Book Review
The Stephanie Plum Detective Series
The Stephanie Plum Detective Series: Most recent book, "Eleven on Top" by Janet Evanovich (338 pages) The series started with “One for the Money”, then “Two for the Dough” and you can imagine the rest of the titles. The author has even started letting readers vie for creating the title of her next book and thanks the winner on the title page of that book! All the books in this series are an easy read and I recommend them if you like a lot of action, humor, off-color jokes/situations.
The main character is Stephanie Plum, a bounty from Trenton, New Jersey in a section calls the "burg," a blue-collar pocket area where houses are all the same, cars are American, and dinner is served at six by Mom. Even though Stephanie is an adult, she lives a few miles from Mom and Dad's and continues to involve the family in her cases – whether she asks or not. There are a lot of crazy characters you will be introduced to if you follow this series, but I’m not going to highlight them, as I don’t want to give away any secrets.
The plot of the first book sets up how Stephanie (out of a job) blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into letting her work as an apprehension agent. Although she knows nothing about apprehending people, she knows that the fearless bounty hunter Ranger, (lots of sexual tension here) can teach her. Her first assignment is to apprehend Joe Morelli, a former vice cop on the run from a murder one charge. Also added to this book is that a heavyweight-boxing contender, known for his brutality to women, is after her. I’m not sure if things in New Jersey are really as portrayed in this book, but for those of us on the West Coast, it’s an eye-opener.