Three to Get Deadly

Stephanie Plum is, as usual, way over her head in her unchosen profession. Untrained, uncoordinated, dysfunctional and disorganized, she's the world's most unlikely bounty hunter - a definite Sandra Bullock role if they decide to make the movie.

This time her main task is simply to track down the town saint, a well-loved candy man with a devoted following of little old ladies, and a stable of nasty goons on the side.

Suddenly people are shooting at her, drug dealers are turning up dead, her vehicles don't work, and her new sidekick is a former hooker with an attitude and a craving for action - once it's not too dangerous.

Acknowledging her limitations, she calls on professional bounty hunter Ranger (part to be offered to Sam Elliot if I have a say in casting) and police officer Morelli (think Colin Farrell), her primary weakness in the romantic department.

After all the expected twists and turns, and the unexpected twists and turns, this turns out to be a wildly funny and entertaining read.

Amanda Richards


Dependency Narrowly Avoided by Stephanie Plum!   September 12, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Ever since Stephanie kicked out her husband for doing something unmentionable with a high school classmate on the dining room table, she has been trying to find her own way. It's tough out there in the real world. Being a lingerie buyer didn't work out, so she's put pressure on a relative to let her be a bounty hunter for his bail bond business. This has given her a new set of friends, including Lula (the toughest ex-streetlady turned bounty hunter in training) and Ranger (her tough-as-nails bounty hunter mentor). But Stephanie is still new to bounty hunting, and things go wrong.

In this installment of the continuing Stephanie Plum sage, Stephanie has three men to bring in. One runs a candy store, another is a kid who works in fast food, and the third is a pusher who's armed and dangerous. Naturally, it's the elderly man with the candy store who's the main problem. She can't find him, no one wants her to find him because he is beloved by the community, and pretty soon dead bodies are stacking up like cord wood wherever Stephanie goes. Three times in one day, she is shot at, and her nerve starts to go. Pretty soon, her normal solo act is being backed up by both Lula and Ranger.

Then, too, Joe Morelli (exboy friend in this story) starts acting strange, Stephanie finds him more attractive. He also moves into a house, and Stephanie starts to wonder if he's ready to settle down. With her guard down after more and more dangerous encounters, Stephanie almost succumbs but is saved by her weak stomach.

The mystery isn't the thing in a Stephanie Plum novel. It's just there to give Stephanie something to do. She's the real focus. Characterization in this fine novel is outstanding. That's the strength of the book. The humor is fine, too. The plot's a little below par, but you'll like the romantic parts and Stephanie dealing with food and exercise. If you have a macabre sense of humor, you'll like some of the corpse humor as well.

The real focus of the story is whether Stephanie is going to retreat into eating all of her meals at her parent's house, move in with Joe Morelli, and give up on chasing bad guys and get a job at the button factory. Although she's very tempted, she keeps her freedom and independence. You'll enjoy the tug of war, and be rooting for Stephanie. If you have children, you'll probably also change your mind about how often you let them go to candy stores alone.

Overcome your tradition stall that catching the bad guys is only for he-men. Stephanie can trip them up with the best!

Enjoy this book the next time you want a good laugh!


Dependency Narrowly Avoided by Stephanie Plum!   May 21, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Ever since Stephanie kicked out her husband for doing something unmentionable with a high school classmate on the dining room table, she has been trying to find her own way. It's tough out there in the real world. Being a lingerie buyer didn't work out, so she's put pressure on a relative to let her be a bounty hunter for his bail bond business. This has given her a new set of friends, including Lula (the toughest ex-streetlady turned bounty hunter in training) and Ranger (her tough-as-nails bounty hunter mentor). But Stephanie is still new to bounty hunting, and things go wrong.

In this installment of the continuing Stephanie Plum saga, Stephanie has three men to bring in. One runs a candy store, another is a kid who works in fast food, and the third is a pusher who's armed and dangerous. Naturally, it's the elderly man with the candy store who's the main problem. She can't find him, no one wants her to find him because he is beloved by the community, and pretty soon dead bodies are stacking up like cord wood wherever Stephanie goes. Three times in one day, she is shot at, and her nerve starts to go. Pretty soon, her normal solo act is being backed up by both Lula and Ranger.

Then, too, Joe Morelli (ex-boyfriend in this story) starts acting strange, Stephanie finds him more attractive. He also moves into a house, and Stephanie starts to wonder if he's ready to settle down. With her guard down after more and more dangerous encounters, Stephanie almost succumbs but is saved by her weak stomach.

The mystery isn't the thing in a Stephanie Plum novel. It's just there to give Stephanie something to do. She's the real focus. Characterization in this fine novel is outstanding. That's the strength of the book. The humor is fine, too. The plot's a little below par, but you'll like the romantic parts and Stephanie dealing with food and exercise. If you have a macabre sense of humor, you'll like some of the corpse humor as well.

The real focus of the story is whether Stephanie is going to retreat into eating all of her meals at her parent's house, move in with Joe Morelli, and give up on chasing bad guys and get a job at the button factory. Although she's very tempted, she keeps her freedom and independence. You'll enjoy the tug of war, and be rooting for Stephanie. If you have children, you'll probably also change your mind about how often you let them go to candy stores alone.

Overcome your traditional thinking that catching the bad guys is only for he-men. Stephanie can trip them up with the best!

Enjoy this book the next time you want a good laugh!


Where's Mo?   March 4, 2004
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I'm now three books into the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. I've yet to be bored - even a little bit - and that's worth a five-star rating by itself. I get bored easily.

By now, klutzy Stephanie is settled into her career as a bounty hunter employed by her sleaze-ball cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman in beautiful Trenton, NJ, a job she took in desperation after being fired from her previous gig as a lingerie buyer. Her latest quarry is the affectionately-named Uncle Mo, the elderly, unmarried owner of the neighborhood ice cream and candy emporium, who skipped bail after being charged for carrying a concealed weapon - everyone in Trenton carries, it seems - by an overzealous cop on a traffic stop. In trying to track Mo down, Plum discovers that little is known about him by neighbors and relatives. But, Stephanie is considered Pond Scum by all for hounding a man akin to the Pope and Santa Claus all rolled into one. Then, local drug dealers start disappearing. And what's that putrid smell coming from the basement of Mo's store? As Stephanie delicately puts it, "Is it dookey?"

For me, the series hasn't become stale because Evanovich either brings to the forefront a tagential character from a previous novel, or inserts a brand new one into the plot. In THREE TO GET DEADLY, Lula, a reformed ho beaten and left for dead on Stephanie's fire escape month's before, now does filing for Vinnie and insists on "assisting" Plum on her takedowns. And we're initially introduced to Stephanie's former first husband, the shyster lawyer Dickie Orr. In the meantime, the sexual tension remains high between Stephanie and Joe Morelli, the exasperating Trenton plain-clothes cop whom the teenaged former once ran down with the family Buick after the teenaged latter despoiled Stephanie's maidenhood on the floor behind the eclair case of the local donut shop where Plum was working at the time.

The images conjured by Janet's prose are hilarious, as when Stephanie and her pet hamster Rex are beset by two thugs in her apartment and shots are fired. Her elderly neighbors pour forth to lend help with enough armament to have rescued Custer. Or when Stephanie struggles to apprehend a fugitive costumed as a chicken in a fast food joint.

I normally like to vary my reading, but I'm immediately jumping to Plum's next escapade, FOUR TO SCORE. Albeit frivolous, this is good stuff.