Summer to me means heat, humidity, a need for relaxed (COOL!) places, and a good book that does not require graphs and charts to keep up with the plot. I want a good beach read, even if I can’t have the beach with it. A fun plot that is light and enjoyable.
If you’ve never read Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, let me introduce you. You can thank me later.
Start with the first book, One For The Money. It’s easy to figure out the order of the books, as Evanovich has the number in each title. The second book is entitled Two For The Dough, the third is Three To Get Deadly, and so on. We are about to get book #24, so this is a successful series. It’s light reading with a mystery, a subplot, some fun characters, and two men in Stephanie’s life. (Hint: As of book #23, Stephanie is still undecided, so this is an ongoing theme.)
Set in New Jersey in The Burg, the series begins with Stephanie Plum broke, losing her marriage, her job, her car, and possibly her home, a little apartment which she shares with her hamster, Rex. (Rex will turn out to be the world’s oldest hamster, because he’s still alive and nibbling Cheerios since his introduction in 1994.) Stephanie ends up in bond enforcement, though she rarely carries a gun. She more or less has an I Love Lucy approach to apprehending “skips” for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds business; Plum nabs missing perps who are out on bond but don’t show at court.
In this book, Stephanie is trained by Ranger on how to apprehend a bail bond “skip.” Ranger is amused by Stephanie. Joe Morelli, a detective, returns to Stephanie’s life. Former fellow high school student Joyce is caught with Stephanie’s husband which leads to the end of the brief marriage. Stephanie’s life is out of control and out of money, and she reluctantly turns to her cousin Vinnie for work as a bond enforcement agent. In One For The Money, Plum meets Lula, a prostitute, and the two become best friends. There is an exciting chase and a frightening villain; a little bit of mystery, a hint of romance. An enjoyable, light summer read and the start of a fun series.
Characters introduced here return in all future books and include the hilarious Grandma Mazur; Stephanie’s best friend Lula; Connie the receptionist and sometime-assistant; Stephanie’s silently eating dad and her nervous mother; the perfect (annoying) sister; and the two men in Stephanie’s life, Joe Morelli and Ranger.
Themes here and in future books: Food. Doughnuts. Skips, including who will become part of the main mystery in that book. Deli food. Stephanie’s destruction of cars in each book. Cluck-In-A-Bucket. The dilemma of two handsome men and which to choose. More food. Grandma Mazur trying to open the closed coffins to take a peek at how the makeup on the dearly departed looks. Stephanie’s mom reaching for her hidden bottle of whiskey when Grandma succeeds in coffin-opening. Blowing up things accidentally; damage to Stephanie’s apartment. Yet more deli food. The humor of most people in The Burg owning and carrying guns, while Stephanie almost never removes her gun from her cookie jar.
This is such a fun series, perfect for summer and the approaching fall!
_ Roberta Jackson
