83) Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich

The Blurb :

Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite used-car dealer, Jimmy Poletti, was caught selling a lot more than used cars out of his dealerships. Now he’s out on bail and has missed his date in court, and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is looking to bring him in. Leads are quickly turning into dead ends, and all too frequently into dead bodies. Even Joe Morelli, the city’s hottest cop, is struggling to find a clue to the suspected killer’s whereabouts. These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures. So Stephanie is going to have to do something she really doesn’t want to do: protect former hospital security guard and general pain in her behind Randy Briggs. Briggs was picking up quick cash as Poletti’s bookkeeper and knows all his boss’s dirty secrets. Now Briggs is next on Poletti’s list of people to put six feet under.

To top things off, Ranger—resident security expert and Stephanie’s greatest temptation—has been the target of an assassination plot. He’s dodged the bullet this time, but if Ranger wants to survive the next attempt on his life, he’ll have to enlist Stephanie’s help and reveal a bit more of his mysterious past.

Death threats, highly trained assassins, highly untrained assassins, and Stark Street being overrun by a pack of feral Chihuahuas are all in a day’s work for Stephanie Plum. The real challenge is dealing with her Grandma Mazur’s wild bucket list. A boob job and getting revenge on Joe Morelli’s Grandma Bella can barely hold a candle to what’s number one on the list—but that’s top secret.

My Thoughts :

The Stephanie Plum series is one of those books I found in the local library before I really knew what I wanted to read.  So many books on the shelves but this one popped out (they used to have brighter interesting covers) and I took a chance on the author I had never heard of before.  I remember buying all the books available in the series within a couple of weeks of reading that first book and since then I have followed Stephanie through all of her adventures.

Twenty-one installments and nothing much has changed.  This isn't a bad thing but it also isn't a really good thing.  You know that Stephanie's car is going to blow up at least once, Lula is going to get into some very weird trouble, Grandma will be causing havoc at the funeral home and Ranger will be saving Stephanie's butt while Morelli plays cop.

There are so many expectations that, after all these years, it is slowly becoming a little boring.  I still want something to happen.  Something big.  Stephanie getting pregnant, her sister turning up again and leaving her the kids to look after, Marrying one of the guys while drunk....anything!  Just something different and shocking because the life of Stephanie Plum is still the same as it was 21 books ago.

Once again there was laugh out loud moments and it was nice to be back in Trenton (I only spent a few minutes in the train station while passing through but it looked nice enough) with all the usual suspects and a few more to make things interesting.  There were some nice location changes this time around with the adventure taking Stephanie and Ranger to New York City and Atlantic City.  Otherwise it was much of the same.

I keep following the series because it is amusing, different and addictive.  I will keep following it until it ends and always look forward to the madcap comedy this series offers while solving various weird and interesting crimes.  It is a series I now follow via Audible and have to give the narrator big kudos because she does an amazing job.  She is the same voice that lends her skills to the Charley Davidson series by Darynda Jones and the books are worth following just because she is narrating them.

If you haven't had the pleasure of spending time with Stephanie Plum then make sure you do sometime.  Despite my moans and groans there is always a good plot and lots of giggles.  Well worth reading and one to seriously think about listening to.

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