Mystery

I have read most of the Stephanie Plum books and have noticed a downward trend in the last few. There is also a lot of repetition in backstory and explanations...it's as if readers were reading the series for the very first time. But come on, this is book #27 and it continues with the same information.

A treasure hunt places everyone Stephanie loves in jeopardy as others are also looking for it and will kill anybody standing in their way. A mysterious woman is also in the hunt and saves Stephanie from getting shot. Who is she? It also states in the description that Stephanie will choose between Ranger and Joe...I must have missed it.

Not a bad story but didn't keep my interest as others did. The sarcasm and laughing-out-loud moments were also far and few in between. I have already purchased #30 but am in no hurry to get to it. I hope it's better than the last few. ( )

After growing repetitive and tired, the long-running Stephanie Plum series - an old fave I’ve faithfully stuck with despite its fading lustre - had some life kicked back into it by Twisted Twenty-Six, the precursor to this latest Plum offering. I read and (with relief) thoroughly enjoyed 26 earlier this year, but in this mechanical follow-up Evanovich inexplicably - and disappointingly - fails to capitalise on the magic she conjured last time.

The Plum books usually stand alone but in Fortune and Glory Evanovich has broken with convention on a number of levels - firstly in partially abandoning her long-standing number-related naming convention (it’s still there in the sub-title, Tantalising Twenty-Seven, but feels like a deliberate shift); secondly in creating it as a sequel to the previous story (the search for treasure left behind by Grandma Mazur’s erstwhile mobster husband, who carked it 45 minutes after their wedding); and thirdly in having Stephanie experience an existential crisis which - had it been genuinely followed through instead of ultimately going nowhere, leaving nothing changed but her hairstyle - would have answered a frequent reader criticism that none of the characters in Plum’s universe ever seem to progress or mature.

Instead of moving Stephanie’s life along, Fortune and Glory merely toys with the idea of adding layers, simply reverting, in the end, to more of the same. The sidekicks are even more rote and less fleshed out than usual - Grandma and Lula are usually the main source of belly laughs but here are almost cardboard cutouts of themselves. The dialogue is flat and the action, when it does occur, is short-lived and fails to ratchet up the tension in the way Evanovich usually manages so well. At times I wondered whether it was even Evanovich at the helm, or just someone trying to stitch a story out of a pattern she’d left behind. Her usually distinctive voice was AWOL.

Fortune and Glory includes a couple of new characters, one of whom, Gabriela Rose, is apparently to be the star of a new Evanovich series. It’s hard to escape the suspicion that really, introducing her was the main purpose of this outing, because there’s precious little else that’s original and forward-moving here.

Perhaps Evanovich is tired of writing basically the same Plum story over and over, and if so, maybe the time has come to retire this beloved character. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but if it comes to that I fervently hope she finds a bit more magic to finish the series off with a bang, and that she lets Stephanie wrap up her adventures on a kick-arse high that sees some genuine growth and development. The shtick of her as a bumbling incompetent constantly needing to be rescued by one of the two hunky blokes in her life - immediately to be bedded by one or other of them - grew old a while ago. Give Stephanie the wheel, Janet! Let her kick some arse in her own right and sail off into the sunset knowing she’s more than a hopeless mess - that, in fact, she’s pretty damned all right. Dare ya. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by how this book held my interest after the last few were just okay. I would always recommend listening to her books--the characters really come to life. I'm looking forward to the next book with a new and interesting character.

Another fun installment in the Stephanie Plum series. I love how much trouble Stephanie, Lula, and Grandma Mazur get into when the three of them get together.

Lorelei King does a great job narrating the series and I enjoy listening to her bringing these characters to life. ( )