Sharon Fiffer Books In Order

Killer Stuff

In this dynamite series debut, Sharon Fiffer has introduced an engaging and enterprising hero*ine 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. 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 hero*ine that’s a dynamic mix of Miss Marple, Kinsey Millhone, and Leigh and Leslie Keno. AUTHORBIO: Sharon Fiffer collects buttons, Bakelite, pottery, vintage potholders, keys, locks, and other Killer Stuff. She is co editor of the anthologies Home: American Writers Remember Rooms of Their Own, Body, and Family: American Writers Remember Their Own; and the author of Imagining America. Killer Stuff is her first novel.

Dead Guy’s Stuff

From Bakelite jewelry to jadeite dishes, antiques ‘picker’ Jane Wheel has a knack for hunting down vintage collectibles. And when a Chicago estate sale yields a room full of dusty tavern memorabilia, she hits pay dirt once again. Most of this ‘Dead Guy’s Stuff‘ is just perfect for decorating her parents’ newly renovated bar & grill in Kankakee, Illinois. Most of this stuff…
except for the finger pickled in a jar of formaldehyde. Uncertain what to do about the mysterious ‘body part,’ Jane asks former homicide detective Bruce Oh to see if the detached digit is connected to a crime. Meanwhile she is carting her tavern treasures down to Kankakee unaware that her hometown’s darkest secrets are buried in her boxes…
or that her talent for finding things will lead to a corpse, a kidnapping, and a chilling threat to those she loves most…
.

The Wrong 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.

Buried Stuff

THE WORLD S LARGEST GARAGE SALE…
MURDER INCLUDEDAntiques picker Jane Wheel is going home, back to Kankakee, Illinois. In this little town that time forgot, a farmer friend of Jane’s parents has dug up some mysterious old bones and relics. Jane just has to take a look, and she s bringing her husband and son along. The whole family plans to camp out in a cornfield and have a rip roaring good time. And the added bonus? Kankakee is about to host the biggest town garage sale, ever. Every block will be filled with the great stuff that is one man s junk, but another man s treasure McCoy, Bakelite, vintage clothes, Depression glass, Griswold frying pans. What could possibly go wrong? A murder on the old man s farm, just for starters…
and development plans for Kankakee that spell trouble. That s Trouble, with a capital T.

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.

Scary Stuff

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.

Backstage Stuff

With a divorce looming, antiques picker and PI Jane Wheel is stuck in place, unsure what to do with herself. Luckily, her friend Tim Lowry has the answer. Not only does he have an estate sale to prep for, but he found an old play, a murder mystery, that he’s dying to put on. The play would be just the thing, that is if it weren t cursed. Tim pushes forward in spite of ominous notes 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 as ever, Backstage Stuff is as much fun for the mystery as it is for peeking behind the curtain to see all of the surprises that Jane has collected for the big show.

The Body

Portions of the proceeds from Body will be donated to Charity

50 Ways to Help Your Community

Inspiring profiles of innovative and existing community volunteer programs and organizations, most of them conceived and operated by ordinary citizens, offer guidance and encouragement and are augmented by a resource guide on contacts and legal issues.

Home

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