Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich

Turn on all the lights and check under your bed. Things are about to get spooky in Trenton, New Jersey. According to legend, the Jersey Devil prowls the Pine Barrens and soars above the treetops in the dark of night. As eerie as this might seem, there are things in the Barrens that are even more frightening and dangerous. And there are monkeys. Lots of monkeys.

Wulf Grimoire is a world wanderer and an opportunist who can kill without remorse and disappear like smoke. He’s chosen Martin Munch, boy genius, as his new business partner, and he’s chosen the Barrens as his new playground.

Munch received his doctorate degree in quantum physics when he was twenty-two. He’s now twenty-four, and while his brain is large, his body hasn’t made it out of the boys’ department at Macy’s. Anyone who says good things come in small packages hasn’t met Munch. Wulf Grimoire is looking for world domination. Martin Munch would be happy if he could just get a woman naked and tied to a tree.

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has Munch on her most-wanted list for failure to appear in court. Plum is the all-American girl stuck in an uncomfortable job, succeeding on luck and tenacity. Usually she gets her man. This time she gets a monkey. She also gets a big guy named Diesel.

Diesel pops in and out of Plum’s life like birthday cake – delicious to look at and taste, not especially healthy as a steady diet, gone by the end of the week if not sooner. He’s an über bounty hunter with special skills when it comes to tracking men and pleasing women. He’s after Grimoire, and now he’s also after Munch. And if truth were told, he wouldn’t mind setting Stephanie Plum in his crosshairs.

Diesel and Plum hunt down Munch and Grimoire, following them into the Barrens, surviving cranberry bogs, the Jersey Devil, a hair-raising experience, sand in their underwear, and, of course . . . monkeys.

I am not 100% sure that I get the point of these between the numbers Plum novels. With Stephanie struggling to sort out her love life between Morelli and Ranger already, it seems a little superfluous to add yet another man who wants to get it on with her, but I guess that while people keep on buying them, Janet Evanovich is going to keep writing them. I do wonder if Evanovich has an ending in sight for this series or if she is just going to keep going and going and going. All that may sound a little down on the author, which may be a bit harsh, because there were definitely some amusing moments throughout this book, but I am glad that I have stopped buying the Plum books and just get them from the library.

I did laugh a couple of times, the monkeys are initially amusing. If I still had a copy of the book I might be tempted to go through and see how many times Carl the monkey gave someone the bird. It was an awful lot of times and it got very repetitive after a while.

I was glad to see that Morelli and Ranger both played small parts in this novel. In at least one of the other between the numbers novels it was as if they both had dropped off the face of the earth! Some of the dialogue is amusing, especially with Lula.

"Ranger this and Ranger that," Lula said. "Don't none of you people think for yourself? I bet you can't wipe yourself without Ranger telling you."

Tank looked at her in the rearview mirror. "I'm telling him you said that."

"I might have misspoke," Lula said.

It seems that Lula and Tank have a few issues to sort out in their relationship, which should at least allow for this book to actually sit within the series a bit more.

As to the plot, well, Stephanie is after some FTA's and as usual she is having great difficulty in picking them up. One of them has gotten himself mixed up with some people that might be a little out of the ordinary and is planning world domination from his base in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Much hilarity ensues...or a little bit at least.

Mostly this is just same old same old and yet I keep on reading them, and I can't see that changing any time soon even if they aren't books that leave me laughing until I am crying anymore.

This is one of my reads for 2009 Pub Challenge.

By the way, I visiting evanovich.com for the first time in months today and it looks much better than it used to! Just thought I would throw that out there.

Rating 3.5/5

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Passion for the Page
Savvy Verse and Wit