Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is ordered to bring in the most beloved man in her neighborhood, a candy-store owner who has skipped bail
Nobody wants Uncle Mo caught
It is January in Trenton, and Stephanie Plum, the cheerfully underqualified bounty hunter, has a new file from her cousin Vinnie's bail-bonds office. The man who failed to appear in court is Uncle Mo, who has sold ice cream and penny candy to generations of children in the Burg and is regarded by everyone as a neighborhood treasure. Arrested on a weapons charge, he has disappeared, and the whole neighborhood would rather Stephanie did not find him.
Who will enjoy it
Fans of One for the Money and Two for the Dough, and readers who like their mysteries fast, funny and full of eccentric family members.
What you will get
A fast, funny comic mystery in which Stephanie Plum hunts the most popular man in her neighborhood and finds a much darker story behind him.
Three to Get Deadly Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Mystery & Thriller · Stephanie Plum · Comic crime · Trenton
Length
344 pages · ≈ 10 h
More about this book
Every attempt to look for Mo makes Stephanie more unpopular. Neighbors glare at her, her car meets yet another unhappy end, and her mother takes the whole thing personally. Then bodies start turning up, all of them small-time dealers connected in some way to the case, and it becomes clear that the gentle candy man may know far more than anyone suspected. Helping, or at least accompanying, Stephanie are Lula, now working in the bail office, and the unflappable bounty hunter Ranger.
The humor works because it is rooted in character. Grandma Mazur's enthusiasm for funeral homes, Stephanie's hopeless car luck and her crackling, unresolved chemistry with the vice cop Joe Morelli are all in fine form. Beneath the slapstick, the book raises a real question about what a community chooses not to see, and Evanovich lets the answer be uncomfortable.
The mystery is lighter than the comedy, and readers who want rigorous detective work may find the solution a little rushed. It is also the point where the series hits its comic stride, so new readers should still start with book one if they can. About 344 pages in the St. Martin's mass-market paperback.
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
The Thursday Murder Club
The Man Who Died Twice
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Secret Adversary
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
Partners in Crime
The Man in the Brown Suit
The Litigators
Camino Island
Dead Until Dark