Sunday, August 26, 2007
Lean Mean Thirteen
****½ Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. Mystery.
This is.... duh.... the thirteenth book in the Stephanie Plum series. Or actually, the 15th, if you include the two between-the-numbers books.
This time, Stephanie's ex, lawyer Dickie Orr, goes missing, not long after Stephanie fought with him while planting a bug in his office for Ranger. And everyone--but most particularly Joyce Barnhardt, thinks Stephanie's responsible. Thing is, he never changed his will after their divorce, and it's not just Dickie that's missing--there's also a LOT of money missing. So Joyce becomes Stephanie's shadow, hoping Stephanie will lead her to Dickie or the money.
Meanwhile, Joe's busy on a hush-hush assignment, Ranger's keeping an eye (and a GPS tracker) on Stephanie, and Steph and Lula are busy tracking down FTAs, including a hilariously wacky taxidermist with an explosive inventory.
I agree with all the reviewers who complain about a lack of character development (or rather, character change--I think the characters are pretty well developed at this point), and the repetitive nature of the books--cars getting destroyed, the love triangle, Grandma Mazur will do something wacky at the funeral home, etc., etc. The thing is, though: I just don't care. I read a Stephanie Plum book maybe once a year (twice, if there's a between-the-numbers book), so there are generally 300 or more books in between. So if it's exactly what I expected, I don't mind. It's become a formula, yes, but I enjoy the formula--once a year. I expect if I read them all back to back, it would drive me batty. But I don't, so I'm happy.
...more
Categories: Books, 4.5stars, Mystery
Labels: 4.5 stars, books, mystery
Comments:
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Darla - glad to see that atlease you gave this a good grade :)
You already knew that I'm Joe girl all the way, even though I like Ranger too :)
You already knew that I'm Joe girl all the way, even though I like Ranger too :)
Lisa, back when I was active on an Evanovich email list, my signature line read:
Listee for......
Steph getting the Knight Rider car
Steph sticking with Joe & leaving Ranger to me
More grapes for Rex
;-)
IOW, I think Ranger's great for Stephanie--I just don't think she's great for him.
I kind of enjoy the triangle, though.
Listee for......
Steph getting the Knight Rider car
Steph sticking with Joe & leaving Ranger to me
More grapes for Rex
;-)
IOW, I think Ranger's great for Stephanie--I just don't think she's great for him.
I kind of enjoy the triangle, though.
Darla - your Evanovich email list signatures line crack me up! Can you imagine Stephanies in Knight Rider car? LOL ;)
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