Yes, that’s right, Stephanie Plum #32, and I’ve been along for the ride ever since the summer of 2002 when I ran into a friend at my local public library who was carrying the then recently published Hard Eight, the 8th in the Stephanie Plum series. She said they were a lot of fun to read, and so I started with One for the Money and worked my way forward until I caught up. I may have missed one or two along the way but I have read all or almost all of the Stephanie Plum mysteries.
For those of you who <gasp> haven’t stumbled upon Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, she is a bounty hunter working for her cousin’s bail bond agency, and one could argue she is not particularly good at it. If it weren’t for the fact that she lives and works in the same neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey, where she grew up, and knows everyone and everything about everyone, good and bad, she would never apprehend any criminal who has skipped bail.
She has two aces in her hand, two men who come in and out of her life on rotation, Joe Morelli, a local cop, and Ranger, the head of a private security firm. With the help of one or the other of those two men (and sometimes she needs both), she usually succeeds in capturing her criminal. Along the way, however, she has a bad habit of totaling one automobile after another, and periodically having to move out of her apartment while a hazmat team makes it livable again.
She also has a bevy of females she relies upon for help: Connie (office secretary but really the ears and eyes of the entire town), Lula (her partner who is even more inept than Stephanie but always great for a laugh), and her grandmother (who attends a wake almost every night of the week and gets all the gossip at the funeral home). Her mom and dad, Morelli’s family, and Ranger’s staff round out the returning characters in the series.
The big question for the entire series thus far (until #31) has been will she or won’t she marry, and if so, will it be Morelli or Ranger. In #31, the title gives it away, Now or Never, when she is basically told “fish or cut bait,” and so she marries.
Split Second Switcheroo opens with a shock: she is unhappily married and just like that, presto bingo, she and her husband of less than a year separate. They file for divorce, easy peasy, and we are back to square one, with both Morelli and Ranger in and out of her life.
I enjoyed this book but as usual I was a little over the idiots she is chasing to rebook their court date. The number of destroyed automobiles in this series is completely over the top, and there is no exception in #32. I am sure there are avid readers of the series who would object to Evanovich not including this reoccurring gimmick in future books. And, true to form, her apartment is trashed and/or made unlivable (I can’t be more specific, but it is gross) several times in this episode.
There is a strong subplot running through this mayhem though that I actually really enjoyed. She is working for Ranger to protect the 10-year-old daughter of a very wealthy man. Stephanie’s relationship with Mia is charming, and it shows a different side of Stephanie that we haven’t seen yet. In fact, could it be that Stephanie is finally maturing into someone who one day could consider having a family of her own?
While there is plenty to scoff at in this book, the one thing that seemed most improbable was Stephanie scaling a mountain, breaching a 9-foot wall, and actually using her gun for its intended use.
If you are a fan of the series, you will enjoy this book. If you haven’t read any of the series yet, I would suggest starting with one of the earlier ones so you can learn about Stephanie’s past with Morelli and Ranger, because it will make the early parts of #32 more understandable.
I admit I have a “thing” with multi-volume series. I’ve read all of the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet books by Sue Grafton, which are titled similarly except with letters instead of numbers, A is for Alibi, B is for Burglar, and so forth.
Unfortunately, Grafton died before she wrote “Z” so the series ends with Y is for Yesterday. Janet Evanovich is ahead here, with 32 <so far> and many other standalone novels and a few other series.
Are the Stephanie Plum novels formulaic? YES. Will I keep reading them? YES. We all have our guilty pleasures, right?
Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Janet Evanovich for the ebook ARC of this latest Stephanie Plum caper!
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