Off My Rocker:

Recommendations from a Book Nut

Antiques Road Show
(March 2006)

This edition of Off My Rocker is dedicated to the followers of the PBS series Antiques Road Show and HGTV’s Cash in the Attic.

KILLER STUFF, by Sharon Fiffer

Jane Wheel, having been "down-sized" from her job as a PR executive has turned to her hobby in order to make ends meet. She is an avid hunter of collectibles and hopes to jump-start a second career as an antiques dealer. Currently she acts as a "picker" for another dealer. If only she could bring herself to discard the merely old in favor of the valuable old. But as Jane sorts through box after box of useless cast-offs she can’t help but speculate about the lives of the people who owned all this stuff. It all has value to her.

Needing a larger vehicle to transport all the items she picks up at garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, and auctions, Jane borrows a neighbor’s van. Upon returning it, she discovers her neighbor has been murdered and since Jane was seen kissing her neighbor’s husband, she becomes a prime suspect in the investigation.

TEN WORD GAME, by Jonathan Gash

If you can tolerate a "hero" whose ethics are questionable at every turn, then you should enjoy Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy mysteries. Certainly you will learn a good deal regarding art forgery, theft, and art world high jinks.

Lovejoy hates art thieves, but has no qualms regarding forgery. In this outing he has stolen back a forgery that he himself created and is therefore on the run from both the police and a bounty hunter.

Taking refuge, or so he thinks, on a cruise ship, he finds himself being "recruited" to help steal masterpieces from Leningrad’s Hermitage museum.

SHADOWS AT THE FAIR, by Lea Wait

Maggie Spencer spends her weekends at antiques shows selling vintage prints. When she arrives at the Rensselaer County Spring Antique Fair, she learns that a number of dealers have met problematical ends.

Saddened but not thinking too much about it, Maggie’s opening night celebration is scarcely over when another dead dealer is discovered.

Although the author annoyingly withholds clues, the setting and the information regarding antiques, antique shows and vintage prints is interesting.

Other "antique" mysteries for your reading pleasure are The Etruscan Chimera, by Lyn Hamilton, Floating Girl, by Sujata Massey, Remember When, by Nora Roberts, and Chicken Run, by Alma Fritchley