368 pages
June 2010 by St. Martin's Press
Source: my parents
The back of this book's blurb starts out: "Stephanie Plum, Trenton, New Jersey's favorite pistol-packing, condom-carrying bounty hunter, is back..." Well, not exactly. Stephanie's definitely back but even though she owns a gun, she rarely carries it and even then it almost never has bullets in it. Which is actually the least of her problems when it comes to her abilities as a bounty hunter.
Stephanie works as a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman. She's 'helped" in her work by her friend and co-worker, Lula (an ex-hooker and "two hundred pound black woman with blond baloney curls), her Grandma Mazur (who packs a really big gun, a really big attitude and a eye for a good looking man) and, in this book, Sally (a transvestite musician who stands 7-feet tall in his heels and wig).
In this book, Stephanie's on the trail of Maxine Nowicki, who's skipped bail after stealing her boyfriend's car. Should be a piece of cake. But as so often happens with Stephanie, it quickly become obvious that there's more than meets the eye to this case. Maxine is one angry ex-girlfriend, her ex- seems to be hiding something and someone is maiming or killing everyone involved with Maxine. Throw in a lack of clues and an arch-enemy who's also hunting Maxine and Stephanie's life soon becomes more than a little complicated.
When someone douses her car in gasoline and it "accidentally" catches fire, followed by someone fire bombing her apartment, Stephanie needs to find a safe place to stay. A place where she won't have to worry that someone else will be put in danger. Enter Joe Morelli, cop and on-again, off-again love interest. Soon Joe's family is convinced that Stephanie is pregnant and that the two will soon be married. But these two can't even stay "on-again" for more than a few days. Luckily Stephanie also has Ranger, super bounty hunter and super hunk who's more than willing to help Stephanie...in any way she might need.
Stephanie is all-Jersey and Trenton and the surrounding area always play a huge part in these books. It's part of what makes it so fun to read the books. But the regular cast of characters is what really makes the books. Grandma Mazur is my favorite--she's just so sassy! I've read the first three books in this series and have dropped in here and there further into the series and Evanovich always delivers exactly what the reader comes to expect. I suspect if you read too many too close together, they'd really start to get old; the unpredictable soon becomes predictable, the relationships never seem to develop and no one really seems to "grow." But when I pick one of these books up, I enjoy knowing that I'm going to be chuckling throughout the book and that things will never get too heavy.
Though I haven't read any of the books in this series, my mother loves them, and has been encouraging me to read them for a really long time. I think your mention of all the off-the-wall characters is something that might entice me further, and I am going to add the first in this series to my list. I loved this review and thought you did a great job with it. Thanks for sharing it with us!
ReplyDeleteI've read one of her books and I enjoyed it! Great review!
ReplyDeleteThey're flat out fun!!!
ReplyDeletemaybe I'll dive into some of these while on maternity leave (just let me be delusional, Lisa, that I'll get any reading done...). ;) I have 1-3 in a single volume but have only read the first. Was fun. Wish I had seen more of Grandma Mazar, though--like you everyone seems to bring her up!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to say I've read all the Stephanie Plum books except for the very latest one and I've enjoyed them all. Some more than others, of course. I think one of my all time favorites is the third one with the body strapped to the top of the car while they're driving down the Turnpike. I laughed until I fell off the sofa. HA!
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