Helpful Score: 4
I really like this series. Jane Wheel is the ultimate garage sale-rummage sale-estate sale queen! She dithers about what to part with from her huge collections when the STUFF begins to overwhelm her home and her husband. Of course there is always a bit of mystery thrown in to challenge her "hunting" talents. The stories take place west of Chicago and up and down Route 55 which is so familiar to me as I recognize many of the towns, streets, and locations from living in that area for nearly 20 years. Even if you aren't from that area, you will enjoy these books if you have ever suffered as Jane does in throwing anything away.
Helpful Score: 2
Buried Stuff: Jane Wheel holds her very first garage sale in effort to get less desirable things out of her house, but it ends almost before it begins when she gets a phone call - Fuzzy Nelson has discovered bones on his property so Jane and her husband Charlie, a geologist, decide to go to Kankakee, Illinois, to see if they can solve this bones mystery. Poor Fuzzy has been descended upon by all kinds of various government officials and needs help. While in Kankakee Jane helps best friend Tim plan the world's largest garage sale, an effort intended to revitalize Kankakee. But then a man turns up murdered on Fuzzy's property and reader is taken back to the mystery there. Interesting family relationships and characters, antique lore, and the history of Kankakee are all here. Jane Wheel's a quirky character. Good read.
Helpful Score: 2
Jabe returns home to Kankakee, Illinois, to help with a citywide garage sale organized by Tim, her friend and partner in the antiques business. But she also stumbles onto murder. More character development in this installment in the series.
Series mystery- cozy.
likeable series about an amateur sleuth who is a garage sale nut and a part-time detective. Enjoy!
"The world's largest garage sale ... murder included."
Was a fast read, would read another in the series but not my favorite.
"THE WORLD'S LARGEST GARAGE SALE....MURDER INCLUDED...Antiques 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."
This is the best book in the series so far. There's a good mystery, and plenty of antiques and collectibles talk. But what really made his book for me were the characters. In this book we get ALL of the main characters of the series - Jane, her gay BFF since childhood Tim, her father Don and her irascible mother Nellie, Detective Oh and his wife Claire. Even Jane's son Nick and her husband Charley, who were only occasionally mentioned in previous books, play major roles in this one. They all became much more real in my mind and imagination. I hope we get to see more of all of these characters in coming books.
