“Trouble for Rent” by Kathi Reed (Kathi Reed, 372 pages, $14.99)

Do you recall renting VHS tapes at mom-andpop video stores that once sprouted like mushrooms across America? Blockbuster eventually wiped out the independents. Then Netflix DVDs by mail and on-line streaming finished the job.

Kathi Reed remembers. She owned one of those lit- tle stores and her experiences inform her darkly funnynewnovel“Trouble for Rent.” Reed, who resides in Maineville has set her story during the year 1990. The proprietor of Annie’s Video and Music Hall is our fictional sleuth.

Annie Fillmore originally appeared in Reed’s first novel “Banking on Trouble.”

Annie is a merchant but shehasanoseforachallenging murder investigation. As the story opens a customer returns a rental of “Cinderella” with a complaint; there is some footage on the tape that wasn’t supposed to be there. Her children were upset after they sawit.

Annie placates her customerwithapairoffree movie coupons. Then she watches the film. She is appalled to find that someone recorded over part of “Cinderella” with what looks like a home-made sex tape which depicts what appears to have been a homicide.

Annie calls the cops. The local police in Briartown would prefer that Annie mind her own business and refrain from sticking her nose into their affairs. They are skeptical about the authenticity of the video. Which creates an open invitation for the wisecracking Annie to solve the myster yofthetap ed-over video murder.

Annie hires a fellow to help out in the shop. He punctuates Annie’s adventures with the occasional frisson as a counterpoint to the underlying tension of the tale.