Book Review: Dead Guy's Stuff

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dead Guy's Stuff     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Sharon Fiffer
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Jane Wheel
St. Martin’s, Oct 2002, $24.95, 320 pp.

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

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner