frustratedDescription from bookdepository.co.uk:
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 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.
The Conclusion: Only the fearless should listen to Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich.
Thrills, chills, and incontinence may result.
Thoughts:
I don't know if I've become more tolerant, if my expectations have dropped, or if Stephanie has become more competent, but I am enjoying these books much more now than I did when reading the first ten. This time around Stephanie has to deal with both a crazy aging singer that she has agreed to help Ranger provide security to, and a cousin of Morelli's that has disappeared, presumed kidnapped over a $9m bank robbery windfall that has gone missing. I really enjoyed the increasing maturity of Stephanie's relationship with Morelli (though there is a scene towards the end where she climbs out of a window rather than just fess up to Morelli, and I wanted to smack her for being so pathetic), and I really liked all the interactions with the three characters who ended up basically living at Morelli's house. Hardly any Grandma Mazur, but I actually didn't mind, because Gary, Mooner and Zook (the aforementioned house guests) absolutely made the book. I also enjoyed the fact that there was slightly less Lula, whose silliness can get repetitive. An enjoyable read.
Currently reading:
- Journey to the West by Cheng-En Wu - 673 pages
- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - 402 pages
- The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols - 248 pages
And coming up:
- The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: Volume 3: White Gold Wielder by Stephen Donaldson – 500 pages
- The Odyssey by Homer – 324 pages
- A Shiver of Light by Laurell K. Hamilton - 380 pages
