Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich : Novel Review

A Between the Numbers Novel

"Plum Spooky " is the fall 2008 entry in Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. This is one of her "Between The Numbers " adventures. The regular books in the series have the number of the book in the title ("Fearless Fourteen" for example) and usually feature the heroines two boyfriends, a cop named Morelli and Ranger, a mysterious Latino security expert. These two supporting characters play only minor roles in the "Between" books. Instead the male action hero is a rather large, egoistic, wisecracker named Diesel. He has been blessed with strange, but never fully defined, powers of a psychic or magical nature. Stephanie is a bounty hunter of limited competence. Diesel is a an enforcer for an unnamed force for good. Invariably their cases cross and they end up working together.

That's the formula and that's how it plays here. One of Stephanie's wanted list is a geek expert in various electronics. Unfortunately for Stephanie he's thrown in with a super powered baddie bent on world domination via weather control. Enter Diesel, hot on the trail of the bad guy. And the hounds go on the hunt.

Sound like the makings of a semi-supernatural thriller, but like all the Plum novels, it's mainly played for laughs. Stephanie and Diesel, a relationship fated to never be, trade flirtatious jabs throughout. They get stuck carrying around a monkey around as they dodge death and destruction. And, of course, Stephanie's partner Lula, black whore turned bounty hunter, is present to provide almost every racially stereotyped laugh imaginable.

Certain scenes are regular entries in the series and it wouldn't be a Stephanie Plum novel without them. There's dinner at her parents, the collar of a fugitive that goes comically bad, Lula's latest confrontation with her boyfriend, etc. And Stephanie getting captured and bound by the bad guys. This time she's trapped alone in a cabin, tied to a chair, with a horny, naïve geek. Makes me wonder about Evanovich's fantasy life.