Fearless Fourteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels)

Personal vendettas, hidden treasure, and a monkey named Carl will send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most explosive adventure yet. The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldnt be more proud. He always was the smart one. The Cousin: Joe Morelli Joe Morelli, Dom Rizzi, and Doms sister, Loretta, are cousins. Morelli is a cop, Rizzi robs banks, and Loretta is a single mother waiting tables at the firehouse. The all-American family. The Complications: Murder, kidnapping, destruction of personal property, and acid reflux Less than a week after Doms release from prison, Joe Morelli has shadowy figures breaking into his house and dying in his basement. Hes getting threatening messages, Loretta is kidnapped, and Dom is missing. The Catastrophe: Moonman Morelli hires Walter Mooner Dunphy, stoner and inventor turned crime fighter, to protect his house. Morelli cant afford a lot on a cops salary, and Mooner will work for potatoes. The Cupcake: Stephanie Plum Stephanie and Morelli have a long-standing relationship that involves sex, affection, and driving each other nuts. Shes a bond enforcement agent with more luck than talent, and shes involved in this bank-robbery-gone-bad disaster from day one. The Crisis : A favor for Ranger Security expert Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, has a job for Stephanie that will involve night work. Morelli has his own ideas regarding Stephanies evening activities. The Conclusion: Only the fearless should read Fourteen . Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result. From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Lorelei King returns to Trenton, N.J., to continue the misadventures of Stephanie Plum, intermittently successful bounty hunter. King is one of many to voice Janet Evanovich's successful series, but her voice can be heard above the crowd, especially when she's bringing the more colorful characters to life. Her former prostitute Lula can tear down walls with the force of her personality, and King gives professional security specialist (read mercenary) Ranger the measured tones of one who is always in control. Stephanie spends much of the book blue from a briefcase dye bomb. King's Plum accepts her blueness and responds to the reactions with indignity, ruefulness and eventually resignation. In addition to established favorites, Evanovich has thrown into the mix a 60-ish singer trying to hang onto fame who gives King plenty of scope for her Southern side. Fearless Fourteen becomes peerless fourteen with narrator King at the helm. A St. Martin's hardcover (Reviews, May 19). (June) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Our heroine, the irrepressible bounty hunter Stephanie Plum,finds herself watching over a goth teen called Zook, who is heavily into gaming, after his mom cant make bail and disappears (or has been kidnapped). A lot of people think there is stolen money buried in or near Officer Morellis little housethats Stephs Morelli, the cop who is her number-one boyfriend most of the time, or at least when the entrancing Ranger isnt nearby. The money is the reason behind Zooks moms disappearance, and its the tie that binds Evanovichs various plotlines, which carom about endlessly, not always resolving. Questions abound: Are Stephs sidekick, the plus-size Lula, and Rangers man Tank really engaged? Ranger is working security for a fading but brassy pop star: How does Steph manage to get into and out of her reality show? Can Zook and his sidekicks protect Morellis houseand Stephaniewith their homegrown weaponry (think potatoes as missiles)? Where else but Evanovichs fourteenth novel can a line like its raining money and popsicles! actually make sense? Fans will be delighted, but others, who stumble into the series at this advanced point, may find themselves starved for backstory, so much so that they may need to go all the way back to One for the Money (1994). --GraceAnne A. DeCandido The Crime: Armed robbery to the tune of nine million dollars. Dom Rizzi robbed a bank, stashed the money, and did the time. His family couldn't be more proud. He always was the smart one. The Cousin: Joe Morelli. Morelli is Dom's cousin. He's also a cop. Less than a week after Dom's release from prison, Morelli has shadowy figures breaking into his house and dying in his basement. Meanwhile, Dom has gone missing... The Catastrophe: Moonman. Morelli hires Walter "Mooner" Dunphy, stoner and "inventor" turned crime fighter, to protect his house. Morelli is low on cash. Mooner will work for potatoes. The Cupcake: Stephanie Plum. Stephanie and Morelli have a long-standing relationship that involves sex, affection, and driving each other nuts. She's a bond enforcement agent with more luck than talent, and she's involved in this bank-robbery-gone-bad disaster from day one. The Crisis: Ranger. Security expert Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, has a job for Stephanie that will involve night work. Morelli has his own ideas regarding Stephanie's evening activities Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her motley companions--including Grandma Mazur, vice captain Joe Morelli, and Bob the Dog--become entangled in an adventure involving the Burg's premier funeral home and a family pot roast It's non-stop action, comic mayhem, hot sexual tension, plenty of junk food, exploding cars, pot roast with the Plum family, and a viewing at the Burg's premier funeral home