I’m not such a fan of crime fiction. So when my sister suggested I read the first of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum bounty hunter series, I had my doubts. I ended up reading “One for the money” within a day and a half. I couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t so much that it was riveting, exceptionally well written or memorable. It was just a ripping good read: funny, quirky and highly entertaining. I quickly followed with “Two for the dough” and “Three to get ready”.
Since then fifteen books have been written in the series and I have read them all. I don’t think I could even recount the plot line of any of them. I just read “Finger lickin’ fifteen” and let’s see, oh yes, it is about a famous chef who gets decapitated and….it doesn’t matter really. While they might be formula driven, they are never dull.
The series is set in Trenton, New Jersey and revolves around the central character Stephanie Plum. She works as a bond enforcement officer and sometimes helps the enigmatic and incredibly sexy Ranger in his security business. She’s in love with the cop Joe Morrelli, but theirs is an on-again-off-again relationship. She’s madly attracted to Ranger but he’s not the marrying kind. Her sidekick Lula is a 200 pound ex ‘ho who insists on wearing lycra and needs to regularly eat fried chicken and donuts to settle her stomach. Grandma Mazur lives with her parents and is a gun-toting-thrill-seeking feisty old lady whose highlight of the week is the latest viewing at the funeral parlour. Then there’s Stephanie’s long suffering mother who turns to her hidden vodka bottle to help deal with her daughter’s dangerous exploits and her father who’s either in front of the TV. or at the dinner table mumbling under his breath. And don’t forget Rex, Stephanie’s Hamster who spends his time in a cage on her kitchen counter eating, sleeping and occasionally being saved from bad guys.
I’ve never been to Trenton but Evanovich manages to bring it alive. Her descriptions of middle class suburbia and Stark Street, the epicenter of drug and crime hell, are vivid. But it is her characters I love the best. Her dialogue is fast paced, amusing and true to character. Lula has some of the best lines in the book and it is easy to hear her voice. It is her ability to create characters that evoke such a sense of time and place that make reading her series worthwhile.
I’m surprised that the books have not yet spawned a movie or at the least, a television series. Die hard fans are very opinionated as to who should play which character. For the record I would have Sandra Bullock as Stephanie, Jon Bon Jovi as Joe Morrelli, Vin Diesel as Ranger, Ann Morgan Guilbert as Grandma Mazur (she played Grandma Yetta on The Nanny). Lula is a tougher one. Originally I thought of Queen Latifah but I think that she’s not big enough, nor crass enough. Think Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Doolittle and I think we’re getting somewhere.
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