Janet Evanovich Eleven On Top

Eleven On Top

Janet Evanovich

Everyone's favorite bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has had enough of her job. She is tired of her cars blowing up, being shot at and trying to bring some bail jumper into the police because invariably they fight her every step of the way. The final straw comes when Stephanie tries to catch Sam and someone shoots at her. Even though she caught her man, she wants a nice safe job.

She takes a job at the button factory but is late on her first day at work and is fired. She then works for a dry cleaners and is fired from that place of employment because she is giving her friends discounts. The woman who fired her drives her away in her car which blows up. Stephanie thinks this has something to do with the threatening letters she has been getting. Her job in a fast food place ends with the store being blown up. When her lover Joe suffers a broken leg due to Stephanie's stalker running over him in his car, she begins to investigate. She believes her stalker is linked to a case Ranger is working on, proving it could prove fatal.

Each Stephanie Plum book is better than the one before. In ELEVEN ON TOP we discover Stephanie is commitment phobic. Joe loves her and Ranger wants her. Her cars getting blown up is a symbol of the crime, adrenaline filled life she leads and eventhough she no longer works as a bounty hunter she still involves herself with Ranger's case and tries to take out her own stalker. Janet Evanovich is a creative writer who brilliantly spins slapstick into life threatening events.

St. Martin's, June 2005, $26.96, 320 pp.

ISBN 0312306261

Harriet Klausner