Quick-take: Hapless everywoman dives into bounty hunting.

Dan's Review

Stephanie Plum is divorced, 30 years old, and recently lost her unimpressive job. Her reserves are running on fumes (as well as her car). Desperate she seeks out her cousin Vinny for another unimpressive job filing papers. Instead, she manipulates her way to the bigger money: Hunting down a wanted killer that skipped their court date. Reward: $10k. Despite stressing how broke she is, the book conveniently gave her some emergency reserves for some costly bounty supplies (gun, cuffs, clothes, etc). I will just simply ignore that. Considering she met the guy at least a couple times, she may have a chance. Of she goes pounding the pavement.

It's hard to review a mystery/thriller because every minor plot point can be considered a critical "reveal", so I will just go with the overall. Overall, the book is entertaining though predicitable. It's 1 part whodunit and 2 parts amusing situations. Stephanie Plum doesn't so much outwit her assailants. She just reacts and through blind luck things work her way.

Apparently, this book is part 1 of a long-running 25+ book still-going series. I don't see how. There just isn't enough here. I suppose it does have that cotton-candy-for-your-brain beach-read vibe. If you like that, this one is for you. It's just not for me. Score: 3/5.