Three to Get Deadly

The humor in Stephanie Plum bounty hunting escapades never fails to provide some good laughs. Lulu adds spice to the mix. Sometimes it seems Evanovich got her "hunts" by asking a whole bunch of bounty hunters "Which are the strangest, but true, "failure to appear" cases that you pursued?" Because, funny as they are, some seem very plausible in very similar situations. I almost expect the disclaimer "names have been changed to protect everyone, because no one would admit to having this happen to them, innocent or charged persons."

In the latest, Three to Get Deadly, Grandma Mazur gets a boyfriend. He looks about three hundred years old and sets his choppers by the plate — they don’t fit right. He has a glass eye from World War II. “Were you overseas?” Stephanie’s father asked. “Nope. Lost my eye at Camp Kilmer. I was inspecting my bayonet, and then next thing you know I’d poked my eye out with it.” And of course he wants to marry Grandma so he can move in with her son-in-law. Evanovich has an extraordinary flair for writing humorous dialogue and scenes.

Stephanie Plum is less than thrilled when her cousin hands Stephanie her latest bounty hunting assignment: bring in Uncle Mo, the well-beloved proprietor of her neighbourhood's local candy and ice cream shop. She's even less thrilled when it turns out that Uncle Mo is not the easy collar he appeared to be and instead appears to have left town. While Stephanie works to hunt down Mo she finds herself in the unfortunate position of discovering the murdered bodies of several drug dealers, figuring out just what's going on between her and police detective, Joe Morelli, and fighting the urge to eat yet another doughnut that will just end up on her thighs.

Pure fluff from start to finish, there's something very satisfying about working your way show more through a Stephanie Plum novel. While I had largely figured out the mystery well in advance of Stephanie, there's still plenty of fun to be had with these characters. Like many readers of this series, I'm a big fan of Grandma Mazur and her hijinks and would pick up the books just for her. A solid entry in the series and I look forward to following Stephanie's adventures in the (many) books to come. show less

This one was the funniest yet. Between Lula calling Mo ‘Old Penis Nose’, Stephanie’s orange hair, her disaster of a used pick up truck and her inability to catch a 17-year old bb gun shooter, I laughed a lot. It was also one of the most brutal. The people really behind the drug dealer killings don’t want her to find Mo and they threaten to shoot up her hamster with dope if she won’t back off and then they burn her hand with a cigarette. I don’t know whom I felt worse for.

In the end, it isn’t Mo who’s been killing all the bad guys. It’s this reverend of a renegade church. Mo kind of got a little caught up in it and that’s why he was carrying the illegal handgun he got stopped with, but he hasn’t killed anyone. He show more wants out almost as bad as Stephanie wants to find him.

As usual, Joe Morelli makes an appearance. I think he sticks his nose into all of Stephanie’s cases just because he wants her so badly. They do almost make it this time but are interrupted by someone knocking over garbage cans in the ally. Afterward, Stephanie repents and says it was all the booze. We know there will be a next time. show less

This was my third Stephanie Plum. It wasn't so gripping as the first two were and she didn't drop much clanger. Those parts of the stories I really like best. Nevertheless it is a solid plot even though the topic is a little bit too far fetched. Lula is starting to help Stephanie and I wonder how this 'partnership' will develop. The cat-and-mouse game between Stephanie and Morelli is taking some interesting turns. So, I'm looking forward to reading some more Plum's.

Poor Stephanie Plum is tasked with tracking down beloved candy store owner Moses Bedemier, known to all in the burg as Uncle Mo, who has skipped bail by missing a hearing. The community shuns Stephanie while her parents nag her to settle down and get a real job. The characters come alive with eccentricities and personal histories with Stephanie that go back to grade school. Throw in a gun-toting grandmother, a lecherous cop, a retired 'ho' and the whole story runs rolls out like a comedy of errors told in a graveyard. Macabre, hilarious, unexpected fun!

Book three in the Stephanie Plum series. At this point, our heroine has been in the bounty hunter biz for five whole months, and has still not entirely gotten the hang of it. Her current assignment is to bring in a beloved neighborhood figure for missing a court date, but the guy is nowhere to be found. Looking for him, of course, quickly plunges her into a much more complicated situation, this time involving a surprising number of dead bodies.

I think this series is starting to feel a little more polished as it goes along. It's still complete brain candy, but it's increasingly really digestible brain candy. Shallow and unmemorable, yes, but a very quick, reasonably amusing, and thoroughly undemanding read. Which, some days, is exactly show more what you want.

Mind you, even if it is starting to feel more polished, it's also starting to feel decidedly formulaic. Three books in, and I'm pretty sure I could already write a Stephanie Plum drinking game: Drink when Stephanie has car problems, drink when she goes to her parents' house for dinner, drink when someone shows up to threaten her at her apartment (twice if they threaten her pet hamster)... I'm thinking this could get tiresome down the line, but for now, I'm not too bothered by it. show less