Amateur Night

Jane Da Silva #2

by K.K. Beck

The homicide case that convicted young Kevin Shea and sent him to the slammer looked hopeless - and the perfect puzzle for Jane da Silva. Under the terms of an eccentric uncle's will, Jane has to right a wrong and solve an uncrackable conundrum twice a year before she can inherit the estate. With her fortieth birthday looming in the not-so-distant future and a so-so career as a cabaret singer in the fast-fading past, Jane has both an unslaked champagne taste and a willingness to risk her pretty neck snooping where nice girls don't...and earn her inheritance the hard way.
As for Kevin Shea, he has had one foot firmly planted in trouble all his life. Formerly a pill-head and going-nowhere teenager, he graduated to armed robbery at a local drugstore, botching the attempt and leaving a woman dead. Kevin says he didn't shoot her. Even his own mother doesn't believe him and the DA tagged it an open and shut case. All Jane has to reopen it is a call from Kevin's lawyer. It seems there's a remote possibility that a key witness exists - somewhere.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

279 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

Kathrine Kristine Beck Marris (born 1950), known mainly by her pen name of K. K. Beck, is an American novelist. She has written over a dozen books, some of which were part of the Iris Cooper novel series and the Jane da Silva novel series.

An early novel of hers, Death of a Prom Queen (1984) was written under the pen name of Marie Oliver. She wrote a series of other novels, under the name K. K. Beck, such as The Revenge of Kali-Ra in 1999. One of her most recent works, The Tell-Tale Tattoo and Other Stories (2002) is a collection of short stories.

She lives in Seattle, Washington, and was married to the crime-writer Michael Dibdin, who died in 2007.

Series:
* Iris Cooper
* Jane Da Silva

Reviews

[Roberta Van]

Jane takes on an wrongfully convicted creep whose own mother thinks is guilty. The characters are endearing and well developed. The plot settings range from Queenanne in Seattle, Victoria on Vancouver Island,,and parts further north as Jane looks for an elusive witness who earns her living as a stripper.

[Richard Bradley]

Who knows how long I would have gone on not reading this book. I had tossed it around negligently, thinking "I'm not sure I want to read that." I accidently never yet got rid of it. Naturally, here I am now to say it is excellent. Great characters. Fine wordsmithing. A very full sense of place(s). Plot I could not crack to the end. In the ultimate moment of revelation, I wasn't certain of the face of the killer until illuminated in the action. Even now I'm sitting here thinking it's just lucky it wasn't the other dude after all. Yes, an action mystery. However, a thinking book too. And humorous; entertaining. I'm putting K.K. Beck's other Jane da Silva Mysteries on my list to read.

[Alison C]

When Calvin Mason, the lawyer Jane da Silva met in an earlier case, tells Jane about a possible “hopeless case” that she might pursue, he doesn’t think she will really follow through on it: after all, the case concerns a man convicted of the murder of a pharmacist’s wife - and Calvin, the man’s defense lawyer, is convinced of his guilt. But a juror on the case has come to him with a detail that has troubled her since the conviction, a scene-of-crime photograph that seems to suggest that there may have been a witness to the crime. When she learns that tracking down the witness involves traveling up to Vancouver Island, Jane is quite happy to go, but it seems that she is not the only person looking for the girl…. This is the second of four novels featuring Jane da Silva, a 37-year-old widow who will come into a fortune if she can fulfill the requirements of her uncle’s will and solve a seemingly hopeless case of injustice. I very much like Jane, although she’s a bit whiny here off and on, and I like the relationship between her and Calvin, although that seems to be going nowhere fast. Set in the 1990s, it’s a bit dated by now (I doubt that young people today even have a concept of public pay phones, the importance of which looms large in this story), but still entertaining; recommended.

[Terry Steinborn]

I had read a number of books by K.K. Beck 30 + years ago, and found them enjoyable so I thought I'd try a new one. I found Amateur Night to plod along with a lot of idle rehashing of the series premise and spinning of investigative wheels until the last quarter of the book, which finally showed some action and accomplishment. Lots of predictability. Of course that may have been the result that I later discovered I had actually read it back in the late 1980's. I didn't recognize it at all while I was reading it, and I was stuck with it for the duration of a (thankfully) brief hospital stay.

The plot has an interesting although rather absurd basis - Jane da Silva must identify and solve hopeless cases to inherent her late Uncle's fortune, which is controlled by a committee managed by her uncle's old law firm, several of whom clearly do not give up any of the money. This is a modern take on the old British Military concept of the "forelorn hope", where a British soldier can take on an apparently hopeless task in a battle which, even if it fails will enhance overall British chances in the battle. If he manages to win through, then he will be celebrated and rewarded, most likely with a promotion. (See Robert Cornwall's Sharpe series of books set in the Napoleonic Wars for good examples.)

[George]

A Jane Da Silva mystery set in Seattle and Vancouver Island. In order to obtain money left to herby her uncle, Jane has to take on hopeless cases and solve them. In this case, she is seeking to prove a man convicted of murder didn't commit the crime. The case takes her in search of people connected to the murder when one of them is murdered As Jane searches for another witness, she encounters others also looking for her and results in several close escapes.

This series is on the lighter side as Jane bumbles and brazens her way as she tries to solve the mystery.

[Katherine Clark]

This was the second in the series about a protagonist who will only receive an inheritance if she successfully solves a hopeless case. My favorite part of the book is that some of it takes place in Canada, and Beck does a lovely job of showing/discussing the differences between Canadians and Americans. I eat that stuff with a spoon.

I really like the protagonist, who has little flaws and surprises herself at times with her own altruism. These are fun novels. Nothing heavy. I'm continuing to read these in part because they are helping me with my own fiction project.

[Joyce]

Righting another wrong. Jane had to prove that the convicted killer was innocent, but the only way was to find the real killer.

[Nicholas George]

For a formulaic mystery, it's a cut above most of the rest.