A laugh-out-loud crime story following bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.
Feature image credit: Matt Donders, via Unsplash
Fans of Janet Evanovich will be pleased that number 29 in her murder-mystery series about bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has now been released. Janet Evanovich has been writing bestsellers for the past 26 years, winning several major crime fiction awards.
This time, Stephanie Plum, who resides in New Jersey, turns up for work Monday morning at the bonds office and finds office manager Connie is not there. Stephanie gets a call from a man who has abducted Connie and won’t release her until Stephanie finds a missing coin, which should have been in the office, but has mysteriously disappeared.
All the usual characters make an appearance: Morelli, Stephanie’s policeman boyfriend; Ranger, the tall dark and handsome security expert; Lula, the ex-sex-worker-turned-office-helper; and of course Stephanie’s family, including her crazy Grandma Mazur, and long-suffering mother and father. Actually, most people in Stephanie’s life are a little on the crazy side!
There are naturally lots of viewings at the local funeral home and way too much junk food consumed, as Stephanie tries to decide which man she loves the most. A few bombings have been thrown in for good measure, and some misfiring of guns.
Evanovich has a formula that works and has not really strayed from it for the last 28 books since One for the Money was published in 1994. If you have never read a book in the series, it is not really necessary to read them from the beginning as Evanovich always introduces each character as though you are meeting them for the first time.
Her storylines are predictable but she has a wicked sense of humour and there are always a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Evanovich is also very good at setting the scene. She gives us great, but never overly long, descriptions of places, people and things so the reader is easily able to imagine the story happening right in front of them.
If you want deep and meaningful and a story that terrifies, this may not be the book for you. Those who like familiarity in their books will want to read this next instalment and those new to the life and adventures of Stephanie Plum may enjoy a light crime story which delivers laughs and lots of misadventures.
Reviewed by Sue Mauger
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not necessarily of Glam Adelaide.
Distributed by: Hachette Australia
Released: November 2022
RRP: $32.99
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