Tag: thriller

Stephanie Plum – books 7 to 10

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

I achieved my goal of reading the first 10 books in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. The series is about a hot formerly unemployed bounty hunter who chases evil folks and loses them 10 times per book to only capture them on the 11th attempt. This is usually funny and low-risk, with no drama.

The story evolved over the last 4 books.

  • Criminals are no longer inviting themselves to Stephanie’s apartment at the same rate. The ability to break 3 of the top 10 locks out there is not that common and people breaking in at a whim started getting annoying. I’m glad this part is gone, hopefully, to never be seen again
  • Characters who were captured in previous books reappeared either as allies or as adversaries
  • Janet Evanovich started developing some wicked love for donuts and cakes. All female characters eat sugar like their life depend on it. Truckloads of donuts, chips, and cake. On one occasion, truckloads of bacon.
  • Stephanie’s sidekick Lula developed the sit-jitsu battle skill where she would sit on a criminal and squash them as a bug
  • Stephanie’s two love interests Joe Morelli and Ranger are no longer translucent. Morelli is the cop and Ranger is the mysterious millionaire in love with the clumsy nerd. Both didn’t add anything to the story over the last 4 books and I wish they get assignments in Venezuela. They were better when they were translucent.

All in all, books 7 to 10 are all in the 4/5 territory. They’re fine and I may read a few more because reading about Stephanie Plum is comforting. I just hope she stops eating donuts. It’s bad for her and unpleasant for me. We don’t want the main characters to die from sugar poisoning.

February in Books

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

The challenge to blog daily got me motivated to read more and shorter books. I read 15 last month, which I’ve not done since the day(s) I read The Chronicles of Amber. I didn’t blog about most of them, though. Didn’t feel right.

The best books for the month were Five and Six by Janet Evanovich and the two Thraxas. Number Seven is already lined up in my phone, and the next two Thraxas arrived as a paperback from a second-hand shop.

The worst by a wide margin was David Baldacci’s Memory Man. I awarded it 3* but it doesn’t sit well in my memory. The way I remember it, it’s already a hard 1*.

Death by Hollywood – Steven Bochco

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I did it! I successfully read a book with a Goodreads rating of 3/5. Given that most people give 5s by default, the 3 is a pretty big deal. It’s like an IMDb rating of 4 for a movie.

What grabbed my attention was the writing style of the first few pages. It sounded like the writer knew the world he was describing very well, and I wanted to learn more. A screenwriter witnesses a crime and decides he’ll write a script based on it instead of reporting it to the authorities. He inserts himself into the lives of the victim, the killer, and the detective. A world of corruption, sin, and hypocrisy uncovers where everyone is greedy and nobody is spared.

The book is not linear. It has a dog named Bob. Half of the books I read in February feature a prominent canine supporting character Bob. Is that even a reasonable dog name? Bob is a very clever dog, so clever that the book leaves the realm of crime and enters the urban fantasy. Bob makes this book a 5 rather than a 4. 4 would be fair – the book is fresh but not that fresh – there is not much to like, except for Bob. It’s difficult to finish and the non-linear nature introduces 2 or 3 brief throw-away-the-book moments. I bet this is what happened to most people who voted 3 or under – they just gave up at the first difficult moment.

TL;DR – 5/5 but the book is unusual and many didn’t like it. It keeps on giving if you don’t give up. Goodreads link

Stephanie Plum – books 4 to 6

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

I keep reading the Stephanie Plum series. My original plan was to get to book 5 but I’m going to extend that to book 10. The series keeps being cool and I consistently award high scores.

Stephanie Plum is a headhunter who does more and more PI work and less and less headhunting. She somehow manages to trigger events that lead to flying dead bodies and crashing criminal enterprises. She’s far too lucky though, the cars would always explode when she wasn’t inside and the bullets would miss. I think this is turning into a main positive feature of the series – you can rely on her having some Ring World-style extreme luck and that it will all be okay.

There’s a lingering love story between her and a few gigachads. Janet Evanovich doesn’t let that stand in the way of a good thriller. It’s more of a reminder that Stephanie Plum is a human and has feelings than an actual love story. Both men I’ve previously described as translucent – they are like imaginary resource-rich and powerful genies, essences of some dominant male-ness, and are almost as good as ghosts. Unlike these two, all the other characters, new and recurring, keep being fresh and vivid.

Thanks to this series (and blogging about it), I’m on track to have my best month for reading in years.

Two for the Dough and Three to Get Deadly

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Stephanie Plum is a young 30-ish old woman with no job and no future. She starts working as a headhunter and hunts for dangerous criminals who skipped bond, primarily relatives and beloved members of the community. She seems to be good at that. Dead bodies are flying everywhere for no clear reason.

There’s a saying that once a writer breaks through with a story, they’re expected to write the same story over and over until they die from old age. I sense a mild risk that Janet Evanovich does that. Book 2 is too close to Book 1 to deserve a separate review. It’s still enjoyable because Stephanie Plum is an enjoyable character and some of the supporting cast are also quite nice but it’s about hunting a guy named Kennie, and that summarizes it.

The names of each book in the series follow a naming convention of a number followed by some clickbait. Two Dough. Three Deadly. Four Whatever. Of course, Deadly is more interesting than Dough and without it, there would be no new post on the series. Ranked both with Five but objectively, Two is Four.

The villain in Three is Uncle Mo. Everyone loves Uncle Mo and will absolutely not assist the evil headhunter who tries to capture him. Uncle Mo is also the first male character that’s built with care. Why does everyone like Mo? Is he a fraud? I guess we’ll find out 🙂

Five for the Goodreads.