Helpful Score: 2
I am a big fan of yard sales, antique shops, and old odds and ends. After reading the first book in this series, I immediately ordered the rest! They were wonderful reading, and I cannot wait until the next book comes out.
Helpful Score: 2
The adage, "One man's junk is another's man's treasure," certainly fits the bill for Sharon Fiffer's Killer Stuff. Killer Stuff debuts Jane Wheel, ex career woman now antique picker. Fiffer's cozy featuring the world of antiques is a much cleaner, funnier and easier read then Tamar Meyers Den of Antiquity series from way back when. Thanks for turning me on to this series bikewmn. :) Looking forward to the rest of the series. 1st in the series.
Helpful Score: 2
PAGE TURNER. If you like treasure hunts, garage sales and murder, you will like this book.
Helpful Score: 2
The first in a 4 book series. After reading this one I could not wait for the next one.
Helpful Score: 1
One of the Jane Wheel series. Jane Wheel is a "picker" for an antiques dealer, but stumbles onto murder. Great secondary characters (her friends, homicide Detective) -- and nice to read a detective series where the female lead is happily in love with her spouse, rather than falling for an unsuitable male.
Helpful Score: 1
Could not get into this book. Maybe someone else can!! From FantasticFiction.com:
This auspicious cozy debut from writer Sharon Fiffer combines the best of the cozy tradition with a modern voice and fabulously commercial hook-her intrepid sleuth is an antique "picker." Recently laid off from her PR job, seperated from her husband and colliding head-on with a midlife crisis, Jane Wheel is making ends meet by foraging for "killer stuff" at suburban Chicago's estate sales and auctions, garage sales and flea markets. When she stumbles over her next-door neighbour Sandy's dead body and realises she's the prime suspect-everyone on the block saw her kissing Sandy's husband at a recent neighbourhood dinner party-she hopes her knack for uncovering valuables in the least likely of places will extend to discovering clues as well. With the help of her best friend Tim, an antique gallery owner and Chicago police detective Bruce Oh, Jane goes after the truth. Like vintage postcards and Fulper lamp that figure into the mystery's solution, to Jane the truth just might be priceless.
This auspicious cozy debut from writer Sharon Fiffer combines the best of the cozy tradition with a modern voice and fabulously commercial hook-her intrepid sleuth is an antique "picker." Recently laid off from her PR job, seperated from her husband and colliding head-on with a midlife crisis, Jane Wheel is making ends meet by foraging for "killer stuff" at suburban Chicago's estate sales and auctions, garage sales and flea markets. When she stumbles over her next-door neighbour Sandy's dead body and realises she's the prime suspect-everyone on the block saw her kissing Sandy's husband at a recent neighbourhood dinner party-she hopes her knack for uncovering valuables in the least likely of places will extend to discovering clues as well. With the help of her best friend Tim, an antique gallery owner and Chicago police detective Bruce Oh, Jane goes after the truth. Like vintage postcards and Fulper lamp that figure into the mystery's solution, to Jane the truth just might be priceless.
Helpful Score: 1
really nice simple mystery
Helpful Score: 1
Antiques mystery--great stuff!
Helpful Score: 1
First Jane Wheel mystery. Jane is laid off from her job in advertising and has time now to pursue her hobby of being a picker, frequenting rummage and estate sales in search of Bakelite, pottery and other collectibles. Junk, mostly. LOL When Jane's neighbor Sandy is brutally murdered and Jane finds her body, she's drawn into an intrigue that's seated in the collecting world. Love the main character, and there are a few interesting supportive cast too, but not being a junk person, my eyes glazed over at the descriptions of Jane's junk and the killer stuff she wanted.
Helpful Score: 1
I enjoyed this book; it was good, not great, but enjoyable.
Helpful Score: 1
Great story, perfect for the Ebay/Garage sale addicted. I plan on seeking out the rest of the series.
Helpful Score: 1
Great mystery. Will keep you guessing up to the last few pages!!
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this one! Although the main character, Jane Wheel, suffers from "Heroine Does Stupid Stuff" cozy syndrome, there is enough interesting information on collectibles and the world of collecting to keep any "Antiques Roadshow" fan happy. This is pure fluff but it is fun and readable fluff. I'll be looking for more!
1st in the Jane Wheel, former touch as nails career woman series. Jane loves Bakelite! Here neighbor/fellow collector is found murdered . . good series.
As an antique store crawler, I found this mystery interesting, but not great.
fun book to read
A good read!
Jane Wheel, recently laid off from her PR job and separated from her professor husband, is making ends meet by foraging through garage and estate sales, flea markets and the odd auction in search of "killer stuff." Jane often borrows her neighbor Sandy's Suburban so she can haul her finds home, but after one trip she returns to find Sandy dead. Since too many people caught Jane sharing a furtive kiss with Sandy's husband at a dinner party months before, she fears the neighbors will consider her the prime suspect in the murder. Luckily, Chicago homicide detective Bruce Oh seems to have an open mind, and when Jane discovers a second corpse, as well as a peculiar object used in the murder, Oh is willing to let Jane employ her special expertise in the sleuthing. Aided by best friend Tim, a gay antiques dealer, Jane persists in her dual hunts for the killer and for overlooked bargains.
I liked it, the murder mystery was semi-interesting, and the antique information was informative, i did not follow the story all of the time, i found it a bit confusing. even at the end when they try to wrap things up, i was still a bit cloudy on who did what and why... anyway, the members of the story were well drawn, and I did whip through the book in a weekend, but i'm not sure i'll pick up another Sharon Fiffer book, i was not overly impressed.
I loved this first book in the Jane Wheel series - so much that as soon as I shut the cover I ordered the next three! Jane falls in love with all the treasures she finds at sales and auctions and can see the potential in every little box of buttons and postcards. The mystery can get sidetracted with this, but I found that more true to life, and more to my interest too. Some of the characters can slide into cartoonish (especially her mom) but this could be how she is seen through Jane's eyes. For all of us who have "stuff" at home, this is a promising series.
Way too much use of the F word!!!
Better than the average cozy.............
