Mystery Series- Workplace Mysteries

cover The Body in the Volvo

K.K. Beck is Katherine Kristine Beck, who also wrote under the name of Marie Oliver. Born 1950. Oddly enough, the internet can't come up with a single picture of her. Her third husband was Michael Dibdin, also a mytery author. The Workplace Mysteries are linked because they all take place in the rather ordinary working world. The same two detectives are featured, but they rarely solve the case. She has also written the Iris Cooper/Jack Clancy mystery series and the Jane da Silva series.

I was prepared for this to be a rather fluffy set because the books are fairly short. Instead, I found them enjoyable, with a lot of insight into human nature. The author is deft at pointing out how each person has their own agenda, flaws, and a few good points.

Recurring characters of note:
Detective Mcnab- Seattle PD
Detective Lukowski- Seattle PD

#1 The Body in the Volvo (1987)
The overall setting for this books is a car repair shop in Seattle, with a secondary setting of college academia.

Charles Carstairs has just been denied tenure due to a grudge held by the faculty member with a lot of political pull. He's nursing his wounds when his uncle Cosmo suddenly wins the lottery and gives Charles his automotive repair business. Charles is just beginning to find out that the shop is in serious financial trouble, partly due to shoddy and shady business practices. Everyone seems to have some little con job running on the side.

When the mechanics open the trunk of a junker sitting on their lot, the body of the faculty member who blocked Charles from getting tenure is discovered. Charles becomes the prime suspect, and tMcNab and Lukowski are fixated on proving his guilt.

Charles hires Sylvia from the temp agency to come figure out just how big of a mess he's gotten into with the business.

#2 The Body in the Cornflakes (1992)
The overall setting for this book is the retail grocery business at a store owned by the family patriarch, Karl Krogstad, and where most of the employees are related to him. Karl's favored grandson Lance has just graduated from USC with a degree in retail management.

The Assistant Menager, Ted, is not a relative, and it often appears that he's the only one who really cares about the store. Karl wants Ted to show Lance how the business works. Lance is more interesting in immediately being the boss.

The patriarch has decided to marry a much younger model named Ginger. She's quite a looker, and she has probably been fooling around with more men than just Karl. Ginger's body is found in an end display of cornflakes in the store during their grand re-opening after a remodel.

Karl's granddaughter Louise works the video rental counter. Although part of the family, she's from Karl's daughter's side, so she isn't on the favored side of the family.

Detectives McNab and Lukowski are trying to run down leads on the murder, but Louise is working hard to stay one step ahead of them in the investigation.

There is not explicit sex in the book, but Ted's thoughts toward Louise are always headed in that direction. I liked the inside jokes and info about the grocery business, but even in 1992, I would think that a murder would require an autopsy. The internet says it was not strictly a law then, but would most likely have been done.

#3 We interrupt this Broadcast (1997)

#4 Tipping the Valet (2015)