One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, #1)
author: Janet Evanovich
name: Paul
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2011/11/17
date added: 2011/11/24
shelves: mystery, novel
review:
Stephanie Plum is, at first blush, kind of a cookie-cutter feisty heroine, the kind who appear in mystery novels and television shows often as the kind of safe pushback against the damsel-in-distress archetype. But the thing Janet Evanovich does that I like is she starts her series with Plum green and soft, just getting into the boys club that other authors would have their protagonists waltzing through as old hands. It is this trial-by-fire atmosphere where readers share in Stephanie’s alternately terrifying and hilarious mishaps as well as her triumphs, both minor and major, that make her an interesting character.
One For The Money follows the down-and-out Stephanie Plum as she finds herself six months out of a job, selling off her last few possessions to pay her bills and running out of options. In a moment of desperation she goes to her cousin, Vinnie the bail bondsman, looking for work. All he has to offer her is a longshot job as a bounty hunter, dragging in bail jumpers. She accepts, at first not sure at all what she’s getting into, and then she realizes her first target is a cop by the name of Joe Morelli, a heartbreaker from her neighborhood she has a short if rather checkered past with. Before she knows it, Stephanie is neck deep in the murder case against Morelli where it appears he killed an unarmed man. Mixed up in the whole deal is a sinister prize fighter who locks his eyes on Plum, another bondsman who goes by the name of Ranger, and a couple of plus-sized hookers.
Evanovich grants Plum’s first-person account of her inaugural stint as a bounty hunter a solid dose of humor, sass, humility, honesty and thrills to make for a race of a read. Plum feels authentic, going from adrenalized self-satisfaction to terrified near-victim regularly and offering plenty of plausible explanations as to why she doesn’t give up, revealing herself to be tenacious and endearing without being moronic. Moreover, the assorted cast of characters are perhaps not as well-realized but just as relatable and the interactions between the principals all feels genuine.
As a mystery, One For The Money is pretty good, although it isn’t difficult to tell which tidbits of information are important to the end sequence well in advance, at least the specifics of the plot aren’t readily obvious. Evanovich strikes the right balance between levity and gravity, ratcheting up the tension and the stakes through the course of the briskly moving novel until it gets pretty real by the end, but fortunately only in that sort of surface-level, Hollywood type of heft. What this does is make the book feel very escapist which is a positive thing, but it also makes it feel kind of lightweight and frivolous as well, which is perhaps not so good, depending on your disposition. This is a tough line to walk for mysteries: Too dark and you end up with Thomas Harris or John Sandford; too light and you end up with Nancy Drew. For the most part this beach-read vibe works in Evanovich’s favor, but I wonder if this kind of disposable sensibility can persist through a whole series?
All said, I enjoyed One For The Money quite a bit, and a lot more than I expected to. I’d pick up the next book in the series without hesitation and while it certainly isn’t going to be on any must-read list or be something I press on all my friends to read, the sort of lovable disaster that is Stephanie Plum is a character I’d be happy to revisit when I’m looking for another fun read.