A Novel Idea

Why is it that 4-day work weeks feel like they last forever? And was it just me or was this week just strange all the way around? I’m on day three of blaming the full moon. Tonight, to hide from the week I’ve had, I’m spending a few hours with someone who makes me feel smart, and successful, and like I have absolutely everything under control.

Stephanie Plum, the brainchild of author Janet Evanovich, works as an “apprehension agent” AKA bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie’s bail company in Trenton, New Jersey. Stephanie has no formal training but since bounty hunters only get paid when they bring in their skip, Stephanie is gung-ho to get the job done. She is, after all, behind on rent and facing eviction… again. To say she goes off half-cocked would be an understatement because she usually leaves her gun, unloaded of course, in the cookie jar at her apartment, an apartment that is guarded only by Rex the hamster, who spends more time hiding in his soup can than standing guard over the place.

Stephanie is smart enough to know that every super heroine needs a sidekick or two. Sadly, though, they chose her instead of the other way around. Enter Lula- a former prostitute who has given up her call girl ways but not her call girl wardrobe. Lula’s 300 pound frame, always squeezed into something neon and spandex, is matched only by her 300 pound attitude. And then we have Grandma Mazur. The biggest thing about Grandma Mazur is her purse and the hand cannon she keeps in it.

Stephanie is also smart enough to sometimes know that she’s in over her head. And lucky for her, she has two men ready to bail her out. Jo Morelli, the handsome Italian police detective who Stephanie hates to love and loves to hate. Their on-again, off-again relationship has been going on since high school. And then there’s Ranger. Oh, Ranger. Everyone needs a Ranger- a hardcore superhero of a bounty hunter who seems to always show up at the exact right moment. Morelli and Ranger fight each other as much as they fight to save Stephanie from the troubles she finds herself in.

And, I haven’t even begun to tell you about the cast of hilarious, larger than life characters that live in Trenton and cross Stephanie’s path.

Let me just say, don’t read a Plum novel with a drink. If you do, one of three things will happen, guaranteed.

1. You will laugh so hard that drink will come out your nose.
2. You will laugh so hard that you will spit your drink all over your couch.
3. You will laugh so hard that you will pee your pants.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

Stephanie and the gang will take you on countless adventures in the 16 or so novels of the Stephanie Plum Series, which are all conveniently titled with a number (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, well, you get the idea). While reading them in order is recommended by the author, you don’t really have to; there’s enough recap in the beginnings to catch you up on anything you missed.

So, give Stephanie Plum a read and give me a call; we’ll talk about the rumored movie and who should be cast as whom.