Electric City

"Electric City" was an enjoyable read for me. I've enjoyed all of K.K. Beck's series about this character, but the atmosphere and setting in "Electric City" are my favorite to date. The main premise of the Jane DaSilva series is that Jane, a widowed ex-pat American living in Europe and supporting herself as a torch singer returns to her home-town Seattle to accept a bequest from a rich uncle. But the bequest has some monster strings attached. Jane has to become a "righter of wrongs" as her uncle before her had anonymously done. And she has to do it to the satisfaction of the board of the private foundation appointed by her uncle before his death. If Jane finds and helps people who can't be helped any other way and the board approves what she has done, she gets a more than comfortable income and home from the foundation. If not, Jane is back to making her living as a lounge singer. In "Electric City" we start by learning about a group of downtrodden employees of a newspaper clipping service, one of whom has disappeared shortly after winning $20,000 on Jeopardy. Jane tries to help find the missing Irene which has her traveling all over the state of Washington to places the vehicle-less Irene had visited for no apparent reason. The mystery in "Electric City" is a very good one, well conceived and character driven. Jane is likeable and the atmosphere of the book pulled me in. The characters Jane meets are very realistic and dimensional. A good book and a good series. I hope the author writes more.