Three to Get Deadly (Stephanie Plum, #3)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Paul
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2012/05/10
date added: 2012/05/10
shelves: mystery, novel
review:
Here we go again on another Stephanie Plum… well, I was going to say “mystery” but that isn’t really accurate, and I think I need to stop thinking of this series as a collection of mysteries, regardless of where they’re shelved in the bookstores. Let’s go with “caper” instead.
Janet Evanovich‘s half-awesome, half-bumbling heroine is back, this time tracking down a beloved neighborhood candy store owner who skipped bail after a gung-ho cop booked him for carrying a concealed weapon. Now Stephanie’s social circle is cross with her for sullying the reputation of a local saint and she still has to navigate her way through the parade of zany characters in her trademark falling-with-style panache. I’ve said in earlier reviews in the series that the plots aren’t really the point here, these ridiculously readable novels are much more at home giving backdrop to the fun predicaments and set pieces Evanovich likes to throw at her hapless protagonist.
I was happy to see that Grandma Mazur, a force in Two For The Dough steps back and Lula, the sassy hooker-turned-fileclerk gets sidekick billing this time around. We also get to learn more about Ranger and Morelli and Stephanie continue their funny series of near misses—or maybe more accurately near hits. Plum still has about as much luck with cars as with men, she’s witty and funny and likable as ever.
It’s going to get old if I keep reviewing each of these books with the same caveats, basically reiterating how breezy and silly and fun they are while offering very little in the way of substance. But it’s hard to have much more to say at this point. Three books in and we’re still in “establish the formula” territory, so I don’t expect much in the way of serious character development just yet. The questions I’m starting to ask are when is the formula going to wear thin for me? I suspect that if there isn’t a bit of evolution to Plum or the growing cast around her by about book five (High Five to be exact), my moderate enthusiasm for the series is going to wane. These are reasonably written, fast-paced, escapist reads but there is only so much repetition that a novel-reader should be asked to endure.
I have the next two on my to-read list already. I’m not sure that the review of Four To Score will have much more to say than this or the previous one had. But if I’m still giving three tepid, apologetic stars to these by book five, I think I’m going to have to take a break from the series (at least) so I don’t become an embodiment of insanity’s definition.