Product Description

Stephanie Plum's ex-husband Dickie Orr has disappeared and Stephanie is the prime suspect in his disappearance. Is Dickie dead? Can he be found? And can Stephanie stay one step ahead in this new, dangerous game? Joe Morelli, the hottest cop in Trenton, New Jersey, is also keeping Stephanie on her toes - and he may know more than he's saying about many things in Stephanie's life. It's a cat-and-mouse game for Stephanie Plum and the ultimate prize might be her life...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11050 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
Janet Evanovich now lives in New Hampshire but, like Stephanie Plum, grew up in New Jersey. She has won major crime fiction awards for her Stephanie Plum novels: ONE FOR THE MONEY was presented with the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey Award and the Dilys Award, TWO FOR THE DOUGH won the CWA Last Laugh Award and THREE TO GET DEADLY won the CWA Silver Dagger for 1997.

Customer Reviews

Plum improvement
Stephanie Plum's obnoxious ex-husband Dickie Orr goes missing the day after Stephanie tries to strangle him, and she finds has to go searching for him, while being tailed by the equally obnoxious Joyce Barnhardt, who is Dickie's current girlfriend, and who is anxious to find Dickie, or at any rate his money, of which he has a lot. Naturally, this leads Stephanie into all kinds of trouble, and as always, someone is out to kill her.

I thought this book, although not as funny as the early Plums, was an improvement on the last two, it has a better plot and more humour. As always, the supporting players, especially Grandma Mazur and Lula, are fun to meet. There are some funny guest characters, especially the crazy taxidermist who specialises in exploding animals. You may wonder how anyone as incompetent as Stephanie manages to make a living as a bounty hunter (she still can't bring herself to carry her gun, and she still lets people sneak out the back way while she waits for them out the front). And you may wonder how much longer Joe Morelli and Ranger are going to wait for her to make up her mind which one of them she prefers. But never mind, suspend disbelief and just enjoy another helping of Plum.

Stephanie's in good form
This is another typical outing for Stephanie Plum and associates. This time Stephanie's ex husband Dickie Orr has been in on some shady business and has gone missing. Someone's playing fast and loose with a flame thrower and exploding beavers and stuffed cats are the least of Stephanie's problems.
When this started out, I almost put it down because it was so samey, but as I got into it, I realised that actually, this was rather fun. I suppose it's rather like watching episodes of Scooby Doo. You always know what's going to happen, but you tune in and watch it anyway.
Bottom line, don't expect anything different from the other thirteen. Go with the flow, enjoy your favourite characters and chill.

2 stars for content, one for nostalgia
Every year I look forward less and less to a new Evanovich novel, and I used to anticipate them with more glee than Christmas. The problem is that they are now so very formulaic you can predict almost to the paragraph what will happen next. Don't get me wrong, the characters are wonderful, the wit and humour still spot on (and it is very hard to write funny things) and the pace is still keeping those pages turning, but nevertheless, this story is the same as the one before and the one before that. I keep reading them for the occasional belly laughs and because I want to know what happens next in Stephanie's tangled life, but they are no longer the breath of fresh air they used to be. In this one Stephanie's ex-husband goes missing after she has had a particularly full and frank discussion with him, making her number one suspect. The friction between Stephanie and Joyce Barnhardt is delightful and as ever Grandma Mazur is a superstar, but Rex must be the oldest hamster in the world now and it's time Stephanie moved on a little.