Twisted Twenty-Six

Twisted Twenty-Six

Evanovich’s clear and clever writing draws you in and then delivers a knockout punch.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

Bounty-hunter Stephanie’s Plum grandma just got married. She married a local Trenton, New Jersey gangster named Jimmy Rosolli. But before the wedding day was even over Grandma Mazur was a widow. Jimmy dropped dead of a heart attack on the floor of the casino, right in front of the slot machine he was playing just 45 minutes after the nuptials.

Things turn dangerous for Grandma Masur when Jimmy’s former “business partners” the Lazy Boys, are convinced that his new widow has possession of the keys to a financial windfall. But the one thing these wise guys didn’t count on was Stephanie Plum. show more She’ll do anything to save her grandma, the one person who means the most to her.

“Grandma was in her mid-seventies and didn’t look a day over ninety.”

REVIEW
Sometimes you just need a book that is light and easy and fun. This is it. While a book about a death is not necessarily funny, Stephanie Plum’s exploits certainly are. She can always make me laugh. We couldn’t be more opposite, but I love her, I closed the cover of Twisted Twenty-Six with a huge smile on my face. It was exactly what I needed.

Janet Evanovich’s clear and clever writing draws you in and delivers a knockout punch. All the regular characters in this epic series are, as always, delightful. You can’t help but fall in love with Grandma Mazur and her flaming red hair, or Stephanie’s full-figured sidekick Lula, and her spandex clothing. And you can’t blame Stephanie for not being able to decide between Ranger and Morelli. Evanovich makes reading a pleasure. The twenty-sixth book in this series is no exception.

“Notice he called us losers and not quitters. That’s on account of we never quit. In my mind that’s the difference between a loser and a winner. A winner is willing to look like an idiot for as long as it takes to get the job done.”

Publisher G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Published November 2019
Narrated Lorelei King
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com show less

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---

“You still want to chase after this guy?”

“You bet your ass. Just because he made fools out of us three times, don’t mean one of these times we won’t luck out. Notice he called us losers and not quitters. That’s on account of we never quit. In my mind, that’s the difference between being a loser-and a winner. A winner is willing to look like a idiot for as long as it takes to get the job done. I figure you stick with i it long enough ~ and you win. Unless you die or come down with some disease like shingles or cancer of the rectum. If I ever got cancer of the rectum, I’d go to the best rectumologist out there. Like I'd get a celebrity rectumologist. I wouldn’t show more mess around with some local yokel.”

“All good to know,” I said.

I don't even need to provide dialogue tags to that, do I? If you've read a single Stephanie Plum novel, you know who's saying what there.

WHAT'S TWISTED TWENTY-SIX ABOUT?
When we last left Stephanie*, her Grandma Mazur had left for a getaway with her new love, who just happens to be a semi-retired mobster. We pick up a week or so later, Grandma Mazur and Jimmy Rosolli had been married, and then forty-five minutes later, Rosolli died (of natural causes, I feel compelled to add). Still, even a 45-minute marriage makes Grandma a widow, but more importantly, a widow of some status in the neighborhood.

* Yeah, I know, right? I'll talk about that in a minute.

We don't know a lot about Jimmy's criminal life, but among his group, he had a particular importance. He was "Keeper of the Keys." Now, no one—not Grandma, not the cops, not almost anyone that Stephanie can talk to about Jimmy knows what that means. The few that do know, aren't talking to anyone about them (also, they don't believe Stephanie or Grandma when they say they don't know where the keys are).

So Jimmy's partners are looking for the keys, their rivals are looking for the keys. And everyone thinks Grandma Mazur either has them or can get them (she is the beneficiary of his will, after all). And none of these men are willing to take any means necessary to get her to talk. Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli team up to keep Grandma Mazur and the Plums safe.

All the while, Stephanie and Lulu are on the hunt for people who missed their court dates for the Bail Service, Stephanie is dealing with a destroyed car, Stephanie is fending off advances from Ranger—and not doing fending off much from Morelli, you know, typical stuff.

A MOMENT OF CHRONOLOGICAL ACCURACY
At one point, Stephanie is lamenting to Lulu about how her life isn't working out the way she wants and states her age—a larger number than Lulu is ready for (okay, I wasn't ready for that amount of candor, either—but the math works), and a sign that maybe Evanovich is going to start aging her in real time. It's not long before Stephanie blows off that moment of honesty as a joke and we're elft wit an indeterminate age again.

Still, for a couple of poages, it looked liek Evanovich might have been making a big step.

OLD DOG, NEW TRICK?
From the start of this series, there's been a little carry-over from one book to the next—Stephanie's sister's marriage and kids, glacially slow advancement of her relationships with Ranger and Morelli, and so on. But largely, these are stand-alone books and can be read in any order.

Until now (obviously).

The end of Look Alive Twenty-Five leads into this book. The ending of this book propels the reader into Fortune and Glory (aka Tantalizing Twenty-Seven). This is new. This is a positive movement, there's something to sink our teeth into. Not much, maybe, but it's something.

I'm not sure why Evanovich has changed her approach. I'm not sure I care, either. I'm just happy to see that it has happened, and wonder where she's going with all of this.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT TWISTED TWENTY-SIX?

"I don’t want to do this job anymore. I’m not good at it. I don’t like it. I don’t like being in the bad neighborhoods looking for the bad people.”

“What would you rather do?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Do you have a direction?”

“No.”

“Babe.”

“Yeah, I’m a mess.”

“You aren’t a mess,” he said. “You’re just a little burned out.”

“It’s more than that. I’m stagnant. There’s no growth in my life.”

“That’s okay as long as you like what you’re doing. Not everyone needs to keep moving up the ladder.”

I have to read a State of the Series in these words (see also: the quotation at the top). I doubt that Evanovich set out to do that, but "mess," "stagnant," and directionless are words I'd use to descrdibe this series lately. But like Stephanie's (no doubt) futile efforts at self-improvement, over the last couple of books I'm seeing signs that Evanovich might be trying to add some direction and clarity to the series

I do not think it'll ever reach the comedic heights it once hit. Nor do I think that Evanovich is going to suddenly become the new Grafton (not that I'd complain), but it seems like she's taking the storytelling component of this seriously again. I could be 2-3 books away from again wondering why I'm sticking with these series. But until I get to that point, I'm going to enjoy the ride.

As for this book? It was fun—I admit to laughing out loud on a few occasions. I liked the story (I'm not convinced the bad guy was set-up correctly before the reveal, but...I'm not going to argue about it). The action was decent. I didn't roll my eyes at the destruction of the car, and best yet, I think this is one of the best uses of Stephanie's parents in ages (if not ever).

This might actually be a decent jumping-on point (Look Alive Twenty-Five would be marginally better) for this long-running series. This is definitely one to use to come back to the series after a time away. Or if you're just plugging away with a new annual entry, you'll be satisfied. Give this series a shot, it'll be worth it. show less

Grandma Mazur is a widow...again. This time her marriage lasted a whole 45 minutes. The unlucky groom was one Jimmy Rosolli, local gangster, lothario (senior division) and heart attack waiting to happen...well, the waiting's over. It's a sad day, but if she can't have Jimmy at least Grandma can have all the attention she wants as the dutiful widow. But some kinds of attention are not welcomed, particularly when Jimmy's former "business partners" are convinced that his widow is keeping the keys to their financial success for herself. As someone who has spent an entire career finding bad guys, a set of missing keys should be no challenge for Stephanie Plum. Problem is, the facts are as twisted as a boardwalk pretzel with mustard.

Ahhh...Stephanie Plum. My heart will always have a special soft spot just for her. After finishing # 26, I feel the end is near. The story and writing are fine, it’s just the same. Absolutely nothing new happened, but we did regress back to blown up cars and Stephanie always finding the dead guy. There were many times Stephanie expressed her dissatisfaction with her life. This alone isn’t new, but something about it felt different. I think it would be great if Ms Evanovich could take the characters a new direction, as I feel they’ve all gone about as far as they can without some major changes.
On a side note, I don’t think we have ever heard Mr Plum speak as much as he does here. It’s good to know he can do more than just grunt!

Twisted Twenty-Six is a pleasantly surprising entry in the Stephanie Plum series. All the usual things that fans expect are included, including Stephanie's car getting destroyed and her apartment broken into. There are some surprises for long-time readers, too. Grandma Mazur takes a significant role and appears in most scenes. Ranger says more than "Babe". Stephanie's father not only speaks but says what's on his mind and in his heart. Most surprising of all: Stephanie and Lula bring down several FTA's successfully (only once with Ranger's help).

Stephanie again expresses disappointment at how she feels her life is going (or not going), but there's more to it than usual. She tries to ponder exactly what disappoints her, so it doesn't show more sound whiny as usual. Grandma, Lula, and even Ranger get philosophical and offer Stephanie insightful advice. True, she doesn't really get anywhere, and she still dithers between Ranger and Morelli, but she doesn't seem as weak as usual.

Oh, and one more thing. A story arc appears. While most matters are wrapped up by the end of the book, some are adeptly set up to continue in Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven. show less

Why do I keep reading these Stephanie Plum books? The characters are always the same, one book to the next, and the bare-bone plots are neither clever nor amusing. Janet Evanovitch probably stopped writing them years ago; she is a "brand" who reputedly has ghost writers who churn out the stuff to which her name is affixed. Twisted Twenty-Six is at best, an unchallenging piece of fluff to noodle with before falling asleep. No doubt the author's die-hard fans love it, but the rest of us would be better off reading most anything else.

When Grandma Edna Mazur makes a spur-of-the-moment decision to marry local gangster Jimmy Rosolli, she doesn’t know she’ll become a widow some forty-five minutes later. And when Jimmy’s two ex-wives, three sisters, one daughter, and four La-Z-Boy partners decide she’s holding out on them, keeping the keys to a financial bonanza all to herself, things turn dangerous.

However, they hadn’t counted on Grandma’s bounty-hunter granddaughter . . . and Stephanie Plum will do whatever it takes to keep Grandma Mazur safe. But will she be able to find the answer to the missing fortune and the keys that promise to lead to the money?

The twenty-sixth outing for Stephanie Plum and company has all the expected players in place. There are show more escapades a-plenty, bail-jumping chases, copious wise-cracking, and plenty of laughs along the way to [gasp] a cliffhanger [presumably addressed in “Fortune and Glory,” the next book in the series]. And Stephanie’s having a mini-crisis over the state of her life.

Readers . . . especially fans of the series . . . are sure to find Stephanie’s latest adventure keeps them chuckling as they turn the pages as quickly as they can.

Recommended. show less