Sharon Fiffer

With her career and marriage on the skids, Jane Wheel is headed for a mid-life crisis, making a living by picking up treasures at local garage sales, flee markets, and auctions, but when she discovers the body of her next-door neighbor, she channels some of her nervous energy into solving the crime. A first novel. Reprint.

A Jane Wheel Mystery

Killer Stuff

Steve Fiffer

Meet the eccentric, eclectic family members of seventeen of America's finest writers in this dazzling, deeply moving collection of memories. Take advice from Alice Hoffman's wise grandmother, Lillie Lulkin. Keep watch over lone children with Brent Staples. Share with Bob Shacochis and his wife the heartbreaking sadness of two people longing to have a child. You can also listen in as Chang-rae Lee and his mother speak their own language; carefully contemplate life through the eyes of Whitney Otto's beloved, irascible cat; discover if Marion Winik is really, truly related to either Charlie Chaplin or Jann Wenner; and barhop with a five-year-old Stuart Dybeck and his Polish Grandfather. In joining this literary reunion, be prepared to discover your own sense of family history. Whether considering relations by blood, by marriage, by choice, or by chance, each writer here has something to share: secrets, desires, sorrows, and joys. And in this Family, you will find that the pleasure of reading is much more than relative. Contributors include: Edwidge Danticat, Beverly Donofrio, Stuart Dybeck, Edward Hoagland, Alice Hoffman, bell hooks, Chang-rae Lee, Elizabeth McCracken, Whitney Otto, Jayne Anne Phillips, Bob Shacochis, Brent Staples, Deborah Tannen, Geoffrey Wolff, and Marion Winik. The editors of Family are donating a portion of their royalties to two organizations: The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, a values-based literacy program for sixth graders in the Boston Public School system; and Chicago Youth Centers, which works with young people in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods, assisting them in becoming responsible and productive individuals..

A Family

In Home, eighteen of our finest writers evoke different rooms--from their pasts, their present, or simply their imaginations--in order to investigate the ways in which homes contain our lives. The results are touching, provocative, and sometimes hilarious. And since a portion of the editors' proceeds will go to organizations that help the homeless, Home is really where the heart is. Contributors include: Lynda Barry, Richard Bausch, Tony Earley, James Finn Garner, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Allan Gurganus, Colin Harrison, Kathryn Harrison, Gish Jen, Karen Karbo, Alex Kotlowitz, Clint McCown, Susan Power, Esmeralda Santiago, Mona Simpson, Jane Smiley, Sallie Tisdale, and Bailey White. "Unforgettable...These pages are filled with the kind of details that etch a childhood place into the deep recesses of memory, that distinguish the sensual life of one family from another."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "From the Trade Paperback edition.

American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own

Home

An avid antique collector, Jane Wheel owns a lot of stuff. In fact, she owns too much stuff, which often gets her into trouble. So finally she agrees to do the unthinkable: she holds her very first garage sale. Thankfully the sale ends almost before it begins, interrupted by a hysterical phone call from Jane's mother, Nellie. But Jane's relief doesn't last long. Nellie is calling to tell Jane about a mysterious discovery on a neighbor's property: bone fragments, buried in his backyard. Since Jane's husband, Charlie, is a geologist, Jane volunteers to make the trip to her hometown, Kankakee, Illinois, to see if they can help her parents' neighbor, Fuzzy Neilson, sort things out. When they arrive, Jane and Charlie are surprised to find quite a controversy brewing in town, and not just over the mysterious discovery of the bones. In addition to Fuzzy's buried treasure, people are trying to reinvent this sleepy midwestern town. There are a couple of slick real estate developers going around town talking a big game about making Kankakee into Hometown, U.S.A. Then Jane's best friend, Tim, gets in on the act, proposing that Kankakee host the World's Largest Garage Sale. But when a man turns up murdered on Fuzzy's field, the spotlight turns back to the mysterious doings on the Neilson farm. While Charlie uncovers what may or may not be an archaelogically significant site, Jane manages to uncover the town's buried secrets. With the help of her family, Tim, and sometime partner P.I. Bruce Oh, Jane must sort rumor and gossip from the true crimes before it's too late. With Buried Stuff, Sharon Fiffer continues to chronicle the events in the life of her charming, human, slightly obsessive main character, Jane Wheel; intriguing, suspenseful and lively, like the best of mystery writing today, reading Fiffer's latest novel is like coming across one of Jane's estate sale discoveries and finding it full of delights and surprises.

Buried Stuff

Family

"An avid antique collector, Jane Wheel owns a lot of stuff. In fact, she owns too much stuff, which often gets her into trouble. So finally she agrees to do the unthinkable: She holds her very first garage sale." "Thankfully the sale ends almost before it begins, interrupted by a hysterical phone call from Jane's mother, Nellie. But Jane's relief doesn't last long. Nellie is calling to tell Jane about a mysterious discovery on a neighbor's property - bone fragments, buried in his backyard. Since Jane's husband, Charley, is a geologist, Jane volunteers to make the trip to her hometown, Kankakee, Illinois, to see if they can help her parents' neighbor, Fuzzy Neilson, sort things out." "When they arrive, Jane and Charley are surprised to find quite a controversy brewing, and not just over the mysterious discovery of the bones. In addition to Fuzzy's buried treasure, people are trying to reinvent this sleepy Midwestern town. There are a couple of slick real estate developers going around talking a big game about making Kankakee into Hometown, U.S.A. Then Jane's best friend, Tim, gets in on the act, proposing that Kankakee host the World's Largest Garage Sale. But when a man turns up murdered in Fuzzy's field, the spotlight turns back to the mysterious doings on the Neilson farm." "While Charley uncovers what may or may not be an archaeologically significant site, Jane manages to uncover the town's buried secrets. With the help of her family, Tim, and sometime partner p.i. Bruce Oh, Jane must sort rumor and gossip from true crime before it's too late."--BOOK JACKET.

Antique picker Jane Wheel has always loved old stuff, from vintage salt and pepper shakers to other families' old photos and orphaned Bakelite buttons, and she can't really explain why. But she makes a living out of it, searching high and low at estate sales and antique shops and reselling her finds to other collectors. At least, it's half a living---she makes the other half as an associate to a private detective, because she's just as talented at digging up secrets as antiques. While visiting her brother for the first time in years, Jane's fascinated by a story of mistaken identity: On three occasions, someone has accused him of swindling them on eBay, only to realize he's not the right guy. Even though he doesn't see the point, she wants to look into it. Then back at home one of her parents' friends is attacked, leading Jane to vow to get to the bottom of things. Out of nowhere, Jane suddenly has two cases, both edging a little too close to her loved ones for comfort, because one thing's for sure---whenever family gets wrapped up in your personal business, it's bound to be some scary stuff.

Scary Stuff

Jane Wheel has a lot of stuff. Vintage flowerpots, postcards, Bakelite buttons, pencil sharpeners, mismatched china, linens, even old report cards from children she never knew peek out from the deepest corners of her home, threatening to envelop her entire life. Of course, she's not just a pack rat (or so she tells herself), it's her job: Jane is an antique picker, cruising garage sales and rummage tables looking for items she can turn around and sell to dealers or collectors, picking up a tidy profit. Trouble is, she does a lot of buying and so far only a little selling. When a school permission slip lost among the towering boxes in Jane's kitchen causes her son, Nick, to miss a field trip, Jane vows to get rid of it all, organizing her house and, in the process, she hopes, her life. Meanwhile, she's entertaining two offers of employment---as an associate with her friend Tim Lowry's antiques dealership and as a consultant in a private investigations firm with former police detective Bruce Oh. Unable to decide, Jane figures she'll take a crack at splitting her time between the two pursuits. Immediately, and with fragile emotions swirling from her great house-cleaning project, Jane finds herself smack in the middle of a case that will draw on both her new jobs. An antiques dealer has been accused of murder, perhaps as part of covering up an extensive furniture-counterfeiting operation. Jane can hardly wait to investigate---that is, until she learns the identity of the accused: Claire Oh, wife of her new partner Bruce. Rich in the details of junk-sale ephemera that have intrigued fans of previous Jane Wheel adventures, The Wrong Stuff is another fascinating, meticulously crafted mystery.

The Wrong Stuff

She was a monastic person, one who would be happy to live as a recluse, a hermit . . . if only the other caves would hold occasional yard sales. Ay, there was the rub. Jane had to put up with all those other people because people begat stuff, and stuff, for Jane, was what brought people palatably to life. It made others interesting, warm, human. It was what people kept and what they discarded that guided Jane through the confusion of human emotions. But how could Jane go along on her anonymously merry way, scouting junk in alleys and yards, on rummage sale tables, and auction house floors, if she was involved in some ego-wrenching nonsense in, for the love of Pete, Hollywood? Soon after a TV magazine profiles antique collector Jane Wheel for her role as an amateur sleuth, her story catches the eye of Wren Bixby, owner of Bix Pix Flix in Los Angeles. Bixby wants the rights to Jane’s story for her offbeat independent film company and eventually persuades Jane to leave behind her newfound hometown celebrity in Kankakee, Illinois, and head west for Hollywood. But Jane’s time in Tinseltown is interrupted when she discovers that someone has targeted Bix and her partners, and Jane resumes her role as detective, determined to stop a killer. In Hollywood Stuff, Sharon Fiffer captures the light and dark sides of Hollywood as Jane discovers that in the buying and selling of Hollywood memories and memorabilia, it’s a murderous marketplace where the price can kill.

Hollywood Stuff

She was a monastic person, one who would be happy to live as a recluse, a hermit . . . if only the other caves would hold occasional yard sales. Ay, there was the rub. Jane had to put up with all those other people because people begat stuff, and stuff, for Jane, was what brought people palatably to life. It made others interesting, warm, human. It was what people kept and what they discarded that guided Jane through the confusion of human emotions. But how could Jane go along on her anonymously merry way, scouting junk in alleys and yards, on rummage sale tables, and auction house floors, if she was involved in some ego-wrenching nonsense in, for the love of Pete, Hollywood? Soon after a TV magazine profiles antique collector Jane Wheel for her role as an amateur sleuth, her story catches the eye of Wren Bixby, owner of Bix Pix Flix in Los Angeles. Bixby wants the rights to Jane's story for her offbeat independent film company and eventually persuades Jane to leave behind her newfound hometown celebrity in Kankakee, Illinois, and head west for Hollywood. But Jane's time in Tinseltown is interrupted when she discovers that someone has targeted Bix and her partners, and Jane resumes her role as detective, determined to stop a killer. In Hollywood Stuff, Sharon Fiffer captures the light and dark sides of Hollywood as Jane discovers that in the buying and selling of Hollywood memories and memorabilia, it's a murderous marketplace where the price can kill.

With a divorce looming, antiques picker and P.I. Jane Wheel has been spinning her wheels, unsure what to do with herself. She could use a good shove in the right direction, and while she may know this, she isn't about to admit it. Luckily, her best friend, Tim Lowry, has her interests at heart, and he has the perfect answer. Not only does he have a mansion he needs help prepping for an estate sale, but he has unearthed an old play, a murder mystery, that he's dying to put on. The play would be just the thing to get Jane back on track—that is, if it weren't cursed. Thankfully, Tim isn't buying into any curse and pushes forward in spite of the ominous notes that keep showing up in the actors' scripts warning against a performance. It's only when the show's carpenter dies in a suspicious accident that Jane is convinced someone definitely doesn't want the show to go on and might be willing to kill to stop it. Lively and intriguing as ever, Sharon Fiffer's Backstage Stuff is as much fun for the puzzling mystery as it is for sneak peek at all of the surprises that Jane has collected backstage for the big show.

Backstage Stuff

In this dynamite series debut, Sharon Fiffer has introduced an engaging and enterprising heroine in Jane Wheel. Recently laid off from her advertising job, separated from her husband Charley, and colliding head-on with a midlife crisis, Jane is trying to make ends meet as an antique "picker" foraging for killer stuff at suburban Chicago's estate sales and auctions, garage sales and flea markets.t Before long she's addicted to the hunt, spending her Friday nights with the classified ads and a street map, outlining her weekend plan of attack. Jane knows that finding the real treasures is all about being in the right place at the right time. But just as she's settling in to her new routine, Jane finds herself in just the wrong place and at quite the wrong time: stumbling over her neighbor Sandy's dead body. Soon she's the prime suspect. After all, everyone on the block seems to have seen her kissing Sandy's husband at a recent dinner party. Leaning on her best friend Tim, a flower shop owner and fellow junk hound, as well as Evanston police detective Bruce Oh, Jane has no choice but to hunt for the truth. Hopefully her knack for uncovering valuables in the least likely of places will extend to discovering clues as well. Like the vintage postcards, Bakelite buttons, and Fulper lamps that she dreams of finding, to Jane the truth just might be priceless. Sharon Fiffer's mystery debut is a fabulously entertaining read and an intriguing puzzle featuring a heroine that's a dynamic mix of Miss Marple, Kinsey Millhone, and Leigh and Leslie Keno.

"Jane Wheel has a lot of stuff. Vintage flowerpots, postcards, Bakelite buttons, pencil sharpeners, mismatched china, even old report cards from children she never knew peek out from the deepest corners of her home, threatening to envelop her entire life. Of course, she's not just a pack rat (or so she tells herself), it's her job: Jane is an antique picker, cruising garage sales and rummage tables looking for items she can turn around and sell to dealers or collectors, picking up a tidy profit. Trouble is, so far she's done only a little selling." "When a school permission slip lost among the towering boxes in Jane's kitchen causes her son to miss a field trip, Jane vows to get rid of it all, organizing her house and, in the process, she hopes, her life. Meanwhile, she's entertaining two offers of employment - as an associate with her friend Tim Lowry's antiques dealership and as a consultant in a private investigations firm with former police detective Bruce Oh. Unable to decide, Jane figures she'll take a crack at splitting her time between the two pursuits." "Immediately, and with fragile emotions swirling from her great house-cleaning project, Jane finds herself smack in the middle of a case that will draw on both her new jobs. An antiques dealer has been accused of murder. Jane can hardly wait to investigate - that is, until she learns the identity of the accused: Claire Oh, wife of her new partner Bruce."--BOOK JACKET.

Officially divorced, antiques picker and private investigator Jane Wheel finally faces the reality that she needs to sell her house, which means clearing out her extensive—and beloved—antique collection. While it's a daunting task, the preemptive move proves worthwhile when her house sells in one day. Finding herself suddenly homeless, Jane heads to her hometown, Kankakee, Illinois, to find that it, too, has been turned upside down. Lucky Miller, a little-known comedian, is staging what he calls a comeback. It's all part of his plan to break into showbiz by making it seem like he's always been a big name. Suspicious of what Lucky's trying to prove and why he's chosen to prove it in Kankakee, Jane's mother, Nellie, hires Jane to investigate. But why does Nellie care? Lucky would sure like to know, so he, too, calls on Jane to find out. Still, Nellie may be the least of his problems when a driver on his crew turns up dead hours after claiming that Lucky tried to kill him. With the charming and dogged Jane Wheel at the center of another clever puzzle, Lucky Stuff is an outstanding addition to Sharon Fiffer's popular series.

Lucky Stuff

Fresh on the heels of Killer Stuff, Sharon Fiffer's auspicious debut, antique "picker" Jane Wheel is making a career out of going through old stuff; it seems she can't get enough of the piles of vintage clothing, kitchen utensils, Bakelite buttons and post cards she finds at estate sales across the Chicago area. What this saloon keepers' daughter loves, though, is not the items themselves but the stories they tell about the lives of their owners. So needless to say Jane's delighted when a Saturday morning estate sale turns up a serendipitous find: a whole room packed full of 1950's saloon ephemera. As luck would have it, she's been planning to redecorate her parents' pub, still run and recently purchased outright by her folks. Piles of Bakelite darts and dice, countless advertisements from long-defunct liquor suppliers, and, most exciting of all, a bunch of old bar games, employed by untold patrons intent on whiling away the tedious moments in between the sips of so long ago. She makes a deal to buy the whole room, and can't wait to get the stuff back to her hometown. As she's cataloging her find, however, Jane makes a gruesome discovery. Packed between the glassware and bowling trophies and old photographs she's already fallen in love with, she uncovers one highly personal, unusual and creepy collectible that she is sure the saloon keeper would have preferred to have kept to himself. It sure sparks her curiosity about the saloon owners, and when Jane gets curious nothing's going to stop her. Employing her friends Detective Bruce Oh and fellow junkhound Tim Lowry, as well as her erstwhile husband Charley, Jane sets out to lay bare the secrets of long ago, secrets that even people close to her would rather be kept quiet forever. Packed with as much intrigue and suspense as a long-buried chest in your grandmother's attic, Dead Guy's Stuff is a fantastic sophomore effort from acclaimed promising cozy writer Sharon Fiffer.

Sharon Fiffer

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