It may come as a surprise to you that intense strife, imminent death and tear-jerking moments are not required in the workings of a quality novel. Sure, a novel that gets your blood pounding is intriguing, but do you ever find yourself wanting to read something that is simply fun? If you enjoy a smart, funny, sassy, unique, slightly sexy and easy-to-breeze-through mystery, then Janet Evanovich’s novel “One for the Money” is the story for you.
The story centers around main character Stephanie Plum and her life in Trenton, New Jersey. Stephanie is a young, single woman, living in an apartment with her hamster Rex and working as a lingerie buyer. She frequents her family’s dinner table at their house in the Trenton neighborhood, ‘the Burg’, usually under the lure of a solid meal when she has no suitable food in the fridge.
Unfortunately, Stephanie lost her job six months earlier, when the company she worked for took a nosedive, and she has now taken to selling her appliances in exchange for much-needed money. In a last attempt to find a job, Stephanie pays a visit to her sleazy cousin Vinnie who owns a Bail Bond Company. Through a manipulation of family secrets bordering on black mail, Stephanie secures a tentative post as a bounty hunter. The job seems simple: find the person who skipped their bond hearing, bring him/her to the police station and collect ten percent of the bond money as payment. However, we quickly learn that nothing is ever simple in Stephanie’s world.
Joe Morelli is the nearly-irresistible bad boy turned cop who seduced Stephanie behind the counter of a bakery during their high school years. In return, she broke his leg a few years later when her car “accidentally” ran up onto the sidewalk and “happened” to hit Morelli from behind. Now, 11 years later, tensions are still high between the two, especially when Stephanie finds out the Morelli is her first target.
Though he’s a cop and claims self-defense, Morelli is being charged with a murder that occurred while he was on the job. Morelli’s bail was set at $100,000 so if Stephanie succeeds in bringing Morelli in, she would score a badly-needed $10,000. The hard part is catching him, because he seems to have disappeared into the wind after initially getting out on bail.
Stephanie is pulled, kicking and scratching, into the mystery of the murder that Morelli supposedly committed. Along the way she meets Lula, the overweight but saucy hooker and Ranger, an elusive and intimidating, albeit sexy, form of a bounty hunter. In her amateur and admittedly haphazard investigation, Stephanie attracts the attention of boxer Benito Ramirez. Soon he is showing up at her apartment, leaving threatening phone messages and scaring her into seeking help in a most unlikely ally.
Evanovich smartly crafts unique characters, all of whom never fail to evoke a reaction, whether it is laughing hysterically or cursing in annoyance. We fall in love with Stephanie within the first three pages, after learning about her early life blunders, and consequently fall into the love-hate relationship she has with Morelli. Stephanie is sarcastic, defensive, and quirky, but we admire her determination and willingness to be bold even when she feels like running away. She is surprisingly relatable, even when she is climbing through dumpsters to find her car keys, getting her eyebrows singed off as her car blows up, or being handcuffed to her shower rod.
“One for the Money” is riddled with fascinating characters, biting humor and ridiculous situations. By the end, we are convinced that only Stephanie could work herself into such ludicrous mishaps and make it out almost unscathed. The good news is that this book is the first in the series of Stephanie Plum novels. Once Stephanie’s crazy tales entrap you, don’t fear, because they continue for 21 books (so far), and each one is entirely refreshing and unpredictable.
