Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Kristin

I really didn’t want to review another Janet Evanovich book.  I might have been a little embarrassed that I keep reading them, even as I feel that they are getting even more repetitive than the dozens that have gone before.  But I placed the book on hold, took it home, read it over the course of a few days, and actually laughed at the latest Plum exploits.  Maybe I should I say that I laughed at the latest Grandma Mazur exploits, because she was at the center of my favorite crazy humor scene in the book.  Let’s just say that she has a bucket list.  And Ranger is on the list.

In Top Secret Twenty-One, Stephanie Plum is once again on the trail of an FTA (failure to appear): Jimmy Poletti, used-car dealer and dealer of more unlawful things as well.  Ranger enlists Stephanie’s help in catching a professional assassin at a Russian vodka trade show.  Whenever Ranger asks for Stephanie’s professional help, I wonder what in the world she can do that he cannot.  Then again, amidst Russian vodka salesmen, I guess that Stephanie’s feminine attributes are the one thing Ranger does not have.

Grandma Mazur and Joe’s Grandma Bella are at each other’s throats as well.  Name calling and pie throwing are fair game in this battle of the senior citizens.  Lula is riding shotgun and even dating an FTA so that Stephanie can apprehend him at the end of the evening.  Randy Briggs, unlikable short person, is back and needs Stephanie’s protection and apartment.  Even as he is an unwelcome houseguest, Stephanie manages to wrangle Randy into dog-sitting as she takes in a homeless FTA who is extremely attached to his ten unruly Chihuahuas.

The book is similar to the previous twenty in the series, but for some reason I found this one to be slightly better plotted.  Yes, cars explode, apartments are damaged and the Buick remains pristine as always.  When I start wondering about the lack of character development progression, it seems that Stephanie should have matured a little bit by now (or at least made a choice between Morelli and Ranger.)  But then again, each book may only be a month or two apart, so it’s entirely possible that the entire series encompasses only a couple of years.  After all, Rex the hamster has lived through all twenty-one books and multiple apartment bombings.  I guess I’ll hang in there and see how many more laugh out loud moments are in number Twenty-Two.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Kristin

Going back to the classics—well, the  Janet Evanovich classics anyway—is quite entertaining.  I rarely buy books to keep (libraries, libraries, libraries!) but for several years I was buying Evanovich’s books, so that I could go back and laugh at the hijinks whenever the urge struck me.  For the past several Stephanie Plum books, I have been wondering what in the world happened to the best-selling author that I had enjoyed for years.  To explore this point, I decided to re-read One for the Money to see if my mind was clouded with nostalgia, or if the books truly were better at the beginning of the Plum series.  What I have found is that many of the writing passages are more descriptive and more enjoyable to read than the staccato jokes and repeated crazy situations of the latest books.  For example, a spoiler-free passage from One for the Money:

“I awoke to the steady drumming of rain on my fire escape.  Wonderful.  Just what I needed to complicate my life further.  I crawled out of bed and pulled the curtain aside, not pleased at the sight of an all-day soaker.  The parking lot had slicked up, reflecting light from mysterious sources.  The rest of the world was gunmetal gray, the cloud cover low and unending, the buildings robbed of color behind the rain.”

Great literature?  No.  But I find it much more enjoyable when the author shows me what is happening, instead of telling me in words of one syllable.  Evanovich doesn’t go on for pages with these descriptions, but they make a nice backdrop to laugh-out-loud moments such as when Grandma Mazur is playing with her new .38 Special at the dinner table.  Let’s just say that particular roast chicken carcass will never be the same.  Mrs. Plum may as well go ahead and start her secret drinking in the kitchen now.

In addition to Grandma Mazur providing great comic relief in this outing, the series’ stage is set with Stephanie beginning her career as a bounty hunter.  Here we first learn about Joe Morelli and how he took Stephanie into her garage and played “choo choo” while still in elementary school.  After Stephanie blackmails her cousin Vinnie into giving her a try as a bounty hunter, her first bond is for local cop Morelli. When Stephanie explains that she knows Morelli and sold him a cannoli in high school, office manager Connie replies, “Honey, half of all the women in New Jersey have sold him their cannoli.”

Morelli may or may not be the bad guy in this book, and I won’t say too much so that it’s not spoiled for readers new to the series.  There is another character who is definitely a bad guy, and is the type who will make your skin crawl.  The early books in this series have characters with much more depth than some of the throwaway characters in later books.

Ranger is also introduced in One for the Money:  an ultra-capable guy working in security and wearing all black.  With mysterious sources of income and a never ending stream of black high-end vehicles, Ranger is the one Stephanie goes to when she needs a little help in apprehending a fugitive.  He makes Stephanie shivery in a very positive way, but she is never sure whether or not she wants to be involved with him.  Actually, twenty books later Stephanie’s still not sure whether Morelli or Ranger is the man for her.

My conclusion regarding this re-reading of One for the Money is this:  Yes, it was better written than some of the later books in the series.  I’m not quite sure when the series jumped the shark, but it has.  But for some “before the shark” action, check out One for the Money.  It may hook you and take you on a wild ride.

Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Kristin

I remember the good old days, when Stephanie Plum made me laugh out loud at least every few pages.  Sadly, those days are over.  Janet Evanovich’s latest books in the Plum series feel like there are large portions copied and pasted from previous books.  Stephanie is still frustrated by her ineptitude as a bounty hunter, still thinking about marrying Joe, still getting the evil eye from Joe’s Grandma Bella, still thinking about hopping back into bed with Ranger, still going to Cluck-in-a-Bucket with Lula, and still destroying at least one vehicle per book.

But hope springs eternal, as is shown by the fact that I (and many others) keep reading this series.

In this twentieth installment, Stephanie starts out searching for fugitive mobster Salvatore “Uncle Sunny” Sunucchi.  Unfortunately for Stephanie, Uncle Sunny has close ties to the Morelli family.  He is Joe’s godfather and a favorite nephew of Grandma Bella.  Dapper Uncle Sunny has quite a few loyal friends and family who keep him hidden as Stephanie and Lula stumble around trying to apprehend him.

Ranger also asks for Stephanie’s help this time around, as he is investigating the death of Melvina Gillian, a Burg senior citizen who was found in a dumpster.  Stephanie digs into the happenings at the senior center, online bingo sites, and the local funeral home in order to find out who might be killing a string of old ladies.

Zaniness rules in the Plum series, with a giraffe running around, first appearing on page two.  Right along with the giraffe sighting, Lula decides that she must have a genuine Brahmin purse being sold for ten dollars on the side of the road.  Back at the bail bonds office, Connie very helpfully points out that it is a Brakmin bag, but Lula is not bothered by the misspelling.  After one too many failed captures, Lula and Stephanie both consider a change of profession, Lula musing about going back to her old street corner, and Stephanie working a very short and nauseated shift in the butcher shop.

Stephanie continues the see-sawing back and forth between Ranger and Joe.  Unfortunately, in this volume, we don’t see a lot of action or even much depth of character from the men.  Joe says “Cupcake.” Ranger says “Babe.” And that’s about it.

Amazingly, Stephanie doesn’t destroy a vehicle until the twenty-second chapter.  I was starting to think Stephanie would get all the way through with all vehicles intact.  (I should have known better.)

If you are a die-hard Plum fan, then you will probably enjoy this latest outing.  I think the closest I came to a laugh out loud moment was when Grandma Mazur started talking about her new lavender thong and the effect on her new boyfriend.  Yes, sophomoric humor at best, but sometimes that’s all we need: a light, fluffy and predictable read.

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

Reviewed by Kristin

At first glance, The Heist promises to be about the thrilling adventures of FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare as she chases down international crook Nicolas Fox.  Of course it doesn’t hurt that Nick is handsome and charmingly appealing to even tough-girl Kate—oh wait, yes, that is a problem.

Kate and Nick have a history.  Kate’s mission for the past several years has been to find this criminal mastermind.  Thwarted at every turn, Kate is obsessed by all the ways Nick has slipped out of her net.  Two years ago, Kate was almost successful, but Nick slipped away.  In fact, while Kate had dozens of FBI agents searching for him, Nick was lounging in HER hotel room, ordering room service, watching pay-per-view, and looting the mini-bar.

Kate runs an operation where she captures Nick as he attempts to steal the Crimson Teardrop diamond from the Roland Larsen Kibbee Art Collection in San Francisco.  But Nick has an even bigger con in mind as he manipulates the FBI into offering him a job, working alongside Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Soon, Kate and Nick are sailing toward a private island in an attempt to capture Derek Griffin, an investment banker who absconded with $500 million of his company’s money right as the FBI was about to arrest him for running a pyramid scheme.  Kate and Nick have recruited a cast of supporting characters that add to the adventure.  Piracy, Mexican gangsters, damsels in distress and high-speed chases are all in a day’s work for Nick and his reluctant partner Kate.

This book is extremely “Evanovich.”  In fact, it’s so “Evanovich” that one day after finishing the book, I couldn’t remember the main character’s name.  All I could come up with was “Stephanie,” and I was sure that couldn’t be it.  Within the first few chapters, Kate is slapping herself on the forehead and yelling “Ugh!” as she is frustrated by Nick.  Throw in the obvious physical attraction to the bad guy who’s maybe a good guy, and you have a new series that might as well feature Stephanie Plum.

Perhaps Goldberg’s co-writing does hold down the number of times Kate slaps herself on the forehead or allows herself to give in to little fantasies about Nick.  I hadn’t read anything by Goldberg previously, and was interested to learn that he is a bestselling author and writer for the television series “Monk."

Despite the similarities to the Plum series, I did enjoy the quick-read and will look forward to reading the next one.  I have a feeling that Kate and Nick will continue their simmering sexual tension (just like Stephanie Plum and Ranger) and get into all sorts of high-jinks during their continuing assignments for the FBI.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich

Reviewed by Doris

Janet Evanovich has built up a huge fan base for her Stephanie Plum series. The incompetent lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter and her menagerie of friends are taking off on another adventure called Notorious Nineteen.  Currently Notorious Nineteen sits at #3 on the NYT Best Sellers list as proof that her fans are still buying this series even though it is a burned out mess. Unless you are a devoted fan of Evanovich’s characters, don’t bother to read this redo of everything Evanovich has been doing through the first eighteen books. (I have noticed a definite slip in the requests we get for the Plum books, but perhaps that’s just my own growing disdain for them shading my view. I like to think our patrons are much more discerning than the average reader!)

What do I mean when I say “re-do?”  Stephanie loses at least one car to a bomb or fire or in this case an RPG in every book. In Notorious Nineteen that happens about six pages into the book. No one is shocked or even mildly surprised. Of course, then Ranger loses one of his beautiful black Porsches and Morelli loses his truck to bombs or fires.  Stephanie ends up driving around in her deceased uncle’s big blue retro Buick just as she does in every book.

Stephanie regularly turns up at her parents’ home for dinner. Her mother is now drinking full glasses of “iced tea” which is really liquor, and her father is still a jerk. Grandma Mazur is still crazy and still trying to be Stephanie running around solving crimes and sleeping with hot men but she is no longer funny.  And speaking of hot men, there is still the back and forth between Ranger and Morelli although Stephanie thinks she might love Morelli and he is her future. Of course that doesn’t keep her from melting every time Ranger looks at her. Typically, Morelli wants her to give up the bounty hunting and danger and be the little wife, while Ranger lets Stephanie be herself with an occasional “Babe” thrown in when she does something really stupid.

Lula, Stephanie’s sidekick, is still eating tons of greasy food and wearing spandex four sizes too small. She still carries a gun she cannot use. She does have what may be the only adventure with some humor—it involves a nudist beach she and Stephanie must visit so they can interview a witness. Meanwhile, she and Stephanie still have some cretin of a criminal either expose himself or manage to totally outsmart them several times.

Is there anything in this book that makes it readable? Well, this one has a little mystery plot unlike most of the others. Two men with large bonds posted by Stephanie’s employer have disappeared after being admitted to the hospital with appendicitis. No one saw them leave. No one has any idea how they got out without staff or cameras recording it. One of the guys who embezzled five million dollars from senior citizens has a wife who is looking for the stolen money.  The other missing man was tied to organized crime and maybe there was a hit out on him. In desperate need of money as usual, Stephanie tries to find the two skippers. I thought Evanovich laid down a very clear track as to what happened to the missing men, and I had figured it out by the end of the third chapter.  What I thought was highly obvious just went over the heads of Stephanie and even Morelli who is supposed to be the hotshot detective.

When I finished reading Notorious Nineteen I sent an email to Evanovich saying much of what I have written here. This is the response I received from one of her assistants.

          “Ken here, Alex's assistant. I'm helping with the email.
But what about the hundreds of thousands who still buy and enjoy the books? We get dozens of           letters every day from people who tell us they love the series and the latest book. In addition, new readers are writing to us all the time who tell us how thrilled they are to have recently discovered the series. Also, the social media is humming with comments from satisfied readers. It seems to me that they'd be pretty disappointed if Janet abruptly ended the series.”

I guess I won’t be winning the Fan of the Month award from Evanovich! I don’t want Evanovich to just quit writing the series. I would like to see some growth in the characters (and the writer) that makes them something more than a waste of ink and paper. I would like to see her develop a real plot other than moving from fire to fire and bad choices. If she is going to keep writing the series then she needs to bring something more to the books than slapstick.  If she cannot do that, then, yes, end the series. Let Stephanie grow up!

Explosive Eighteen is a dud!

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich, reviewed by Doris

Did I say after reading Janet Evanovich’s Smokin’ Seventeen that I was done with the series? Well, I lied. I suckered myself into reading Explosive Eighteen.  Yes, I was on pain meds for a sore knee, but that is no excuse for such a dismal waste of time.

In the first few books of the Stephanie Plum series, there was humor. Grandma Mazur made me laugh, and her obsession with attending funeral home visitations reminded me of my dearly loved aunts who like to discuss who died this week. Stephanie’s struggles to learn the bail bond apprehension business were also amusing and flaunt with misadventures reminiscent of Lucy and Ethel gone bad. Lula the ex-hooker as Stephanie’s sidekick was always good for a laugh for no other reason that her clothing. And, of course there were Ranger and Morelli.  Ranger is the gorgeous mystery man who may or may not be totally on the side of law and order who calls Stephanie “Babe.” Morelli is the gorgeous neighborhood bad boy who grew up into the homicide cop who definitely is one the side of law and order and who calls Stephanie “Cupcake.” Stephanie’s eternal dilemma—which gorgeous man does she want in her bed and her life forever after?  Since this series has continued long past its expiration date and we have discovered that Stephanie has the brains of a deranged poodle, I no longer care which of these men she wants. I just want to know why they want her! (Just on a personal note here: I would much rather be called “Babe” than “Cupcake.”)

Explosive Eighteen follows the formula Evanovich established in the first book. Stephanie and Lula go to apprehend some miscreant. Along the way they have to eat twelve times and always at least once at the Cluck-in-a-Bucket. Then their car gets blown up or burned up or stolen. Stephanie calls Ranger. He comes and saves her worthless hide and gives her a new car to destroy. It’s kind of like eat chicken, tazer someone, Lula tries to shoot someone, the miscreat escapes, Stephanie whines, everyone goes over to Stephanie’s parents’ house for dinner, her mother drinks (so would I if this were my child), Stephanie pouts her way into to bed with one or the other of the gorgeous men available and then feels great guilt, yadda, yadda, yadda. There’s always some meandering mystery that really is not a mystery but which gives Morelli something to do besides be exasperated with Plum. Comments are made about Stephanie’s cousin and boss Vinnie who had a romantic encounter with a duck, buses explode, cars burn up, and Stephanie’s mom looks longingly at the bottle of Scotch. In this case, the man seated next to Stephanie on the return flight from an ill-fated vacation in Hawaii turns up dead. Everyone thinks he gave Stephanie something of great value, so she has Russian mob people, a really bad hairdresser, and various and assorted other criminals after her. While she tries to muddle through her latest romantic disaster and avoid getting killed for the valuable object she really doesn’t have, it is of course Ranger who comes to her rescue time and time again.

It is time for Evanovich, Morelli, and Ranger to move on. Stephanie Plum has to be one of the most incompetent, sniveling, whinny so-called heroines in current fiction. Whatever humor there was is the series died a slow, painful death on the plain of beaten to death. Unless you too have a sore knee and are pain meds, find something better to read over the holidays. 

I Love Lucy--er, Stephanie!

Anytime I need a fun, pick-me-up, laugh-out-loud read, I can always count on Janet Evanovich. Mystery. Romance. All of her books are hilarious, but the Stephanie Plum mysteries are especially fun. Imagine Lucy Ricardo as a bounty hunter, and you pretty much have Stephanie Plum. She’s smart. Pretty. Has a pet hamster, and keeps her gun in a cookie jar.

Every June, a numbered Stephanie Plum novel is released. By numbered, I mean, they actually have numbers in the title. One For the Money, Two For the Dough. The newest is Finger Lickin’ Fifteen. Evanovich actually has a contest on her website for fans to name the books. In “Fifteen,” Lula, her coworker and sidekick, witnesses a murder. They pair up with Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur and get involved in a barbecuing competition to catch the killer. Numerous cars explode. Sparks fly – Stephanie has two loves in her life. Tough Trenton cop, Joe Morelli, and mysterious Ranger, who is her mentor and sometimes boss. There is plenty of mystery to keep you guessing and loads of humor to keep you chuckling.

“Between the Numbers” is also a series. Usually released in December, it has the same characters plus Diesel, who has “special powers” that extend well beyond bounty hunting. In Plum Spooky, the latest in the series, he and Stephanie go after a nerdy scientist and the mysterious Wulf. A group of monkeys. Kidnapping. Explosive farts and a brush with the Jersey Devil make this a hilarious romp.

Warning: these books are totally addictive. My husband just stares at me in amazement as I sit laughing so hard the tears roll down my face. It is fun with the numbers and between!

These books are available at both Main and Avoca in adult fiction under "Evanovich." You don't have to read them in order, but it's more fun that way. You may need to put certain titles on reserve as Evanovich (and Stephanie!) are very popular!

Reviewed by Susan Wolfe