One person's garbage is another person's treasure. Just ask Jane Wheel, a picker who goes to real estate sales to buy objects which she expects a demand to resell. She is also a private detective who seems to attract dead bodies like a magnet and finds out who killed them. Both professions provide Jane with the same powerful adrenalin rush although one seems a bit more sedate than the other.

Her friends persuade Jane to host a garage sale to rid her of the overflow and make room for new purchases. Shortly after the opening, Jane receives a phone call from her mother in Kankakea, Illinois asking for her and her geologist husband Charley to visit in order to examine some remains her neighbor Fuzzy found buried on her property.

Jane, Charley and their son Mick camp on Fuzzy's land. A noise awakens Jane who sees a man fall to the ground. She realizes that he is Fuzzy's neighbor Johnny Sullivan, a now dead reporter; she also sees Fuzzy walking back to her home. Once again Picker ad Private Investigator Jane is on the case of a homicide.

BURIED STUFF is a terrific cozy due to the strong support cast and obviously the center of the novel Jane, who does not know the meaning of the word quit. Readers get a look at a Midwestern small town in which most of the natives pull together to improve life for everyone. Sharon Fiffer provides an interesting story that grips fans without resorting to violence as Jane struts her stuff trying to solve this fascinating mystery.

REVIEWED BY HARRIET KLAUSNER

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REVIEWER, HARRIET KLAUSNER