Janet Evanovich writes another funny and action packed mystery in her Lean Mean Thirteen, the thirteenth book in her Stephanie Plum series. True to the previous books , Stephanie Plum, the lovable and humorous New Jersey bounty hunter finds herself in predicament after predicament from which Morelli, Ranger, and Lula come to her aid. As Ranger so aptly puts it about half way through the book, “Babe, you’ve destroyed a car, burned down two buildings, stapled a guys nuts, and you have sixteen stitches in your leg. Take a night off.” But Stephanie doesn’t much to the readers delight.
In this story, Evanovich re-introduces Stephanie’s ex-husband, Dickie Orr and her life-long antagonist, Joyce Barnhardt. Dickie, a good name for a character whose love life wanders this much, has opened a legal enterprise with some not so savory characters. Dickie disappears, and Stephanie must sort out his affairs in order to save herself.
The subplots and support characters keep the action and humor hopping throughout the story. The subplots include a professional grave robber named Diggery; a taxidermist that specializes in exploding beavers; a chop shop; and a marijuana grow house. Combine these subplots with Grandma Mazur’s antics, and the tension of Stephanie’s love life, and you just keep turning the pages. Grandma Mazur is a septuagenarian that packs a big pistol, dresses like a teenager, and chases men at funeral parlors. Stephanie’s love life revolves around the stud muffins in the book, Ranger and Morelli. And did I forget to mention that Lula, “a black woman with a Rubenesque body and a Vegas wardrobe that’s four sizes too small,” is having a tryst with Tank, one of Ranger’s employees.
In addition to Evanovich’s humor and suspense, she also uses good character description and development to make her stories believable. “Joyce was six feet tall in four-inch, spike-heeled black boots. She was wearing a black leather duster lined with fake fur, her eyes were enhanced with rhinestone-studded fake eyelashes, her red enameled nails were long and frightening. The package was topped with a lot of shoulder-length brilliant red hair arranged in curls and waves. Joyce had never moved beyond Farrah Fawcett.” With this brief description the reader can visualize Joyce, and also determine the type of character she might turn out to be.
The Stephanie Plum stories are strictly intended to provide entertainment, and not promote social change unless you consider promoting junk food and ranting on the cable company social issues. Lula and Stephanie seem to be non-stop eating machines. They eat everything including donuts, raspberry Entenmann’s pastries, and the Senior Buffet at Costco. “Costco is the all-American free lunch. If you can’t afford to buy food, you can buy a minimum membership at Costco and get freebies from the give-away ladies. You just have to kick your way through the seniors who stand ten deep around them.” Evanovich seems to be mad at the cable company in this story. One of Stephanie’s FTA’s, failure to appears, didn’t show up because he was waiting on the cable company, and he goes to extreme lengths to avoid Stephanie in hopes of getting his cable repaired.
Lean Mean Thirteen is a thoroughly enjoyable book that keeps the reader laughing all the way through, and provides enough suspense to keep the reader intrigued and guessing.
BGS 4/6/2008