One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)
by Janet Evanovich
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Book Summary Information
Author: Janet EvanovichEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04-14
ISBN: 0312990456
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Product features:
- Janet Evanovich
- Stephanie Plum
- One for the Money
- Bail Bond
- New Jersey
Book Reviews of One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)
Book Review: Beginning of a Great Series
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't remember who told me about Janet Evanovich's series featuring Stephanie Plum. I wish I could remember so I could thank her! Even though I put off reading this series for months, I continued to collect the books whenever I found one at a library sale or yard sale. I knew someday I would have time to start these books. That time came this past April and I picked up ONE FOR THE MONEY and began a fun, laugh-filled journey.
ONE FOR THE MONEY introduces us to Stephanie Plum, who has been laid off as a lingerie buyer for a large department store. Her Miata is about to be repossessed and she's sold most of her furniture, hocked most of her small appliances and anything else worth any money so she can pay her rent. Things are looking glum until she goes to see her Uncle Vinnie who owns a bail bonds company. She blackmails Vinnie into hiring her as a bounty hunter (yes, his penchant for farm animals is something he doesn't want known). So begins Stephanie's career as a bounty hunter, even though she doesn't know what the job entails. I mean, how hard can it be to find someone and bring them back to jail? It's not as easy as one might think, and Stephanie's antics are sure to cause laughter!
Stephanie is assigned the Joe Morelli case; he's wanted for murder and didn't appear for his court date. Seems Stephanie has a history with Joe, which began when she was six. He's the neighborhood bad boy turned cop, but a bust goes wrong and he kills a man. Joe says the man was armed but no gun turned up at the crime scene. He's trying to clear his name and if he's in jail, he can't do that, so he refuses to turn himself in until he proves his innocence. Joe is looking for the two witnesses and Stephanie is looking for Joe. They dance around stumbling into each other along the way. It's amusing and very entertaining reading!
Character development is excellent. Stephanie and Joe Morelli are detailed in depth and they seem like old friends to the reader. Support characters are vast and not as well developed as the main characters, but you can tell these will be delved into more fully in future books. Villains are plenty, including Benito Ramirez, a psycho boxer who enjoys inflicting pain on others and becomes obsessed with Stephanie.
The best support character has to be Grandma Mazur, Stephanie's maternal grandmother. She's feisty, says what's on her mind, and doesn't worry about what people think. One of my favorite passages is when Stephanie is invited to dinner at her parents' house (Grandma Mazur lives with them) and they invite a guy from the neighborhood in an attempt to fix Stephanie up. Grandma Mazur learns that Stephanie has just purchased a gun to use while apprehending felons, and she wants to see it. As they are sitting at the dinner table, Grandma is looking at the gun and Stephanie asks if the bullets were removed. "Of course" replies Grandma Mazur as the gun goes off and shoots the roasted chicken in the [...]. It's the funniest thing I've read in a long time and I burst out laughing. I happened to be in an airport waiting for my plane while I was reading and chuckling. A woman came up and said, "I loved those books too!" Hmmm... why did I wait so long to read these???
ONE FOR THE MONEY, along with the other books in this series, is a must read for anyone who wants to laugh. The mystery is not mind tingling, in fact some of the whodunit is almost non-existent. But the characters and witty plot development are definitely worth the full price of the book!
Summary of One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)
ONE FINE MESS
Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash-fast-but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family...
ONE FALSE MOVE
Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. As does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants, to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water-wanted for murder...
ONE FOR THE MONEY
Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight-and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man...
Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, home to wiseguys, average Joes, and Stephanie Plum, who sports a big attitude and even bigger money problems (since losing her job as a lingerie buyer for a department store). Stephanie needs cash-fast-but times are tough, and soon she's forced to turn to the last resort of the truly desperate: family...
ONE FALSE MOVE
Stephanie lands a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie's bail bonding company. She's got no experience. But that doesn't matter. As does the fact that the bail jumper in question is local vice cop Joe Morelli. From the time he first looked up her dress to the time he first got into her pants, to the time Steph hit him with her father's Buick, M-o-r-e-l-l-i has spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e. And now the hot guy is in hot water-wanted for murder...
ONE FOR THE MONEY
Abject poverty is a great motivator for learning new skills, but being trained in the school of hard knocks by people like psycho prizefighter Benito Ramirez isn't. Still, if Stephanie can nab Morelli in a week, she'll make a cool ten grand. All she has to do is become an expert bounty hunter overnight-and keep herself from getting killed before she gets her man...
Stephanie Plum is so smart, so honest, and so funny that her narrative charm could drive a documentary on termites. But this tough gal from New Jersey, an unemployed discount lingerie buyer, has a much more interesting story to tell: She has to say that her Miata has been repossessed and that she's so poor at the moment that she just drank her last bottle of beer for breakfast. She has to say that her only chance out of her present rut is her repugnant cousin Vinnie and his bail-bond business. She has to say that she blackmailed Vinnie into giving her a bail-bond recovery job worth $10,000 (for a murder suspect), even though she doesn't own a gun and has never apprehended a person in her life. And she has to say that the guy she has to get, Joe Morelli, is the same creep who charmed away her teenage virginity behind the pastry case in the Trenton bakery where she worked after school.
If that hard-luck story doesn't sound compelling enough, Stephanie's several unsuccessful attempts at pulling in Joe make a downright hilarious and suspenseful tale of murder and deceit. Along the way, several more outlandish (but unrelentingly real) characters join the story, including Benito Ramirez, a champion boxer who seems to be following Stephanie Plum wherever she goes.
Janet Evanovich shares an authentic feel for the streets of Trenton in her debut mystery (she developed her talents in a string of romance novels before creating Ms. Plum), and her tough, frank, and funny first-person narrator offers a winning mix of vulgarity and sensitivity. Evanovich is certainly among the best of the new voices to emerge in the mystery field of the 1990s. --Patrick O'Kelley
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