Scary Stuff

August 3, 2009
In Fiffer's spooky sixth Jane Wheel mystery to feature the Chicago collectibles picker and “accidental private eye” (after 2006's Hollywood Stuff
), Jane is worried that her brother, Michael, might be involved with Honest Joe, a shady Internet dealer, after finding fake baseball cards in her brother's house while visiting him in California. More than once, customers swindled by Honest Joe on eBay have accosted Michael, who eerily looks like Honest Joe. After conferring with her detective partner, Bruce Oh, Jane gets on a trail that leads to Herscher, Ill., the home of Jim Speller, who might be the Internet swindler. Jim might also be living with Jane's mother's eccentric cousin, Ada. Jane, Bruce and associates wind up trying to trap some malevolent “ghost” thieves on “Scary Night,” Ada's Halloween haunted house festival, at the chilling climax. Fiffer supplies just enough background to ease new readers into the series.

August 1, 2009
Jane Wheel, professional garage-sale picker and quasi-professional detective, finds her brother's doppelgänger.

Visiting her brother Michael in Los Angeles, Jane Wheel opens a drawer and discovers many valuable Hall of Famer rookie baseball cards. Alas, they're fakes bought on the Internet, though they may explain why perfect strangers are accosting Michael in the street until they get a closer look and say,"No, the eyes are different." On meeting one of Michael's harassers, Jane learns that her brother's doppelgänger, Honest Joe, who has what looks a lot like Michael's photo on his website, is selling those fakes from Herscher, Ill., one town over from Kankakee, where Jane promised Detective Oh that she would sit for her p.i. license test so that she could become his partner (Hollywood Stuff, 2006, etc.). Home she goes to investigate. With a bit of help from her nearest and dearest—her best friend Tim, a wickedly witty gay garage-sale maven; her mom, irascible tavern-owner Nellie; and Detective Oh—Jane uncovers a long-kept family secret while focusing on the shenanigans going on in an allegedly haunted house.

Somewhere en route to better plotting, Fiffer has drained Jane of her ebullience and humor, whose loss may account for her husband's defection. But Tim can still provoke a good chortle, and many readers will be charmed into picking up a knife and carving a leer into a pumpkin face.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2009
While visiting her brother Michael in California, antiques picker Jane Wheel learns that he has been mistaken for an Internet swindler. Concerned for Michaels safetythe swindled customers are angry and looking for revengeJane decides to investigate, leading her to her hometown of Kankakee, Illinois. While staying with her parents, Jane also helps one of the familys old friends, Swanette, prepare for an estate sale. When Swanette is attacked, Jane tries to find the reason why. In the course of working both cases, Jane meets a relative she never knew existed and explores some family history. The cases ultimately intertwine, of course, and Jane, working with the assistance of her acerbic mother, her good friend Tim, and her colleague Bruce, eventually sorts it all out. Details about the antiques trade are woven throughout the story, adding to the appeal for series fans, who will be intrigued to learn that Janes life will have to weather some big changes in subsequent episodes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)