A Break from Horror

I started Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 a few weeks ago, and before I got terribly far into it I realized I might need to put it down sometimes and read something less scary that doesn’t deal with murdering children. I imagine I will eventually finish Hill’s novel (maybe not in time for CBR9 though), but for now, I’ll be talking about Janet Evanovich’s Two for the Dough, the second in her long-running series on bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

In Two, Stephanie is still working out the kinks of this whole bounty hunter thing. She still sucks at finances and so she really wants to snag Kevin Mancuso, a boy from the burg who happens to be a cousin to Joe Morelli, the vice cop she flirts with, brought in for book one and is destined to sleep with at some point in the series, surely. Her Grandma Mazur takes more of a central role in this entry, to much comedic effect. Since reading the first book I went back to IMDB to check out the cast for the movie version and ergo, those people are all i picture now when reading the series. So, Debbie Reynolds is her grandmother (RIP). Kevin is on the run after shooting his friend in the leg and possibly murdering him later. As it turns out, yet again Stephanie has set her sights on a target that will bring her a lot of danger with the large paycheck.

This book was a lighthearted alternative to kids getting murdered in antique Rolls Royces, so if you’re looking for something beachy or easy during this holiday season, check this series out. Some of the dialogue and situations are a bit dated, but it’s still a mystery (admittedly pretty easily solved). There are definitely flaws with Evanovich’s series though. For example, Stephanie is getting better at her job but she basically gets most of the heavy lifting done by third parties – other bounty hunters, cop friends, people she knows at the DMV. It’s probably not that unrealistic, but I find that she doesn’t really have to lift much of a finger most of the time and still manages to get her man. Also, again with the excessive directional descriptions. Evanovich must have made some sort of deal with the mayor of Trenton or something to be so into describing Stephanie’s driving routes. Who cares that you made a right on Main Street??? I’ll pick up the third entry at some point in the future, though I will probably not be able to binge this series like some others I’ve read. The directions thing and her excessive interest in Stephanie’s outfits gets a little annoying.