To the Nines

Stephanie Plum, and her side-kick, Lulu, the extra-large size ex-ho, turned bonds women have had their share of strange retrievals , even in a rough place like Trenton. Vaseline proved to be a slippery slope this time, don’t ask don’t tell, but regardless of ruining her clothes, Stephanie needed to bring in Punky Blalog.

Samuel Singh has gone missing. Vinnie, her cousin-boss, wrote a visa bond, and time is in short supply. Vinnie sends Stephanie and Ranger, her current, tough Italian squeeze, to locate Samuel, and bring him back. Not only is Singh missing, he’s an illegal immigrant and might already have skipped out of the country which would mean a complete loss of Vinnie’s money.

Stephanie Plum has a lot of aggravation on her plate. Perhaps this accounts for her not remembering necessary bullets, and having trouble getting a skip into cuffs. Another reason for needing Ranger’s services. Stephanie has received threats, nothing new, but these are getting pushy. Joe Morelli tries to protect her, and Ranger fills in when Morelli is otherwise occupied.

The action escalates intensity. Suspense builds. Crazy grandmothers loom like weird shadows. Grandma Mazur is man crazy, and Morelli’ s grandmother Bella has visions of dead women. The antics are hilariously filled with pathos. Valerie, Stephanie’ s nine month pregnant sister, needs marriage, and a move out of their parents home.

This is a fast.moving romp loaded with uncommon antics and situations, unless you are from Trenton, and have the same type of job, then it might seem common, ever day ,do what needs to be done, tongue in cheek, gun in pocket occurrences. I enjoyed this read. Will look for more.

What has New Jersey’s bond jumper into now? There are so many twist and turns in the this book you’ll just need to read it to believe it. From the “Burg” to Las Vegas. Seems that those she is trying to find end up dead! Why? She begins looking for a bail jumper who is from India who was employed in a factory near the Burg! Why did he also take the family dog with him? This novel is right inline with the other writings that get her going not only with her former high school buddy, but with Ranger, too! Rated “R”. Not for those under eighteen. Language and sexual content. DP. Castro Valley, CA.

Recently hooked on the Stephanie Plum series, I was delighted to find a series that I could tear through. These are better than your favorite junk food! I will not provide a synopsis of this story, or the previous eight books, since others have done a beautiful job of it already. However, I must warn readers: the series takes a sharp nose dive from here. books 10-19 are terrible. Books 1-9 are witty, laugh-out-loud variety, and the scenes with Ranger kept my pulse thumping. However, from book 10 on…..the series is a serious letdown. I cannot believe that the same author wrote them. The internal dialogue the main character has with herself shrivels up and is completely gone by book 14 (the worst of the series). The two men in her life are no longer interesting, and one wonders why they have any interest in Stephanie Plum. Read the very good reviews of each of the books beyond this one. You will save yourself time and money. The series really stops here.

As one of the sweaty masses in constant need of “bread and circuses” to forestall social discontent, the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich has been a mainstay of cheap entertainment. However, by the end of book eight (HARD EIGHT), even that was beginning stale around the edges. But elements of TO THE NINES have reinvigorated my interest.

If you don’t know from your assigned reading by now, Stephanie is a bond enforcement agent – a bounty hunter – employed by her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, in Trenton, NJ. While Plum eventually manages to catch her man (or woman), she invariably leaves a trail of chaos in her wake, and her modus operandi is endearingly klutzy. Plus, all the characters in her personal and professional life lie on a continuum from being mildly eccentric to outright wack jobs. Only her pet hamster, Rex, is normal.

In TO THE NINES, Stephanie’s quarry is Samuel Singh, an Indian in the States on a temporary work visa on which Vinnie has underwritten a new type of bond – a “visa bond”. But Singh has disappeared, and the resulting bad publicity will destroy Vinnie’s business unless his disaster-prone cousin can find him. Assigned to help in the search is Vinnie’s premier contract agent, Ranger, a mysterious ex-Special Forces type that operates just outside the law and who, since book one (ONE FOR THE MONEY), has inpired a warm feeling in our heroine’s nether regions despite her off-and-on emotional and sexual commitment to another cousin, Trenton police detective Joe Morelli, who relieved Stephanie of her virginity behind a bakery’s pastry counter back when they were teenagers. Ranger is a Hunk Dressed in Black.

As I hinted earlier, the Stephanie Plum comedic thrillers, while always very funny, follow an invariable pattern. Author Evanovich apparently has a storyline template to which she religiously adheres. (And who would argue? It produces Best Sellers.) However, for those of us – well, at least me – loyally following Plum’s keystone-cop antics, some significant deviation from the pattern would be welcomed. In TO THE NINES, the author breaks the mold just a little. For once, Stephanie gets out of Trenton on her quarry’s trail – all the way to Las Vegas, NV – unreasonably harassed by airline security at every stop. And instead of demolishing the various cars and trucks loaned to her by Ranger, now it’s the latter’s employees who’re imperiled by Stephanie’s bad karma.

Finally, Stephanie’s sister Valerie gives birth. This flips the switch on the former’s own maternal instincts. Somewhere vaguely in her thirties, Stephanie isn’t getting any younger and the Biological Clock is ticking. Do you suppose that Morelli is the man for the job? Of course, they’d have to get married first – an event that’s proved maddeningly elusive in previous installments, much to the distress of Stephanie’s Mom. Indeed, the plotting for future Plum novels involves potentially infinite permutations sure to keep fans buying books and St. Martin’s Press happy.

This whole series is laugh out loud ridiculous but written so well you get wrapped up in the crazy life of Stephanie plum. They all have a twist and exciting mystery. Add Morelli and Ranger and youre hooked. I cant get enough. I wish I was from NJ and had a cousin Vinny with a bail bonds office. If only. Also they make me crave donuts. All of the characters come to life so vividly you think youre there with them its great!!

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