Dear Fellow Readers,

I suppose there are those of you who, knowing my love of mystery series, wonder why I haven’t talked about the Janet Evanovich series featuring Stephanie Plum. Well, because somehow, I had not read them. I don’t know how or why I have missed these books. There are obviously lots of mystery series books that I have not read but even I will admit that the Janet Evanovich books are hard to miss.

Maybe I was being stubborn? I don’t know but I have finally started to rectify the situation.

While I was on vacation, I read the first book in the series, One for the Money. I will start off by saying that I do like when it is obvious in which order to read the books. Like Sue Grafton’s series which follows the alphabet (A is for Alibi), these are even easier because the number is in the title. Could it be easier? I do love that.

In One for the Money, we are introduced to Stephanie Plum. Stephanie is in financial hot water because she lost her job as an underwear buyer. She has been out of work for six months and her car is about to be repossessed. Stephanie lives in Trenton, New Jersey, where she grew up. Her parents still live in the same house in town. At her parent’s urging, she goes to see her cousin Vinnie for a filing job. Vinnie is a bail bondsman. It turns out that the filing job has been filled but Connie, Vinnie’s secretary, tells Stephanie that she can be a “fugitive apprehension agent” (bounty hunter). Stephanie finds how much she can make per apprehension and she thinks this is just what she should do.

The only catch is that the big bucks are for bringing in Joe Morelli. Joe Morelli is a police detective who has been accused of shooting a man without provocation. So far, there is a missing witness and some question about a missing gun but still, he has skipped his court appearance and needs to be brought to justice. To complicate matters, Stephanie has a bit of a history with Joe going back to when she was 8 years old. Seems the Morelli men have a reputation with the ladies in town and Stephanie may have contributed to the reputation.

But she decides, without having any background, that she needs the $10,000 fee for bringing Joe into the police. This is how her life as a bounty hunter begins. She finds help from Ranger, an ex-military bounty hunter who decides to lend her a hand. Stephanie also has Grandma Mazur, who lives with Stephanie’s parents, in her corner to share neighborhood gossip. She can also count on her friend, Eddie Gazarra, who is on the police force.

Stephanie soon finds out that she may be in over her head (might have something to do with the boxer threatening to harm her) but she doesn’t give up despite making mistakes.

The story moves along quickly and throws in many quirky characters to keep it interesting. I have now read two of the series and both are entertaining. They are short and won’t take you long to read. Now, of course, I have to stop myself from just trying to read the whole series (there are currently 25 of them!) when I should be reading other books.

Thanks for reading!