Customer Reviews
Stephanie and Rex become homeless - By: Joseph Haschka, 05 Jan 2006 
What's a girl to do when handcuffed to her own refrigerator?
For those readers unacquainted with Stephanie Plum, she's a skip tracer, i.e. bounty hunter, working for her cousin Vinniein Trenton, NJ. She's also a disaster magnet. So, when her latest assignment, Maxine Nowicki, who jumped bail after being charged with the theft of her estranged boyfriend's car, handcuffs Plum to the door of her own fridge, what's left to do while awaiting rescue but finish off the leftover banana cream pie, a jar of peanut butter, & a bag of baby carrots? And that's before her car explodes, her apartment is gutted by fire, & she gets raw eggin her hair.
As I work my way sequentially through the Stephanie Plum series, I stand amazed at the imagination of author Janet Evanovich that continually ups the ante on the absurdity of the situationsin which Stephanie finds herself & the eccentricity of the characters that gravitate to our heroine like lint to a black dress. Yet, the craziness never seems pushed or over the top, but is just Stephanie's karmain a nutty world.
The continuing "male lead"in all of Plum's adventures is Joe Morelli, the rascally plain-clothes Trenton cop with whom Stephanie has a long love-hate relationship. When they were just pre-pubescent kids, the sexually precocious Joe lured Stephanie into his father's garage to play choo-choo. As teenagers, Plum ran down Morelli with the family Buick after Joe relieved Stephanie of her virginity on the floor behind the eclair counterin the pastry shopin which she worked. Yet, when Plum & her pet hamster Rex are left homeless after their apartment is torchedin FOUR TO SCORE, it's the extra roomin Joe's house into which Stephanie moves. Will she & Joe find True Love before they kill each other?
Like its predecessorsin the series, this book is exceededin trashiness perhaps only by a lurid bodice-ripper. But, should you pick up a Stephanie Plum adventure, I virtually guarantee you a good time.
Someone needs to make these books into a tv series!! - By: 13_jane, 13 Dec 2005 These books just keep getting better!!! Someone needs to put Stephanie Plum on the TV!! It would make an excellent series!!
Drag Queens, Counterfeiters, Fire Bombs, Jealousy, and SEX! - By: Donald Mitchell, 21 May 2004 Janet Evanovich has written her wackiest book of the first four. Some of the highlights include a coded set of mystery clues followed by a close encounter ending, a transvestite band, a jealous lover, a woman scorned, progressin the budding Morelli-Plum relationship, & torture. And those are just some of the complications. Each amazing complication is done with the maximum humor imaginable!
The Sally Sweet character is probably her most memorable character. Old nemesis Joyce Barnhardt does favors for Cousin Vinny & gets to compete with Stephanie Plum for a job bringingin Maxine Nowicki. As usual, Stephanie can find Maxine, but has a hard time apprehending her. In the meantime, someone's making threats, pouring gasoline over her car, & firebombing wherever she lives. The people she contacts to find Maxine keep turning up with strange wounds, & are very silent about Maxine's whereabouts. She seems to hit cold trail after cold trail.
You should be able to solve the mystery about half way through. This was one of Evanovich's more transparent efforts. But the mystery is really beside the point. To focus on that would be like studying history instead of partying during Mardi Grasin New Orleans. The story of Stephanie Plum & her relationship to the other characters are where you'll find the attractionin this book.
The scenes, the set-ups, & the dialogue are marvelous. If you have a friend who is also reading the series, you'll be trading lines before you're done with this book.
After you have read & enjoyed this book, consider how little straight comedy is written nowin fiction form. Almost all of it isin the context of crime & mystery novels. What does that say about our tastes & society's state? What would a non-bounty hunting, funny Stephanie Plum be like? I suspect she could be just as funny. In many ways, she is the Lucille Ball of the 1996-2004 period.
Overcome your stalled thinking about how much fun a book can be with this one!
Drag Queens, Counterfeiters, Fire Bombs, Jealousy, and SEX! - By: Donald Mitchell, 21 May 2004 Janet Evanovich has written her wackiest bookin the first four. Some of the highlights include a coded set of mystery clues followed by a close encounter ending, a transvestite band, a jealous lover, a woman scorned, progressin the budding Morelli-Plum relationship, & torture. And those are just some of the complications. Each amazing complication is done with the maximum humor imaginable!
The Sally Sweet character is probably her most memorable character. Old nemesis Joyce Barnhardt does favors for Cousin Vinny & gets to compete with Stephanie Plum for a job bringingin Maxine Nowicki. As usual, Stephanie can find Maxine, but has a hard time apprehending her. In the meantime, someone's making threats, pouring gasoline over her car, & firebombing wherever she lives. The people she contacts to find Maxine keep turning up with strange wounds, & are very silent about Maxine's whereabouts. She seems to hit cold trail after cold trail.
You should be able to solve the mystery about half way through. This was one of Evanovich's more transparent efforts. But the mystery is really beside the point. To focus on that would be like studying history instead of partying during Mardi Grasin New Orleans. The story of Stephanie Plum & her relationship to the other characters are where you'll find the attractionin this book.
The scenes, the set-ups, & the dialogue are marvelous. If you have a friend who is also reading the series, you'll be trading lines before you're done with this book.
After you have read & enjoyed this book, consider how little straight comedy is written nowin fiction form. Almost all of it isin the context of crime & mystery novels. What does that say about our tastes & society's state? What would a non-bounty hunting, funny Stephanie Plum be like? I suspect she could be just as funny. In many ways, she is the Lucille Ball of the 1996-2004
Overcome your stalled thinking about how much fun a book can be with this one!
Stephanie and Rex become homeless - By: Joseph Haschka, 07 Mar 2004 What's a girl to do when handcuffed to her own refrigerator?
For those readers unacquainted with Stephanie Plum, she's a skip tracer, i.e. bounty hunter, working for her cousin Vinniein Trenton, NJ. She's also a disaster magnet. So, when her latest assignment, Maxine Nowicki, who jumped bail after being charged with the theft of her estranged boyfriend's car, handcuffs Plum to the door of her own fridge, what's left to do while awaiting rescue but finish off the leftover banana cream pie, a jar of peanut butter, & a bag of baby carrots? And that's before her car explodes, her apartment is gutted by fire, & she gets raw eggin her hair.
As I work my way sequentially through the Stephanie Plum series, I stand amazed at the imagination of author Janet Evanovich that continually ups the ante on the absurdity of the situationsin which Stephanie finds herself & the eccentricity of the characters that gravitate to our heroine like lint to a black dress. Yet, the craziness never seems pushed or over the top, but is just Stephanie's karmain a nutty world.
The continuing "male lead"in all of Plum's adventures is Joe Morelli, the rascally plain-clothes Trenton cop with whom Stephanie has a long love-hate relationship. When they were just pre-pubescent kids, the sexually precocious Joe lured Stephanie into his father's garage to play choo-choo. As teenagers, Plum ran down Morelli with the family Buick after Joe relieved Stephanie of her virginity on the floor behind the eclair counterin the pastry shopin which she worked. Yet, when Plum & her pet hamster Rex are left homeless after their apartment is torchedin FOUR TO SCORE, it's the extra roomin Joe's house into which Stephanie moves. Will she & Joe find True Love before they kill each other?
Like its predecessorsin the series, this book is exceededin trashiness perhaps only by a lurid bodice-ripper. But, should you pick up a Stephanie Plum adventure, I virtually guarantee you a good time.
