Trenton's most celebrated bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, has had
enough excitement in her life. She's been tasered, cuffed, shot at,
kidnapped, chased, and stalked by too many crazies. The half-life
of any car registered in her name is less than 30 days before it
explodes. Her love life is so complicated she can't keep her two
boyfriends apart in her mind, made worse by their becoming buddies
and ganging up to rescue her from herself. What's with
that?
So she turns in her badge and gun to her bonding agent boss,
Vinnie, and joins the civilian world. Since her work skills tend to
amount to breaking and entering, window peeping and car chases, she
is challenged in the burger-flipping department. The chicken hat at
Cluck in a Bucket is not a good fit. Selling donuts, although
enthusiastically embraced by her carb-addicted sidekick Lula, turns
out to be both hazardous to her hips and to the bakery owner. Her
car(s) are still catching fire and blowing up so she's no safer
making buttons at the button factory than she was apprehending bail
busters. Even in civilian life, someone is leaving threatening
notes on her doorstep about returning from the dead to get
revenge.
The job hunt eventually leads to Rangerman, the security business
owned by her one-time love, the steamy Ranger, where she picks up
some computer skills and conducts skip-traces the easy way ---
electronically. It's strictly business at Rangerman, or as close to
it as possible with Ranger's apartment in the same building, and
Stephanie is able to dig up the information she needs to track down
her mystery stalker.
Meanwhile, her sister Valerie is finally heading for the altar with
the father of her baby, and Sally, the cross-dressing rocker turned
wedding planner, lends a well-manicured hand. Officer Hottie, aka
Joe Morelli, offers shelt