RRP: $36.99
Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is back in the heart of Trenton, New Jersey, for Notorious Nineteen. After a slow summer of chasing low-level skips for her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds agency, Stephanie Plum finally lands an assignment that could put her bank balance back in the black. Geoffrey Cubbin, facing trial for embezzling millions from Trenton’s premier assisted-living facility, has mysteriously vanished from the hospital after an emergency appendectomy.Now it’s on Stephanie to track down the con man, who has disappeared without a trace, a witness or his money-hungry wife.
The problem is, with Cubbin missing and limited leads, there is no way to pay the rent. Desperate for money – or maybe just desperate – Plum accepts a job guarding man of mystery Ranger from a deadly special forces adversary. If Stephanie Plum wants to bring in cash, she’ll have to remember: no guts, no glory…
What’s inside it?
This latest offering in the long-running Stephanie Plum series from number one bestselling author Janet Evanovich, Notorious Nineteen, goes by the same formula as her previous books. It’s a nice, easy read, however for those of us who have been dedicated followers since the beginning, there’s still a ‘which one will she go with’ love triangle between Plum, Morelli and Ranger, there’s still the obligatory junk food stops with larger than life ex-‘ho/sidekick Lula, and there’s still the bungled attempts at catching skips to feed Stephanie’s everlasting need for rent money, pizza and hamster food.
Although fans will have come to know and love this formula and Stephanie’s antics, now that we’re at novel number 19, it would be nice for something new to happen – even if it means tying up the ridiculously successful series. It feels like we’ve come to a point where the characters are no longer growing or developing, and they’re stuck in a rut (along with us, the readers).
Read it if…
You’ve been a dedicated follower of the Stephanie Plum novels from the beginning and you’re still keen to read about her adventurous mishaps, even if it all feels like a bit of a repeat on the last 18 books.
Image / Penguin