To the Nines [Hardcover]

If you don't know from your assigned reading by now, Stephanie is a bond enforcement agent - a bounty hunter - employed by her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, in Trenton, NJ. While Plum eventually manages to catch her man (or woman), she invariably leaves a trail of chaos in her wake, and her modus operandi is endearingly klutzy. Plus, all the characters in her personal and professional life lie on a continuum from being mildly eccentric to outright wack jobs. Only her pet hamster, Rex, is normal.

In TO THE NINES, Stephanie's quarry is Samuel Singh, an Indian in the States on a temporary work visa on which Vinnie has underwritten a new type of bond - a "visa bond". But Singh has disappeared, and the resulting bad publicity will destroy Vinnie's business unless his disaster-prone cousin can find him. Assigned to help in the search is Vinnie's premier contract agent, Ranger, a mysterious ex-Special Forces type that operates just outside the law and who, since book one (ONE FOR THE MONEY), has inpired a warm feeling in our heroine's nether regions despite her off-and-on emotional and sexual commitment to another cousin, Trenton police detective Joe Morelli, who relieved Stephanie of her virginity behind a bakery's pastry counter back when they were teenagers. Ranger is a Hunk Dressed in Black.

As I hinted earlier, the Stephanie Plum comedic thrillers, while always very funny, follow an invariable pattern.... Author Evanovich apparently has a storyline template to which she religiously adheres. (And who would argue? It produces Best Sellers.) However, for those of us - well, at least me - loyally following Plum's keystone-cop antics, some significant deviation from the pattern would be welcomed. In TO THE NINES, the author breaks the mold just a little. For once, Stephanie gets out of Trenton on her quarry's trail - all the way to Las Vegas, NV - unreasonably harassed by airline security at every stop. And instead of demolishing the various cars and trucks loaned to her by Ranger, now it's the latter's employees who're imperiled by Stephanie's bad karma.

Finally, Stephanie's sister Valerie gives birth. This flips the switch on the former's own maternal instincts. Somewhere vaguely in her thirties, Stephanie isn't getting any younger and the Biological Clock is ticking. Do you suppose that Morelli is the man for the job? Of course, they'd have to get married first - an event that's proved maddeningly elusive in previous installments, much to the distress of Stephanie's Mom. Indeed, the plotting for future Plum novels involves potentially infinite permutations sure to keep fans buying books. Read more ›

Stephanie Plum, the down home city girl from the Burg in Trenton, continues in her bounty hunter job, and she takes on some pretty unusual ones in To the Nines. As Stephanie describes it, her retrievals have more to do with Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy than with Wonder Woman. Her cousin Vinnie faces an enormous embarrassment if he cannot find and bring in one Samuel Singh, a temporary worker from India, for whom Vinnie wrote a visa bond. Vinnie sends Stephanie and her mentor (and sometimes squeeze) Ranger out to find Singh. A major plot line of the book revolves around this search.

A secondary and engrossing plot involves the mystery of who is threatening Stephanie and killing people around her after she has lunch at McDonald's.

A third and happier plot involves Stephanie and Morelli's relationship.

A fourth plot focuses on Stephanie's unmarried sister, Valerie, who is nine months pregnant.

On top of these interesting plots and subplots, the mystery is quite engrossing. I had no idea what was really going on until about 60 pages from the end.

On top of this, the book is filled with hilarious little scenes featuring the manic members of the Burg, including her man-crazy Grandma Mazur, Morelli's Grandmother Bella who has visions of dead women all the time, the generously endowed Connie Rossolli from Vinnie's office, and even Stephanie's mother who's having trouble coping.

The pace of this book is amazing. There's something significant happening on almost every page. The scenes intersect with each other in truly inspired ways....

I was thoroughly delighted with this book . . . except for one little problem. It was totally clear who the evil doer was in the last 60 pages. As it is, I think To the Nines is my favorite Plum among the first nine books. Only Ten Big Ones is better.

After you finish racing break-neck through these pages, think about where your heart's desires may be leading you in contradictory directions. Then, go do something about it! Read more ›