May 4, 1992
Beck's ( Death in a Deck Chair ) newest mystery offers a neat twist as a premise for what could turn out to be a delightful series. In her late 30s and tired of eking out an existence in Europe, expatriate widow Jane Silva is offered a substantial inheritance if she will assume her late uncle's quixotic profession of solving hopeless cases for those who have no other recourse. Seattle, her childhood home, at first seems to provide little scope for the type of situation that would fit the criteria of the will (which mandates absolutely no publicity), but soon Jane is approached by Leonora Martin, a talented young musician who wants to finance her further studies by regaining the substantial amount of money her now-dead hippie mother, Linda, had given years before to a cult called the Fellowship of the Flame. With the aid of attorney Calvin Mason, another collector of lost causes, Jane starts poking around, despite attacks on her person and the murder of an artist who may have known Linda. Ignoring the warnings of the personable detective on the case, Jane continues her dangerous sleuthing. A good, clean writer with an eye for apt description, Beck has created a breezy and modern detective in a relatively little-mined setting.

February 15, 1992
After a few years bon vivanting across Europe, socialite/chanteuse/divorcee Jane Da Silva tires of the bohemian life and heads home to Seattle. She's stony broke, with only the Jag in storage in London left from her several fortunes. But, happily, a nutty uncle has expired, leaving his plentiful supply of greenbacks to her. Still, Jane has to work. She's Seattle's last-chance sleuth, working strictly gratis and only on cases where the possibility of a solution is slim at best. Beck's onto a winner here. The premise is a pip: Eurotrash Nancy Drew mixed with Robin Hood-style moralizing, superimposed onto a swiftly paced sleuthing adventure that takes place on the streets of, arguably, America's trendiest city. See Jane run. See Jane track down a young musician's rightful inheritance, given away a few years back by a hippie mother to a shady cult of hippies-turned-killers. Now the cash and the cult are hard to find but destined to get a little easier, as the kills start happening all over again. Beck never once falters. More hopeless cases would be greatly appreciated. ((Reviewed Feb. 15, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)