FEARLESS FOURTEEN: A Stephanie Plum Novel
Janet Evanovich
St. Martin’s Press
Mystery
ISBN: 9780312349516

• Read an Excerpt

Trenton, New Jersey's most infamous bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, may not have a reputation for keeping her promises. But when it comes to a kid, does she have a choice? Her latest adventure begins with an offhand remark to a mother who failed to appear at her court hearing that she didn’t have to worry --- Stephanie would pick up Zook, the woman’s teenage son, from school if Mom hadn’t finished the paperwork at the police station in time. Stephanie wouldn’t do this for just anybody, but the mother is Joe Morelli’s cousin Loretta (he’s related to half of Trenton), so she’s almost family. Simple, right?

If you’re a Stephanie Plum fan, you already know that nothing in her life is simple.

Loretta is kidnapped and held for a $7 million ransom of hot money from a bank job her brother Dom went to jail for that may be buried in Joe’s basement. This would explain the strange men who start coming and going through Joe’s cellar door ever since Dom got out of jail last week. When one of them winds up dead with a bullet hole in his forehead in the middle of Joe’s basement floor, he hires a friend to guard his house.

Joe and Stephanie are surrogate parents to Zook, the nerdy 14-year-old whose ears are permanently attached to his iPod and his fingertips connected to his laptop computer. When things turn nasty at Joe’s house, they move Zook and his entourage (he’s something of a gamer guru and has established a following) to Stephanie’s apartment.

Meanwhile, Stephanie is moonlighting for Ranger as a bodyguard for has-been country western singer Brenda, playing Trenton on a farewell tour. Brenda decides that bounty hunting would be a great new career choice after watching Stephanie and Lula in action, so she tags along as they try to rescue Zook’s mom from the kidnappers. That job becomes more urgent after a well-manicured toe arrives attached to a brick through the window with threats of more body parts to come.

Somehow, a nasty little monkey named Carl gets involved but doesn’t meet the end he so richly deserves.

Janet Evanovich introduces several new characters, most of whom are related to Joe, and some effective new weaponry in the form of potato shooters. The computer gamers ride to the rescue along with the professionals, and all is calm in the burg once again. The crime is resolved, but Stephanie’s complicated relationship with Joe and Ranger is not. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another year to get our hands on book 15!

    --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

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