Janet Evanovich, Ten Big Ones

Ten Big Ones

Janet Evanovich

St. Martin's, June 2004, $25.95, 320 pp.

ISBN 0312289723

Bond Enforcement Agent Stephanie Plum and her sometimes partner Lula are outside the deli-mart trying to decide what to eat when a man wearing a red devil mask runs out of the store. He has a Molotov cocktail that he throws into the store he just robbed but the manager catches it and throws it back bouncing it off the culprit's head into Stephanie's car. The car catches fire and the criminal takes off his mask and Stephanie realizes she can identify him.

Her live in lover Joe Morelli tells her he is associated with the street gang Comstack Street Slayer. Without thinking of the consequences, Stephanie and Lula go into Slayer territory to look for the Red Devil robber when gang members, some of which jump on her car, surround them. She drives away, throwing the gang members into the street and the next thing she knows the Slayers have imported the hitman Junkman to take her and a few other people out. Stephanie comes up with an deliciously felonious plan to find out who is on the Junkman's hit list and why but she is still in danger with Joe and Ranger, the sexy bounty hunter who is Joe's rival doing their best to protect a woman who needs her freedom.

This is obviously the tenth Stephanie Plum novel and unbelievably it is one of the best in the series. It is fresh, funny, upbeat, and populated with the quirky characters readers have come to love. Stephanie's relationship with Ranger is definitely heating up. It is delightful to watch the heroine doing her job while hiding out from the gang members. Janet Evanovich score again with an undeniably great crime novel. This author has so much talent it is no wonder she is always on the bestseller lists.

Harriet Klausner