Two for the Dough- Large Print Edition : A Stephanie Plum Novel (The Stephanie Plum Series)

Rating:
Summary: Stephanie's Deadly Dangerous Job
Review: "Fugitive apprehender" Stephanie Plum is buried (so to speak) in her latest hunt for Kenny Mancuso, charged with shooting a gas station attendant (also his former best friend) Moogey Bues, in the knee. Naturally, he's violated his bond contract with Stephanie's employer, Cousin Vinnie. Someone has now finished the job by killing Moogey Bues. Joe Morelli, Trenton, New Jersey's not-so-finest, is also looking for Kenny, his cousin, and suggests that he and Stephanie bury some old hatchets and work together. Naturally, Stephanie's instincts (and past experience) tell her that Morelli's holding back. Meanwhile, Spiro Stiva, of Stiva's Mortuary, hires Stephanie to help track down 24 missing caskets. Spiro was also best friends with Kenny and the late Moogey in school. "Now Moogey was dead. Kenny was missing in action. And Spiro was out twenty-four cheap caskets. Life can get pretty strange. One minute you're in high school, shooting baskets and stealing little kids' lunch money, and then next thing you know you're using mortician's putty to fill in the holes in your best friend's head."

This time Stephanie's armed (but not too dangerous) with a stun gun, defense spray, her .38 (which she's still afraid of), and a whole lot of "from-the-burg" attitude. Someone thinks that she can be scared off with missing body parts. Think again. With Joe Morelli, Ranger, and "Granny Disaster" on her side, Stephanie's determined to bury Kenny Mancuso before he buries her.

Although I enjoyed One for the Money a bit more, this 2nd in the Stephanie Plum series was just as action-packed and hilarious. Ranger is back briefly in a loose partnership with Stephanie. As always, the interaction between Stephanie and Joe Morelli is the best. Why can't she just admit he does it for her? And Grandma Mazur is still causing trouble while trying to help get the bad guys. Another good one.

Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR ME
Review: I heard some good things about this series on the radio and read the reviews online. All seemed to be in order until I read the first few pages. I found It fairly simplistic, Cardboard characters, a weak story line, and an unbelievablely cavalier attitude to violence (even for people from New Jersey - I never realized they all had a "Bruce Willis" nerve in the face of life threatening danger for themselves and their families). I worry about the state of popular reading when the reviews for this series are so positive. If your loking for a cool thriller check out "A TOURIST IN THE YUCATAN"

Rating:
Summary: Hasn't Hollywood read these great books?
Review: I'm getting to like Stephanie Plum, Trenton's most unlikely bounty-hunter. I especially like Grandma Mazur, Trenton's answer to Dirty Harry! Stephanie could stick with the small-time bond-jumpers, but they don't pay enough, so she feels the need to make a comparatively big score by bringing in Kenny Mancuso, charged with shooting his cousin Moogey in the knee. But then Moogey gets dead and the odds go up. And stolen Army weapons enter the picture. And so does Joe Morelli, one of Trenton's finest and also Kenny's cousin. It's a complicated plot but Evanovich handles it very well and with considerable wry humor. She's also very good at delineating the scarier characters and assorted sociopaths who crop up. What I want to know is, why hasn't there been a movie made from this series? The scene in the beauty parlor and the last scene in the funeral home basement would make terrific footage. I see someone like Renee Zellweger as Stephanie. . . .