Kenny Mancuso shot his childhood buddy Moogey Bues in the knee and then jumped bail. Now bounty hunter extraordinaire Stephanie Plum is on the case to track Kenny down.

Then someone finished Moogey off, Kenny can't be found, twenty-four coffins are missing, and there's some ex-army heavy artillery roaming the streets. And Joe Morelli - the cop with more than a professional interest in her every move - is tailing Stephanie.

With a healthy disregard for the law, and an unhealthy dependence on marshmallow hot chocolate, Stephanie's a match for anyone - even Morelli. That is, until her eccentric grandmother goes AWOL and little pieces of corpses start to disappear...

 
There's not much I can add to my views on the first Plum novel; Sarah loves it, and she's usually a good judge so I'm giving these books a whirl.

 
September 12th 2004
The End

I can't help myself, I'm hooked on Ms Plum, and her freaky, funny, entirely gripping life as a hopeless, but lucky, bounty hunter.

I have to admit I wasn't entirely convinced when I bought the first three books that I was going to like them, as bounty hunters seemed a little...well, serious. I couldn't have been more wrong. Janet Evanovich manages to combine a rich and colourful cast of characters with entertaining, but realistic(ish) stories, which together produce an entirely original series that are a real pleasure to read. Stephanie Plum isn't as tough as Sam Jones, but she's as much fun.

In this book Stephanie is on the tail of Kenny Mancuso, cousin to hunky X, and potential Mr. Right, Joe Morelli. It soon becomes clear that Kenny and Moogey Bues formed a trio or friends, with undertaker Spiro Stiva, who has incidentally hired Ms Plum to track down a confinement of lost coffins. As the investigation goes on Stephanie begins to suspect Moogey's murder and the coffin theft are connected, especially when Kenny begins cutting off body parts and sending them to Stephanie as a warning to back off.

The story is incredibly well constructed, and filled to the brim with beautifully written characters. Spiro just slimes across the page, whereas Grandma Mazur is just the type of crazy relative I'd love to share Xmas with. In fact, the only character I don't have a solid image of in my head is Joe Morelli, which is strange as he forms such a huge part of the books. I'm not sure if Janet Evanovich has done it on purpose, so that each woman reading imagines him as their own personal fantasy stud muffin, or if she's just trying to make him even more mysterious. Either way, all I know about the man is that he's hot as hell, has a great but and a nice package...actually, perhaps that's all we really need to know.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and can't wait to read number 3, but it'll have to wait a little while as I have some serious reading for the book group to do this month...*sob*.