High Five

The speaker is Stephanie Plum, the glamorous if slightly ditzy bounty hunter from Trenton, New Jersey, and one of the most original creations in recent mystery fiction.

In this fifth entry in Janet Evanovich's increasingly popular series, Stephanie's problems are many and varied. She's not making enough moneypicking up FTAs (Failures to Appear) for her cousin Vinnie, of Vincent PlumBail Bonds; her red-hot love affair with Detective Joe Morelli has cooled off; and her giant extended family is no help at all. For instance, Uncle Fred the cheapskate has disappeared, leaving behind some suspicious photographs of body parts in garbage bags and links to some really dangerous people.

When Stephanie turns to her friend and mentor, Ranger, for financial advice, he gets her involved in a gang of toughs doing instant evictions for landlords. (She complains to Ranger about the job and its dangers, prompting one of the hired thug to say, "Man, you don't like to get shot. You don't like to get arrested. You don't know how to have fun at all.")

Most of Stephanie's charm, of course, comes from her attitude--a combination of the brazen bravado that turns a failed lingerie model into bounty hunter in the first place and the normal fears of a person in over her head.

Other Plums in paperback, by the numbers: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly, and Four to Score. --Dick Adler

If you have not yet read a Stephanie Plum novel, let me explain about her. She is one of the most endearing mystery characters ever developed. Fiercely independent, her attitude is always showing (although she may shake like a leaf afterwards). Tremendously attracted to aggressive men, she plays it coy as much as she possibly can. Prone to disasters, she keeps her chin up and keeps on trucking. Loyal to her family, she is often babysitting her Grandma Mazur when she and her Father are not hitting it off. And she makes her living by bring in people who are out of jail on bail and fail to appear in court. She gets 10 percent of the bail amount when she succeeds. It's a tough way to go for the former lingerie model, but it excites and challenges her to the core.

If you already know Stephanie, you will find her at her caring, jealous, lusting, nosy, sneaky, obtuse, hungry, and persistent best. She finds herself more and more attracted to Ranger (her bounty hunting mentor) and to Joe Morelli (her policeman exboy-friend). Yet she wants to be in charge, which sets up a great source of conflicts.

To give you a sense of how appealing I find her as a character, whenever she ignores an obvious clue I want to tell her to pay attention. With any other book, I find myself annoyed with the author for making the msytery too transparent. But you will want to read this book for Stephanie, not for the mystery (although it is a perfectly fine one).

Before the book is done, you will have experienced explosions, homicidal attacks, lots of gun play, Stephanie will go through a number of vehicles in typical Stephanie fashion, bail jumpers will be brought to justice, deaths will be avenged, Uncle Fred will be found, and you'll go to more viewings as a funeral home than you can imagine. The story is very fast paced and rewarding. Yet all of this is done with consistent humor and balance. So although there is a dark side, it is always overwhelmed by Stephanie's light.

The plot is very well developed. You have the main plot of finding Uncle Fred. To that are added important subplots of getting to know Joe Morelli better (even attending a family wedding with him), getting nonbounty-hunting jobs from Ranger, working on her diet, solving her financial problems, having an unwanted roommate, being stalked by a mystery man, and being hunted by a killer with revenge on his mind. Each of the subplots could make a whole novel if more fleshed out. The result is that you get a whole fabric of a life and her relationships here, moving forward and backward in time.

This book provides an unusually good balance of plot, character development, and humor. On the humor side, let me mention for those who have not read these books before that Stephanie is a very bawdy person in many ways, and the language and situations can have an overt sexual cast. So if you are offended easily by hearing about how a woman thinks about men sexually, you may not like the book. That's the only drawback I need to warn you about.

In fact, this book is so successful that is transcends the normal action mystery genre. Virtually everyone will find this book to be an engaging, uplifting read. I liked it much better than Hot Six! (which I also recommend that you read) because the mystery, the plotting, and the character developments are much better done and balanced in this one.

Overcome your disbelief that women can't make it in a man's world! Let Stephanie save your day by providing you with a wonderful read!


Stephanie Saves the Day!   May 21, 2004
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

In this high-powered action mystery, Stephanie Plum (bumbling bounty hunter extraordinaire) starts with her life at a low point. She is broke, she has no work to do, she has broken up with her policeman boy friend Joe Morelli, and she has an unwelcome unpaid investigative job to find her annoying cheapskate Uncle Fred. But life does improve by the end, and Stephanie saves the day!

If you have not yet read a Stephanie Plum novel, let me explain about her. She is one of the most endearing mystery characters ever developed. Fiercely independent, her attitude is always showing (although she may shake like a leaf afterwards). Tremendously attracted to aggressive men, she plays it coy as much as she possibly can. Prone to disasters, she keeps her chin up and keeps on trucking. Loyal to her family, she is often babysitting her Grandma Mazur when she and her Father are not hitting it off. And she makes her living by bring in people who are out of jail on bail and fail to appear in court. She gets 10 percent of the bail amount when she succeeds. It's a tough way to go for the former lingerie model, but it excites and challenges her to the core.

If you already know Stephanie, you will find her at her caring, jealous, lusting, nosy, sneaky, obtuse, hungry, and persistent best. She finds herself more and more attracted to Ranger (her bounty hunting mentor) and to Joe Morelli (her policeman exboy-friend). Yet she wants to be in charge, which sets up a great source of conflicts.

To give you a sense of how appealing I find her as a character, whenever she ignores an obvious clue I want to tell her to pay attention. With any other book, I find myself annoyed with the author for making the msytery too transparent. But you will want to read this book for Stephanie, not for the mystery (although it is a perfectly fine one).

Before the book is done, you will have experienced explosions, homicidal attacks, lots of gun play, Stephanie will go through a number of vehicles in typical Stephanie fashion, bail jumpers will be brought to justice, deaths will be avenged, Uncle Fred will be found, and you'll go to more viewings as a funeral home than you can imagine. The story is very fast paced and rewarding. Yet all of this is done with consistent humor and balance. So although there is a dark side, it is always overwhelmed by Stephanie's light.

The plot is very well developed. You have the main plot of finding Uncle Fred. To that are added important subplots of getting to know Joe Morelli better (even attending a family wedding with him), getting nonbounty-hunting jobs from Ranger, working on her diet, solving her financial problems, having an unwanted roommate, being stalked by a mystery man, and being hunted by a killer with revenge on his mind. Each of the subplots could make a whole novel if more fleshed out. The result is that you get a whole fabric of a life and her relationships here, moving forward and backward in time.

This book provides an unusually good balance of plot, character development, and humor. On the humor side, let me mention for those who have not read these books before that Stephanie is a very bawdy person in many ways, and the language and situations can have an overt sexual cast. So if you are offended easily by hearing about how a woman thinks about men sexually, you may not like the book. That's the only drawback I need to warn you about.

In fact, this book is so successful that is transcends the normal action mystery genre. Virtually everyone will find this book to be an engaging, uplifiting read. I liked it much better than Hot Six! (which I also recommend that you read) because the mystery, the plotting, and the character developments are much better done and balanced in this one.

Overcome your disbelief that women can't make it in a man's world! Let Stephanie save your day by providing you with a wonderful read!


Stephanie has man problems   April 23, 2004
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

In HIGH FIVE, the fifth in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich,Stephanie hits a new high in dysfunctionality when it comes to men.
Plum is a klutzy bond enforcement agent, i.e. bounty hunter, working forbail bondsman and sleazy cousin, Vinnie, in Trenton, NJ. In this book,Stephanie's official assignment takes back seat to a family request tofind Uncle Fred, who's disappeared. But what's with the photos Uncle Mabelfound in Fred's desk of a plastic garbage bag containing a dismemberedbody? Photography wasn't Fred's hobby.
In HIGH FIVE, Plum is beset with Briggs, Bunchy, Ramirez, Morelli, andRanger. And that's just for starters. Briggs is a midget that becomesPlum's unwelcome houseguest after the latter's zeal for fugitiveapprehension results in an unfortunate incident. The mysterious Bunchyalso wants to find Fred, and is following Stephanie around. Ramirez, apsycho rapist that Plum helped put away in book one, is now back on thestreets and wants revenge.
But the real core of the novel is Stephanie's lack of a sex life - acondition that's now reaching the critical stage. Plum has prurientyearnings for Joe Morelli, a distant relative and Trenton undercover cop -that is, when she's not hating his guts for being totally exasperating inthe way males often are. After all, twelve years ago he did take hervirginity behind the eclair counter of the pastry shop in which she wasworking. Then there's Ranger, the Cuban-American, bounty hunterextraordinaire who's Stephanie's sometime mentor and now, to herdistraction, the occasional stud muffin of her fevered dreams. Our heroinehas a yen for Bad Boys, and both Morelli and Ranger can be that,especially when they dress in black.
As one would expect in a continuing series, the author must ratchet up thewackiness of Stephanie's life a notch with each succeeding volume. Throughthe first five books, she's managed to do this without stretching mycredulity beyond the breaking point. Plum is just one of those girls withexcruciatingly bad karma. I'm beginning to anticipate, though, a plotwhere Evanovich tries too hard. We'll see, because I intend to read all ofthe series - 5 more installments as of this review.
At the conclusion of HIGH FIVE, Stephanie succumbs to the need for a nightof lovin', writes the names of Morelli and Ranger on separate pieces ofpaper, mixes them in a bowl, closes her eyes and picks one, summons thewinner after showing his name to her pet hamster Rex, puts on akiller-sexy black dress, and waits for her man of the night to arrive. Thereader won't know who got lucky until it's revealed in the prologue of HOTSIX. Rex and I know, but we're not telling.
If a Stephanie Plum book was to be made into a film, Sandra Bullock wouldbe absolutely perfect in the title role.


Un-put-down-able   May 10, 2001
A very good friend recommended this author to me & since reading her first book I've been hooked . The latest book in the series was not a disappointment . I read this book with a mixture of dread ( how quickly does Janet write !!?? ) & excitement ( I was desperate to know where the characters would lead me & what situations our heroine would get herself into ). I too would like to spread the word - if you want an excellent read , read this