Worth Its Weight in Old by K. D. Hays, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Newly minted private investigator Karen Maxwell gets her second case investigating vandalism at a local art gallery in Worth Its Weight in Old by K. D. Hays.

Karen Maxwell, a divorced mother of two, works in her brother's private investigations agency. So far all she has done was make coffee, keeps ledgers, files, and the like. Finally, her brother assigns her a case with the Blue Moon Art and Antiques Gallery. Someone has been slashing paintings and damaging antique furniture. Her cover is to be hired as a salesperson to work three days a week and watch what happens in the gallery. In addition to the owners Mr. and Mrs. Photopoulos, there are only two other full-time employees: Vicki, a sales person; and Eric, the porter. If this is an inside job, and it appears to Karen to be, ascertaining the perpetrator should be a snap. But maybe it isn't an insider. The damage to the paintings and furniture wasn't so bad that it couldn't readily be repaired. Maybe a potential buyer was looking to acquire the pieces at at discount. Karen is puzzled but before she could actually identify the culprit, she's fired by the owners. And that's not all her of her problems. Her relationship with her new boyfriend Brian seems to be going nowhere and her kids are "at that age". Is she up to handling everything at once?

Worth Its Weight in Old is a fun, fast-reading mystery. That it isn't much of a mystery per se is a little disappointing, the reader being able to piece the puzzle together far more quickly than Karen, but the characters are interesting and it's a pleasure reading a novel void of foul language and physical violence. Worth Its Weight in Old is a part of the Heartsong Presents Mystery series, and is appropriate and recommended reading for mystery lovers of all ages.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Worth Its Weight in Old.

Acknowledgment: K. D. Hays provided a copy of Worth Its Weight in Old for this review.

Worth Its Weight in Old

A Karen Maxwell Mystery by K. D. Hays