High Five

June 28, 1999
Actress Mazar (Goodfellas) has just the right sassy streetwise accent to fit the first-person voice of Evanovich's hero, Stephanie Plum. Mazar sounds poised yet real in her role as the New Jersey-based bounty hunter (the fifth adventure in the series and the second reading for Mazar). She gamely throws herself into the dramatic "bits" along the way, playing out the dialogue scenes with relish. Plum is a tough character, coolly navigating her way through the male-dominated terrain of North Jersey's criminal element. But she's also fragile on the inside, sensitive and haunted by the violence and chaos in her life. Her boss, her cousin Vinnie, runs a business that naturally attracts lowlifes prone to nasty crimes: a man blows himself up with a bomb, a homicidal boxer is on the rampage. Meantime, the love of Plum's life, Morelli, a rakish Trenton vice cop, treats her badly. But her luck isn't all bad, as when she is given a Porsche (she rationalizes, "When you had a car like this, you didn't mind so much that your boyfriend was boinking a skank"). On tape, Plum's attitude holds more sway than the plot, as she sails from case to case with a blistering irreverence that's sure to keep listeners charmed. Based on the 1999 St. Martin's hardcover.

March 15, 1999
This time, Stephanie Plum has a lot on her plate: she's dodging a homicidal rapist, hunting for a missing uncle, and tangling with a topnotch bounty hunter named Ranger.

Starred review from May 1, 1999
Raucous, rambunctious Jersey girl Stephanie Plum, the Bounty Hunter from Hell (as she's known in her neighborhood), is back in her fifth madcap adventure. That she's lived long enough to have five adventures is amazing enough, considering that Stephanie has near-death experiences (bombings, shootings, kidnappings) like normal people have breakfast. This time she has about 47 problems on her hands. Her uncle Fred has disappeared after a close encounter with the garbage company; Grandma Mazur is disturbed when she finds her granddaughter Stephanie's stun gun; Stephanie herself has found a dismembered body in a garbage bag; and the superdeadly killer she supposedly put away for life has been released on parole. And, of course, there's that pesky car problem: this week alone, Stephanie has been through three (bombed, stolen, towed). It will be no surprise to series fans that Stephanie overcomes all these obstacles, finds her uncle Fred, disposes of the bad guys, and brings peace back to Jersey. Is she Wonderwoman or what? This series may be the hottest thing going in the mystery genre right now. The combination of hilarious dialogue, oddball characters, and eye-popping action is hard to beat on its own, but the heroine, a righteous babe if ever there was one, is what sets the over-the-top series apart from all the competition in the comic mystery field. A must for all collections. ((Reviewed May 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)