Amazon.de
Stephanie Plum, girl bounty hunter, the terror of Trenton, the bane of her boyfriend Joe Morelli's existence, and the delight of her crazy grandma's heart, is in the wrong place at the wrong time--as usual. Just happening to be indulging her nachos jones at a local deli when it's robbed by the notorious Red Devils, Plum is the eye witness who could put the gang leader, known as the Junkman, behind bars... if he just lets her live long enough. Looking for a place to hide out from the killer until the cops catch up with him, Stephanie sneaks into her fellow bounty hunter Ranger's apartment without telling Morelli, who's not overly fond of him. All the usual suspects in this long-running series are along for a wilder than ever ride, including Lula the gun-toting ex-hooker, Grandma Mazur, Stephanie's pregnant sister Valerie and her fiancé, as well as a host of minor characters who bring Trenton's seedier environs to life. Ten Big Ones is another madcap caper by a writer whose fans will doubtless catapult this easy beach read to the top of the bestseller list. --Jane Adams
Amazon.co.uk
The latest of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum adventures, Ten Big Ones places New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie in rather more jeopardy than usual. She has inconvenienced a local street gang and finds herself with a price on her head; the contract killer known as the Junkman has a taste for torture as well as murder, and she is the last victim on his list. As usual, she finds herself caught between her regular boyfriend, cop Morelli, and the dangerous and charming Ranger; as usual, the main plot goes on in the intervals between her regular rounds of catching up with bail defaulters and delivering them to court, and her involvement with her eccentric Hungarian and Italian relatives.
There are few surprises here--Janet Evanovich is good and funny on the subtle variations in New Jersey's suburbs and the differences between good and bad neighbourhoods, and she has always had the knack of constructing knockabout scenes of slapstick and farce. If at times she drifts towards the formulaic and stale, this is only really evident in retrospect. As one reads the book, she is as entertaining as always. --Roz Kaveney
