Furniture Watch: Amateur City by Katherine V Forrest

Amateur City by Katherine V Forrest

published 1984, published in the UK 1993

 

 

The Clothes in Books Furniture Watch is a feature I very much enjoy, and there is one word/furniture item that started it off.

Credenza is one of my key terms of fascination. Regular blog readers will know that when I start my series of books about a female private eye, she will be called Credenza ‘Chiff’Davenport *.

In a post  10 years ago on another 1990s crime story - this blogpost - I said

I was delighted to find mention of a credenza – I read a lot of American mysteries in the 90s, and they all featured credenzas, and I had trouble finding out what they were. I couldn’t Google it in those days…

And now - I think I have found the original inciting incident. I have been re-reading in the genre of gay crime books of the 1980s and 90s, inspired by my friend June Thomas’s wonderful book, blogpost here. I have particularly enjoyed the Kate Delafield mysteries by Katherine V Forrest. This is the first, and  features a murder of a horrible manager in an LA firm supplying office furniture. Each of the senior staff has an office, each is interviewed by Kate – and I would say each of them has a credenza. I was working it out from context back in the day, but I had never come across the term in UK life. It is still not generally used here, though there is a credence table (obviously the same root) in church scenarios.

a credenza desk

I think this was surely the beginning of my obsession with the word – the fact that it was thrown around so lightly, no explanation thought of or needed. It is, if you still don't know, a supplementary space where you might display your Salesperson of the month award, photos of your family, or extra files. (This is in office terms, there are other usages). I found a blissfully thorough webpage  giving the lowdown, in case by any remote chance you are as interested as I am. Where were you in 1993, when I first read this book, Office Furniture Warehouse? It has a Q&A section with 

Can I Use a Credenza as A TV Stand?  

How does a credenza complement an executive desk in an office setting?

*(I am equally fascinated by davenports, though there it is difference of UK/US usage, see here)

Back to the book: this is a great series. Kate is a terrific heroine and cop, and the books fit a lot in, although they are short. They give a fairly bad picture of 1980s life – misogyny, racism and homophobia in all areas – but they try to match that with interesting pictures of other aspects of life. Murder in the office doesn’t sound that promising, but I became fascinated by the layout of the place – there is a plan provided, with everyone’s offices marked, and I kept a marker on that page. The details of business life were all too convincing: ‘this company will be ready for a Martian in higher management before they’ll accept a woman.’ The victim is (luckily, so we don’t have to mind too much that he’s dead) particularly appalling, and the reports of the way he treated his underlings is horrific, but not, sadly, totally unbelievable. Things may not be perfect now, but they have improved.  

office life 1980s - the power suit

There’s a woman who was inveigled into having sex with him, regularly, and who claims it didn’t matter to her, and that was the only thing I found hard to take – she makes her case for how she got over it, but still…

Near the end, one character is fired. They lock themselves into their office, take over the loudspeaker system, and proceed to tell secrets about the other members of staff -  mostly expenses-fiddling and corporate politicking, some sex details: everyone gathers, horrified, trying to shut them up. This scene is worth the price of the book alone, it is quite splendid.

Woman at her desk is a theatrical producer, Nell Nugent, from NYPL.