Review: VALUED FOR MURDER, Victoria Tait

• 
  Read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09TRXWWNG
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kanga Press, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 10 June 2022
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 194 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915413000
• Book 2 of 12 ‏ : ‎ A Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery  

Synopsis (Amazon)

An antique TV show. A dead celebrity expert. Can a shy amateur sleuth step into the lime-light and expose a murderer?

Dotty Sayers is enjoying her job in a Cotswold auction house. When she’s offered a place on an antique TV show, she nervously agrees to a makeover and is surprised by the admiring glances she receives. But working at a historic country hotel, she realises the production is in jeopardy when, at the bottom of the circular staircase, one of the experts is found dead.

Dotty can’t help wondering if the death was accidental or if someone else was involved. She promises to stay in the background and leave the investigation to the police, but this amateur detective can’t help uncovering clues. When she returns from viewing a priceless sculpture, and finds her British blue cat missing, she knows she’ll struggle to keep the show on the road.

Can Dotty emerge from behind the scenes and identify the killer?

Valued for Murder is a British cozy mystery featuring a shy but determined amateur sleuth, a behind‑the‑scenes antique TV show, a suspicious “accidental” death in a country‑house hotel, and a missing beloved cat. It blends small‑village charm, light humour, and a slow‑burn personal journey as Dotty steps out of the shadows, navigates prickly TV personalities and nosy locals, and pieces together clues the professionals overlook. Perfect for readers who enjoy closed-circle whodunits, gentle peril rather than gore, and character‑driven mysteries set against quintessentially English, Cotswold scenery.

My Take

As you can see, I have persisted with this series and I have found this outing marginally better that the previous one FAKE DEATH. Dotty is showing potential and is a stronger character. The plot has a couple of nice elements.

So I will be reading more. 

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.3, FAKE DEATH - #1