Janet Evanovich Three Thru Six Four-book Set: Three to Get Deadly, Four to Score, High Five, Hot Six (Mass Market Paperback)

If you have not yet read a Stephanie Plum novel, let me explain about her. She is one of the most endearing mystery characters ever developed. Fiercely independent, her attitude is always showing (although she may shake like a leaf afterwards). Tremendously attracted to aggressive men, she plays it coy as much as she possibly can. Prone to disasters, she keeps her chin up and keeps on trucking. Loyal to her family, she is often babysitting her Grandma Mazur when she and her Father are not hitting it off. And she makes her living by bring in people who are out of jail on bail and fail to appear in court. She gets 10 percent of the bail amount when she succeeds. It's a tough way to go for the former lingerie model, but it excites and challenges her to the core.

If you already know Stephanie, you will find her at her caring, jealous, lusting, nosy, sneaky, obtuse, hungry, and persistent best. She finds herself more and more attracted to Ranger (her bounty hunting mentor) and to Joe Morelli (her policeman exboy-friend). Yet she wants to be in charge, which sets up a great source of conflicts.

To give you a sense of how appealing I find her as a character, whenever she ignores an obvious clue I want to tell her to pay attention. With any other book, I find myself annoyed with the author for making the msytery too transparent. But you will want to read this book for Stephanie, not for the mystery (although it is a perfectly fine one).

Before the book is done, you will have experienced explosions, homicidal attacks, lots of gun play, Stephanie will go through a number of vehicles in typical Stephanie fashion, bail jumpers will be brought to justice, deaths will be avenged, Uncle Fred will be found, and you'll go to more viewings as a funeral home than you can imagine. The story is very fast paced and rewarding. Yet all of this is done with consistent humor and balance. So although there is a dark side, it is always overwhelmed by Stephanie's light.

The plot is very well developed. You have the main plot of finding Uncle Fred. To that are added important subplots of getting to know Joe Morelli better (even attending a family wedding with him), getting nonbounty-hunting jobs from Ranger, working on her diet, solving her financial problems, having an unwanted roommate, being stalked by a mystery man, and being hunted by a killer with revenge on his mind. Each of the subplots could make a whole novel if more fleshed out. The result is that you get a whole fabric of a life and her relationships here, moving forward and backward in time.

This book provides an unusually good balance of plot, character development, and humor. On the humor side, let me mention for those who have not read these books before that Stephanie is a very bawdy person in many ways, and the language and situations can have an overt sexual cast. So if you are offended easily by hearing about how a woman thinks about men sexually, you may not like the book. That's the only drawback I need to warn you about.

In fact, this book is so successful that is transcends the normal action mystery genre. Virtually everyone will find this book to be an engaging, uplifiting read. I liked it much better than Hot Six! (which I also recommend that you read) because the mystery, the plotting, and the character developments are much better done and balanced in this one.

Overcome your disbelief that women can't make it in a man's world! Let Stephanie save your day by providing you with a wonderful read!

The Sally Sweet character is probably her most memorable character. Old nemesis Joyce Barnhardt does favors for Cousin Vinny and gets to compete with Stephanie Plum for a job bringing in Maxine Nowicki. As usual, Stephanie can find Maxine, but has a hard time apprehending her. In the meantime, someone's making threats, pouring gasoline over her car, and firebombing wherever she lives. The people she contacts to find Maxine keep turning up with strange wounds, and are very silent about Maxine's whereabouts. She seems to hit cold trail after cold trail.

You should be able to solve the mystery about half way through. This was one of Evanovich's more transparent efforts. But the mystery is really beside the point. To focus on that would be like studying history instead of partying during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The story of Stephanie Plum and her relationship to the other characters are where you'll find the attraction in this book.

The scenes, the set-ups, and the dialogue are marvelous. If you have a friend who is also reading the series, you'll be trading lines before you're done with this book.

After you have read and enjoyed this book, consider how little straight comedy is written now in fiction form. Almost all of it is in the context of crime and mystery novels. What does that say about our tastes and society's state? What would a non-bounty hunting, funny Stephanie Plum be like? I suspect she could be just as funny. In many ways, she is the Lucille Ball of the 1996-2000 period.

Overcome your stalled thinking about how much fun a book can be with this one!

The story has several running gags that are well sustained. Stephanie Plum and those who are attracted to her are very interested in having sexual relations, but are continually stymmied in unpredictable ways. Bob, the dog, comes into Stephanie's life, and one disaster follows another. This dog is the Lucille Ball of animals, and makes a complete farce out of every situation. The criminals in question are so clumsy and stupid that they continually give themselves away, leaving you with virtually no mystery to hold in your hands. Stephanie continually has her efforts to be a bounty hunter turn out poorly, yet somehow she gets out of the worst of what could happen with another hilarious mishap scene. Stephanie's grandmother decides she wants to ride the wild side and moves in with Stephanie. Between her interest in men and snoring, she is driving Stephanie up a wall. There are more such running gags, but you get the idea. Many books make the mistake of overdoing a single running gag. By filling this book to the brim with them, none are overdone.

Few novels feel like they should be a movie, but this is clearly one of them. Each scene is very visceral in its development and humor.

You may not want to read this book right away. It is so funny that you may want to save it for an emergency, like the fire hose in most building hallways. You can be sure you'll laugh your head off whenever you do read it.

By the way, for those who like a synopsis: Stephanie's mentor, Ranger, is video taped in a building moments before the victim is murdered and the building is torched. Ranger is on the lam from the cops, and there's a warrant out for his arrest. Stephanie and others help him keep an eye on things so he can prove his innocence. More murders ensue, and the bad guys are foiled in the end.

Have a ball overcoming your misconception that crime cannot be funny!