Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
I just finished reading Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. As the name hints, it’s the nineteenth book in the series about Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter in New Jersey.
This book actually felt a little more serious than the others. No less humorous but still, it dealt with some really serious and creepy issues.
Stephanie is busy chasing a man who’s disappeared from the hospital, just after it was found out that he’d embezzled money from the home for the elderly where he worked. The old people weren’t happy so there was no shortage of potential killers. However, it turns out he’s at least the fourth person to disappear without a trace from the same hospital in the past couple of years.
That’s not all, though. Ranger wants Stephanie to be his ‘date’ for a dinner and later on to be matron of honor on a wedding between a former ‘brother-in-arms’ of his and his wife. In other words, Stephanie is to provide additionally security for the bride-to-be.
She’s forced to endure a horrible pink bridesmaid’s dress and on that first dinner she also gets poisoned. A psycho leaves threatening messages everywhere and it seems the psycho is targeting Ranger, his old buddy and their loved ones.
The book is still funny, as I mentioned above, and the creepiness never takes over, but it felt a little different from the other even more lighthearted books in the series.
And I’m still having fun, so I’m going to read the next book. If that too lives up to my expectations, I might continue with the whole series. Fun is important, especially in times like these.
Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich
I just finished Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich and all I can say is that this was just as funny as most of the other books. The book starts out with a ilttle mystery. Stephanie has just returned from Hawaii where she had a little trouble – guy trouble. You don’t know exactly what’s happened until later in the book, but I’ll just say it’s not that surprising when you do find out. Just funny.
A case sort of follows her from Hawaii and from then on Stephanie is tailed by a multitude of real and not so real FBI agents. That too, gets a bit funny.
But those men are not the only ones stalking Stephanie. She has to put up with unwanted company from a number of other people, but that too, of course, leads to funny situations.
Which is basically what this series is all about. There is of course a case and some bounties to collect, but to me this series is all about the humor and it works. It’s about the only thing that can make me laugh these days and I’m really grateful for that.
So, like I usually say, this isn’t primarily a series of books for the mystery or thriller lover but for those who like the idea of a sort of mystery that is really, really funny. Or I guess, for anyone wanting to laugh.
It is quite a bit about sex too, but there’s nothing explicit so I think most people won’t have a problem with it.
Smoking Seventeen by Janet Evanovich
I just finished reading Smoking Seventeen, by Janet Evanovich, which as you can probably guess is the seventeenth book in the series about Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter.
In this book, Stephanie is helping her boss Vinnie to find out who is burying dead bodies where his bounty hunter business used to lie – it is now being rebuilt, or at least that’s the assumption.
Stephanie has a new or almost new problem to deal with too – her off and on boyfriend Joe Morelli’s grandmother has put the evil eye on her. In this case it means Stephanie is going to start smelling like cabbage, get boils all over her face and get ‘vordo’ which apparenty means becoming sexually insatiable. Unfortunately, it looks as if grandma Bella is actually successful. Stephanie does get sauerkraut in her hair when she’s with Lula getting lunch and a huge zit appears on her forehead looking a lot like a boil waiting to happen and – for whatever reason – she does experience a change in her libido.
There isn’t all that much more to add to my earlier reviews of these books. The book was funny. I love that, because I really, really need to laugh right now.
The only downside was that this one was a bit predictable. It was really easy to guess who the killer was, but since the actual criminal case isn’t all there is to a book like this, it doesn’t matter too much.
Finger-Lickin’ Fifteen by Stephanie Plum
It’s been a while now since I finished Finger-Lickin Fifteen by Janet Evanovich and I thought I’d post some impressions.
I’ll start out with the blurb:
New Jersey bail-bonds office worker Lula is a witness to celebrity chef, Stanley Chipotle, losing his head, literally. Now Lula and Stephanie Plum, a bond enforcement officer, are on the hunt to identify the killers before Lula is next on the chopping block. Meantime, security expert Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, has recruited Stephanie for a top secret mission. Someone on the inside at Rangeman is leaking client information, determined to bring the company down. Can Stephanie hunt down a killer, a traitor, and keep her Grandma out of the sauce?
Most of these books are extremely funny and distracting. This one was no exception. It may not be one of the best in the Stephanie Plum series, but it was at least good enough to keep my thoughts occupied while I read it.
I’ve had a bit of bad luck with these books lately. Twice I’ve made a mistake and bought the same book over again. Twice also, I’ve found that a book I’ve bought wasn’t quite as funny as most of the others. Still, no harm done, at least in the latter case. Like I said, they’re at least funny enough.
As far as the plot is concerned, they’re all quite similar, and they’re more humor than mystery, but that’s ok. I really enjoy reading this series and I’m glad I’ll be able to keep reading it for a while more.
If this sounds appealing, then I can really recommend this series.
