Mon 6 Jan 2020
Archived Review: K. K. BECK – Young Mrs. Cavendish and the Kaiser’s Men.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[8] Comments
K. K. BECK – Young Mrs. Cavendish and the Kaiser’s Men. Walker, hardcover, 1987. Ivy, paperback reprint, April 1989.
The year is 1916, and the US is not yet in World War I. What the Germans hope to do is make sure we don’t, and somehow a lonely spot in the Arizona desert is an important part of their plans. And, although they don’t know it, so is Maude Teasdale Cavendish.
She’s 29, divorced, and an ambitious society reporter for the San Francisco Globe. What she uncovers begins a rousing Rover Boys type adventure, with the addition of two spunky, forward-looking heroines [the other being young debutante Louise Arbour, a whiz at driving her very own motor car, and who kidnappers mistake Mrs. Cavendish for, early on in the story], back when most women still had “delicate constitutions.”
UPDATE: I only vaguely remember this one, but my review of it makes it sound as though I’d enjoy reading it again. I do remember thinking I’d like to read another of Mrs. Cavendish’s adventures, but alas, it didn’t happen.
January 7th, 2020 at 2:46 pm
The name K K Beck sticks in my mind and the plot of Germans in Arizona. So I’m sure I read this book 33 years ago. I remember why the Germans were in Arizona, too. If my copy ever shows up I would be tempted to re-read ago.
January 7th, 2020 at 3:21 pm
That goes for me as well. If my copy shows up, I’ll read it, but I won’t go out looking for another one.
January 7th, 2020 at 5:56 pm
Years ago I enjoyed several of her novels:
Murder in a Mummy Case (1986)
The Body in the Volvo (1987)
Peril Under the Palms (1989)
The Body in the Corn Flakes (1992)
Amateur Night (1993)
These were mainly “real mysteries”.
She could write sparkling comedy too.
January 7th, 2020 at 8:18 pm
I read and enjoyed the first three of those myself, Mike, then I sort of lost track of her, especially after there began to be big gaps between books. Here’s a list that I found somewhere online. Most of the later titles are unknown to me. I’m going to have to check them out.
Titles and year of publication:
‘Iris Cooper’ Novels
1) Death in a Deck Chair 1984
2) Murder in a Mummy Case 1986
3) Peril Under the Palms 1989
‘Jane da Silva’ Novels
1) A Hopeless Case 1992
2) Amateur Night 1993
3) Electric City 1994
4) Cold Smoked 1995
Other Novels
1) The Body in the Volvo 1987
2) Young Mrs. Cavendish and the Kaiser’s Men 1987
3) Unwanted Attentions 1988
4) Without a Trace 1988
5) The Body in the Cornflakes 1992
6) Bad Neighbors 1996
7) We Interrupt This Broadcast 1997
8) The Revenge of Kali-Ra 1999
9) The Tell-Tale Tattoo and Other Stories (short stories) 2002
10) Fake 2002
11) Snitch 2005
12) Tipping the Valet 2015
As ‘Marie Oliver’
1) Death of a Prom Queen 1984
January 7th, 2020 at 9:30 pm
I didn’t know about these later books.
Thank you!
Some of her short stories are good too.
January 8th, 2020 at 9:21 pm
I loved Beck’s books, bright, funny, adventurous, and well written mysteries. My favorite was THE REVENGE OF KALI RA.
There was actually quite a bit of German activity on the American border from Texas to California during WW I. American and British agents blew up a German radio station in Mexico fairly early on, and the Zimmerman Telegram which revealed a plot to prevent America entering the war by formenting trouble with Mexico was one of the reasons we went to war.
January 13th, 2020 at 7:58 am
What I wonder is why Beck quit publishing at 49. (Who knows if she quit writing.) She’s 70 now, and certainly one can retire whenever one can. But 49 seems an odd age to do so. Hope it wasn’t anything too drastic.
January 13th, 2020 at 10:20 am
I had been wondering about that myself, until I found that bibliography for her in Comments #4. Of the letter books, though:
9) The Tell-Tale Tattoo and Other Stories (short stories) 2002
10) Fake 2002
11) Snitch 2005
12) Tipping the Valet 2015
#9 consists of short stories that could have been written at any time
#10 and #11 appear to be juveniles
while #12 is a full-fledged mystery in one of her several series, but published by Perseverance Press, which specializes in publishing books by authors who have lost their contracts with previous publishers.
That’s what may have happened to Beck. She may have hit a writer’s block of some kind, but to me it seems more likely that her publisher left her.