“Pumped for Murder: A Dead-End Job” by Elaine Viets (NAL/Obsidian, 271 pgs., $23.95)

Fort Lauderdale author Elaine Viets’ funny Helen Hawthorne “Dead-End Job” novels mirror our economy, in a way. Helen’s habit of working at low-level jobs that pay in cash allows this character to stay off the grid and dovetails the stories with the current state of the job market — but with far more humor than unemployment checks.

While Viets’ 10th novel in this series begins a new story arc, the intent is still the same — a window on how low-paid employees often are taken for granted so much that they seem invisible.

In “Pumped for Murder,” Helen, once a well-paid executive, no longer has to take those low-paying jobs because she refused a court order to give her cheating husband lifelong alimony. The ex-husband is out of the picture and Helen has found happiness in her new marriage to Phil, a private detective. To celebrate their new life, Phil and Helen start their own detective agency, Coronado Investigations. Immediately, they land two diverse clients: a woman convinced her husband is cheating on her and a classic car restorer who has always believed that his brother didn’t commit suicide 25 years ago but was murdered.

Helen takes a dead-end job as the receptionist at the Fort Lauderdale gym where the errant husband hangs out eight to 10 hours a day. After all, says Helen, “Low-paying jobs are good ways to observe people. The people who do the work see things the big-wigs never do.” Helen soon finds out that exercise isn’t the gym’s only activity; there are deadly drug deals and adulterous trysts in the locker rooms. “Sweat, sex, ambition and half-naked people are a dangerous combination,” Helen learns. But Phil has a more difficult job — he has to interview witnesses who survived the drug-addled 1980s to investigate the case for their other client.

The breezy, well-plotted “Pumped for Murder” moves at a fast clip, fueled by Viets’ perfect comic timing. But Viets also knows when to keep the plot serious when “Pumped for Murder” explores extreme fitness fanatics, steroid use, alcoholism and corrupt businesspeople.

South Florida readers will especially enjoy the references to local landmarks such as 15th Street Fisheries, while St. Louis readers will feel the same when Helen visits her hometown and has a slice of gooey butter cake.