Fearless Fourteen
by Janet Evanovich
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.47 You Save: $27.48 (98%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Fearless Fourteen
Book Review: RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "NOTHING LIKE A GROWN MAN'S "FIRST-PLUM"!"
Summary: 3 Stars
I have never read any book by Janet Evanovich before. So my review is based solely on this book. Unlike 3/4 `s of the 83 reviews currently posted on this site that say they're never going to read this author's books again... or her work has gone steadily downhill since the early installments... or certain characters didn't have as much visibility as they used to... or Stephanie Plum should be put to sleep permanently... I just cannot make any comments like that since I have never read any other Stephanie Plum book to compare it to. But please believe me... I feel your pain. If you simply changed the name of the author to James Patterson in this review I would be saying the same things with the same powerful venom! I too stated to the world a few months ago that I would stop reading Patterson's books for the same reason's formerly loyal Evanovich fans have said they would stop reading her books. But once again, since I don't have the same heartfelt experience with Plum that you do... It might be interesting for you to get the response of a heretofore "virginal" Plum reader.
Being a single guy, when Ms. Plum introduced herself to me by way of telling me that "she kept her Smith & Wesson in the cookie jar, her Oreos in the microwave, a jar of peanut butter in the over-the-counter cupboard, and "BEER" and olives in the refrigerator"... I have to admit I was falling in love. (The hamster food was a negative. But the "BEER" & FIREARMS easily outweighed that small negative!) I enjoyed the nutty, bulbous breasted, sidekick Lula. Her gold tooth with a diamond chip added to the visual image, though I thought the biggest shortcoming in the book was the constant babbling about the wedding to the dupe of a boyfriend Tank, that went on and on with no logic, and then just disappeared into the ether with no culmination nor explanation. The whacky conglomeration of bit characters has some hits as well as misses. With individuals ranging from a stalker foreseeing an attack by an "evil flying pizza", to a former high school stoner who is now a witless adult addicted to the word "dude", and a teenager with the nickname of "Zook" (The second biggest strikeout in the plot!) who is allowed to spray paint people's houses and cars with absolutely no punishment. Perhaps the best "bit" character with un-mined potential was Grandma who was not given enough time to shine with lines like: "Zook", that's a pip of a name. I wish I had a name like that. You got an awful lot of holes in you. How do you sleep with all those rings attached to your head?"
Put them all together and throw in NINE-MILLION-DOLLARS missing from a bank heist and you have the potential for a fun tongue-in-cheek mystery. It would also help if Ms. Plum made an adult decision in her love life. Like I said earlier, I have no "Stephanie Plum" history to compare this one to; I can only say standing on its own it's mildly amusing.
Book Review: Reviewing: Fearless Fourteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel
Summary: 2 Stars
It begins as many of these do with Stephanie Plum out on a bond recovery. This time it is Loretta, suicidal, and in her pajamas in her kitchen while Stephanie tries to convince her everything is going to be okay. Loretta wanted a Tom Collins as she was thirsty so she held up a liquor store. She made bail and missed her court appearance and now has to leave her home and go back to jail. They negotiate and finally she surrenders and goes semi-willingly to jail. Now, Stephanie has to take care of her teenage son, Mario.
Mario looks way too much like Joe Morelli for Stephanie and just about everyone involved. Sure, Loretta, her brother, Dom, and Joe are all cousins so that could explain it. Or, it could be the fact that according to Dom, Joe years ago got way too close to Loretta and fathered Mario. Dom hates Joe for many reasons and being the father of Mario is just one of them. He wants Joe Morelli dead. Of course, things just get more complicated from there. Stephanie ends up doing body guard work for Ranger while Joe tries to figure out where the money is from a long ago bank robbery that Dom was a part of and Joe Morelli has made the money hunt more complicated without trying to do so. And Lulu is working an agenda all her own with her usual results.
So, there are some good ideas here. But, this latest novel is a rather dull read even by the standards of the last several novels in this series. Something is missing and it is not easy to explain what exactly is missing from the book. It could be the fact that the rest of Stephanie's family is accounted for, but missing in action for almost the entire novel. There is only one dinner scene with the family in this novel and dinner scenes always provided a lot of humor earlier in the series. It could be that while her car is graffiti painted, Stephanie's car doesn't suffer a fiery death as we all expect in book after book. It could be that the spark between Ranger and Stephanie is dim in this one and the spark between Joe and Stephanie seems to have been snuffed out. Not that there are romantic comments and flirtatious teasing, but there is little passion involved among any of the parties.
It could be a host of things. I don't know what it is. I do know that for this reader there were only a couple of amusing moments and one laugh out loud one. The rest of the time the pages turned, the story flowed, but, it never came alive or moved me one way or another. Instead, it seemed lifeless and just a book used to crank out another notch on the series hamster wheel.
While die hard fans may love it, those new to the series are advised to skip this one.
Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008
Book Review: Feckless Fourteen
Summary: 3 Stars
14 Books into her full-length Stephanie Plum series (with several joint and silly fictional NON-SERIES efforts between her main series of books), Janet Evanovich is succumbing to the syndrome that best selling authors who are forced to write a new book in series every year (due to contract and the ongoing need for $$$ at all costs) all suffer from.
It's harder for Evanovich than many mystery writers, because she's not just trying to juggle and grow characters, and keep the mystery, or whodunit, in a state of suspense. She's also trying to demonstrate the somewhat ribald and slapstick humor that have kept her over-the-top series about a female, Trenton,NJ bounty hunter who is an endearing stumblebum, a perennial favorite.
It was almost predictable that the characters would grow stale, the plots suffer from sameness and the humor dry up over time. Evanovich has been accused of "phoning it in" and just grinding out a new Stephanie tale every summer to keep the money machine flowing.
And where she got some positive, quirky reviews for books 1 and 2, followed by raves and guffaws for the next 6-8 books in the series, she was bound to get some fans starting to "boo" her. And so it goes. Patricia Cornwell has lived through the same thing. I'm glad that some, very rich authors (JK Rowling) know when to quit to preserve the integrity of the ongoing story; to finish strong.
I won't belabor with a synopsis; there were subplots and little vignettes popping up all over the place, in an effort to keep the story frenetic and action-packed. In all the frenzy, the editing was poorly done. One of the story lines involved an aging celebrity, Brenda (think Tina Turner with no class). I was happy when Stephanie finished her bodyguard gig for Brenda, only to have Brenda continue to pop up throughout the story.
For me, the book lost its joy when it decided to focus on the aforementioned Brenda, not a likeable, humorous or even necessary character, except in cameo, and when Evanovich rolled out the monkey.
Yes, the monkey. `Nuff said.
I think it's time for Evanovich to retire her heroine, maybe in one big "15 tale. At this point, criticism of what she is turning out has become pretty strident from followers who don't understand what the best seller machine is all about for the publishers. I'll buy "15", and look forward to it, the same as I did this installment, but I, too, am wearying of Evanovich not putting forth the effort or time to sharpen the humor and carefully introduce characters we care about. I will say that, no doubt, she'll sell a lotta books.
Book Review: New characters with the old
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a hoot. As in "Plum Lucky" (the last between-the-numbers novel), Evanovich introduces some new characters to the series to keep it vibrant. We have Zook, the teenage son of one of Morelli's cousins, who is a likable character whom I would hope to see pop up in future novels in the series. We also have Brenda, a 61-year old version of Briteny with the same bad girl habits. We see a lot more of Morelli's family in this novel, but still a little of the Plum family, including Grandma Mazur. Of course we also have Ranger, whom Stephi can call on for help if she needs a little B&E to gain entry to a building or a file of information on an individual. Every man has his uses. Of course there is Lula, and there is Bob (woof). Yes, there is a monkey that shows up in a couple scenes.
Janet Evanovich may not win a Pulitzer, but she does provide some very good light entertainment. A member of an Internet Forum compared her to Carol Burnett. You can expect things to be blown up (usually at least one vehicle) or set on fire. Some reviewers complain that she reuses the same plot devices, but there are many ways to blow up a vehicle. She also introduces a few new things. In this novel you are introduced to the potato gun. Don't do this at home. More to the point, don't let your children do this at home.
There is a plot in all this. There is the $7 million in loot missing after a robbery 10 years previously where one of Morelli's cousins was involved. There are people from the Burg and a couple dead bodies. And there is Brenda, an aging star looking for a new lease on life. The novel has earthy language and sex by reference.
It has come to my attention that there is a small, vocal group of Ranger fans making an attempt to give this novel a bad rating. They are easily identified. The best you can do is ignore their squaking.
As a side note, an interview with Janet Evanovich appears in "Speaking of Murder - Volume 2." She said her first novel (unpublished) was "this very strange book about a fairy who was living in this scary forest in Eastern Pennsylvania." She obviously has a creative mind when it comes to characters, and only she could come up with the ones used in the novels.
If you are interested in characters created by a different author, I would recommend independent insurance investigator Fifi Cutter and her freeloading half-brother Bosco Dorff in "Murder...Suicide...Whatever," a novel by Gwen Freeman.
For something different, you might also try PI Izzy Spellman in "The Spellman Files," the first novel in a fairly new series by Lisa Lutz.
Book Review: Fun, fabulous, fantastic number 14
Summary: 5 Stars
Trenton, New Jersey's most infamous bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, may not have a reputation for keeping her promises. But when it comes to a kid, does she have a choice? Her latest adventure begins with an offhand remark to a mother who failed to appear at her court hearing that she didn't have to worry --- Stephanie would pick up Zook, the woman's teenage son, from school if Mom hadn't finished the paperwork at the police station in time. Stephanie wouldn't do this for just anybody, but the mother is Joe Morelli's cousin Loretta (he's related to half of Trenton), so she's almost family. Simple, right?
If you're a Stephanie Plum fan, you already know that nothing in her life is simple.
Loretta is kidnapped and held for a $7 million ransom of hot money from a bank job her brother Dom went to jail for that may be buried in Joe's basement. This would explain the strange men who start coming and going through Joe's cellar door ever since Dom got out of jail last week. When one of them winds up dead with a bullet hole in his forehead in the middle of Joe's basement floor, he hires a friend to guard his house.
Joe and Stephanie are surrogate parents to Zook, the nerdy 14-year-old whose ears are permanently attached to his iPod and his fingertips connected to his laptop computer. When things turn nasty at Joe's house, they move Zook and his entourage (he's something of a gamer guru and has established a following) to Stephanie's apartment.
Meanwhile, Stephanie is moonlighting for Ranger as a bodyguard for has-been country western singer Brenda, playing Trenton on a farewell tour. Brenda decides that bounty hunting would be a great new career choice after watching Stephanie and Lula in action, so she tags along as they try to rescue Zook's mom from the kidnappers. That job becomes more urgent after a well-manicured toe arrives attached to a brick through the window with threats of more body parts to come.
Somehow, a nasty little monkey named Carl gets involved but doesn't meet the end he so richly deserves.
Janet Evanovich introduces several new characters, most of whom are related to Joe, and some effective new weaponry in the form of potato shooters. The computer gamers ride to the rescue along with the professionals, and all is calm in the burg once again. The crime is resolved, but Stephanie's complicated relationship with Joe and Ranger is not. Hopefully we won't have to wait another year to get our hands on book 15!
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea