Dead Guy's Stuff: A Jane Wheel Mystery

Dead Guy's Stuff continues the story of Jane Wheel (Killer Stuff), an antique "picker" who has made a career of going through old stuff and finding treasures to sell to dealers. However, Jane is not that successful yet because she has a hard time letting go of her finds and she has a tendency to buy memories instead of valuable items, such as Elmira's old schoolwork. Needless to say, Jane is ecstatic when she finds a whole room of 1950s saloon ephemera - just what she needs to redecorate her mother and father's tavern in Kankakee. She loves the Bakelite darts and dice, advertisements from long-defunct liquor suppliers, old bar games, bowling trophies, old photographs and a severed finger in a jar? Jane immediately calls her friend Detective Oh and asks him what she should do. Oh graciously comes over and takes a look, but, while a little macabre, it isn't as if Jane found a dead body or anything. So Jane tucks the finger away in the glove compartment of her car and heads for home to redecorate. There she finds the dead body of her parents' former landlord - with a finger that is almost completely cut off. Jane is positive that there is a link between her finger and the dead guy. Now she just has to find it while dealing with her parent's attempts to keep their past secret, decorating her friend Tim's kitchen for a house show, rooting through the dead guy's three houses of stuff, her mother's kidnapping, her friend's suicide and a fascinating group of little old ladies...Once again, Sharon Fiffer has presented readers with an absolutely fabulous book. Those who were captivated by her attention to detail and great characters in Killer Stuff will not be disappointed with this follow up. Again, there are great details about antiques and collectibles, as well as fascinating glimpses into small town life in Kankakee. Jane Wheel's associations with her fellow characters are always entertaining and her mother is a real kick. Don't wait for this one to come out in paperback - it is well worth the cost of the hardbound price!

...so I could run off to garage sales and flea markets like Jane Wheel does! That's the hazard of reading Sharon Fiffer's series during the dead of winter. If you've ever been even temporarily addicted to sifting through other people's wretched refuse, you know what Jane's weekends are like, and you know what her house looks like. You might even know the touch of Bakelite, or feel your heart a-poundin' as you thumb through a box of old discarded photos and papers. It may sound awful or silly to the unexperienced picker, but the sights and sounds and smells of this diversion are wonderfully portrayed in these mysteries. In most instances in real life, you don't find EXACTLY the same things Jane does. (Thank goodness!) Read the books; they're almost like being there.

This episode of "...stuff" was better than the first book. The main character and her cast become more developed and the story flows more smoothly. Jane Wheel is unlike any character I have come across. I look forward to more adventures.

Jane Wheel is a picker, a person who canvasses garage sales, flea markets and estate sales to buy items that she resells to individuals and store owners. Jane is also a collector and when the items in the Bateman house go on sale, she buys a whole room connected with the bar the family used to own. Her parents are redecorating their own bar for a grand reopening.While Jane is going through the items she bought, she finds a perfectly preserved human finger in a jar. Jane tries to track down the story behind it but before she can get very far, she stumbles across the body of her parents' former landlord, Gus Duncan. The police think he died from natural causes but not too long after his death, another one of his former tenants is found dead in one of his statues. Jane conducts her own investigation and links Mr. Bateman's death with Gus' demise. The police won't listen to her theories until Jane's mother is kidnapped and the investigation becomes very personal for a woman who is unable to stay on the sidelines.As amateur sleuth takes go, DEAD GUY'S STUFF is one of the better ones due mainly to the heroine who is obsessed with her family, collections and murder in that order. The mystery is very entertaining and readers will try to follow the random clues to their ultimate conclusion. Sharon Fiffer is a fresh new voice that will appeal to cozy lovers.Harriet Klausner

Sharon Fiffer's DEAD GUY'S STUFF is a smart, funny and satisfying must read. Fiffer's weaving of family, career and murder is impeccable and lots of fun. By twists and turns the story is jampacked with surprises and revelations about life that tickle the reader's funny bone while at the same time evoking the deep "Aha" that makes reading a story so satisfying. I can't wait until the next book comes out so I can learn more secrets about Jane Wheel and everyone whose life she touches.