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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum Series #18)



Back of the Book Blurb:  Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii.  And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.

Review:   Fans of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series may be disappointed with the eighteenth outing.  All of the now-standard plot aspects are here:  love triangle, wacky skips giving Stephanie a hard time, strangers trying to kill Stephanie, Grandma Mazur's antics, Stephanie's mom drinking and crossing herself, Lula's spandex-filled neon wardrobe, and so on.  But while all this familiarity and zany humor are expected and therefore comforting, they are also feeling boring.  More of the same.  Like Stephanie has learned nothing in the last seventeen novels, has not matured or grown, and is stuck in a rut.  The once sexy and exciting love triangle between Stephanie, Joe and Ranger has run its course, and as a reader it seems pretty obvious that Ranger is great sex but no commitment, and Joe is great sex and potential commitment.  Stephanie is a modern sexual woman, and I have really enjoyed reading about her and her relationships.  But her angst over these relationships has gone on too long.
As for the novel itself, the big draw is the teaser plotline about who Stephanie went to Hawaii with, and why she came home early and alone.  Evanovich very slowly lets little tidbits of information out about the situation, and it did keep me reading and wanting to know more.  The sideline plot about a murdered stranger from the plane, a mysterious photograph, and a bizarre group of people chasing Stephanie is genuinely fun and funny.
But the overall reading experience left me feeling....meh.  Blah.  I wish Stephanie would choose Joe or Ranger or neither.  I love this world and these characters, and I have a fear that in #19 Stephanie will find herself pregnant and we will have to read an entire book to learn who the father is, and nothing else will change. 

For more information check out the author's website at http://www.evanovich.com/.

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