Make-up & Murder (One for the Money - Janet Evanovich)

Member Name: MorganaDQ

Product:	One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
Date:	14/06/02 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a fabulous read!

Disadvantages: Not one. Nuh-uh. Nope.

I've never been a big fan of crime novels. If I'm honest, I've hardly read any, but one series of books caught my eye on an inexpensive book site. It's the series of books about Stephanie Plum, bounty hunter extraordinaire.

'One For The Money' is a veritable banquet of action, laughs, and believable characters, and was addictive from the very first page.

The basis of the book is that Stephanie Plum loses her job as a buyer for a down-market lingerie store thanks to cut-backs, and through desperation more than anything, goes to her cousin, Vinnie, for a job. Vinnie runs a bail-bond company, and as there's no secretarial position available anymore and one of the resident bounty hunters is in hospital, Stephanie blackmails Vinnie into giving her a job.

She has her sights set on catching one bail-jumper in particular. Joe Morelli. He's two years older than Stephanie and they grew up in the same area in New Jersey. But she's not only in it for the $10,000 she stands to collect on his delivery to the police. She's in it for revenge. Over the space of a number of years Morelli periodically got the better of Stephanie. Once as a six year old when he tempted her into his father's garage to play 'choo-choo', and once years later behind the pastries display case in a bakery where she worked. This isn't just about money. This is personal.

Stephanie needs to learn, and learn fast, if she's going to be able to bring in Joe Morelli, vice cop. He's streetwise. He knows the score and he knows the rules. He also knows you sometimes need to break those rules in order to get where you need to be, and he isn't afraid to do it. But then, he doesn't have much choice. He's jumped bail on a murder charge, what does he really have to lose?

Things aren't ever simple for Stephanie, and matters are made even more complicated when she's faced with the unwanted att
entions of Benito Ramirez, a boxer with a big attitude and little respect for women. Stephanie finds herself being the hunted as well as the hunter, and she's not happy.



This novel has one thing that makes it stand out from a number I've read lately, and that's believable, but still larger-than-life characters. From the moment I started reading I found I liked the heroine and could identify with her easily. Each character, however small, screams realism yet manages to entertain right through to the last page.

Stephanie is headstrong, independent, and knows exactly what she wants. She usually knows just how to get it, too. But she has a very real streak of vulnerability about her, which I think is what makes her such an honest character. She lives alone with her hamster, Rex, in an apartment block where pensioners with attitude surround her. Her family ties often manage to pull her home to her folks' place for dinner, where some of the most amusing characters lie.

The interraction between the two lead characters is what ultimately makes this novel worth reading. Sure, the plot is a good one. It moves at a good pace and keeps us guessing, something that I understand is becoming increasingly difficult to do. But it's the relationship between Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli that I found the most intriguing. The dialogue between the two is entertaining, real, honest, amusing. They're the kinds of exchanges you'd expect to hear from any two old adversaries.

There are a number of 'supporting roles' here, though, and they most certainly shouldn't be overlooked.

Ranger is a bounty hunter of the first degree. He's the person Stephanie goes to for help right from day one. He's full of advice and contacts. He wears all black (mostly), has his hair perfectly swept back in a pony tail, and has enough fire power to take out a small army, at the very least. He's a man of
few words, flash cars, lots of style, and no one knows where he lives. He's the ultimate mystery, and he's the coolest of cool you're likely to find.

Grandma Mazur is Stephanie's grandmother. She's always trying to copy how her granddaughter dresses, right down to the biker shorts, and loves that she's now working as a bounty hunter. She's the kind of off-the-wall granny so many of us would love to have, and so few of us do. She's a mean shot when faced with a roast dinner, too.

Stephanie's mum is like so many others. She loves to feed people and give them advice they don't want to hear. She also keeps trying to find a new husband for her daughter since she was divorced from the "horse's ass". She thinks being a bounty hunter is far too dangerous for her daughter, and keeps trying to convince her into something else. If it were up to her mother, Stephanie would be packing tampons for minimum wage.

Those are just a few of the wonderful characters in this addictive book. The positions they all find themselves in at one time or another is always kept real, as well as entertaining.

I could hardly put this book down. Evanovich writes with a gritty realism that pulls you in and makes you want to race ahead to find out before it's appropriate what happens next. If I realised Morelli was coming into the story again, I found my eyes would wander down the page without warning to look for his name - something which is unheard of for me.

The plot moves at a good speed. Not so fast that you lose track of what's happening, and not so slow that you have to keep resisting the urge to skip a few pages at a time. There are just the right number of characters to keep you entertained, and not too many that you lose track of who's who.

Evanovich doesn't write with condescension. She manages to give us very clear and uncluttered imagery to work with, and never
once tries to make the reader feel inadequate with their lack of knowledge on one thing or another. She doesn't try to challenge our way of thinking, nor shock us. She has simply written a funny, real and addictive novel that's accessible to absolutely anyone who chooses to read it.

I finished 'One For The Money' and instantly picked up the sequel, 'Two For The Dough'. When that was finished, 'Three To Get Deadly' was in hand and being consumed with relish.

I can't recommend this book, or indeed the author, highly enough.

~~~

Publisher, Penguin Books
ISBN: 0-14-025292-4

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