Four to Score

June 15, 1998
Half-Hungarian, half-Italian and all-Jersey, Trenton's best-known bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is a raucous delight in this fast-paced sequel to Three to Get Deadly (1997). There's no such thing as a simple assignment for Stephanie. When Maxine Nowicki, charged with stealing her boyfriend's car, skips her court appearance, she's fair game to be hauled in--no big challenge, thinks Stephanie. Wrong. Before the case is over, Stephanie will invade an Atlantic City casino with her intrepid allies: sneaker-shod Grandma Mazur; her colleague Lula, "a two-hundred pound black woman with blond baloney curls all dressed up like Cher on a bad day"; and Sally, a seven-foot transvestite rock singer. Although Stephanie is the bounty hunter, she's the only one of the quartet who isn't armed. She also loses another car and her apartment, moves in with handsome cop and longtime love interest, Joe Morelli (causing a stir in his family and hers), has several memorable run-ins with arch rival Joyce Barnhardt, discovers a corpse and, finally, catches her quarry. With her brash exterior and high emotionality, Stephanie Plum is a welcome antidote to suave professional PIs. The supporting cast members, eccentric and recognizable, are as entertaining as those devised by Westlake and Leonard. Major ad/promo; author tour.

Starred review from April 15, 1998
Stephanie Plum, the Jersey juggernaut, is back, smart-mouthed, swaggering, and saucy as ever. Stephanie works as a "bounty hunter," tracking down bail jumpers for her cousin Vinnie. Her latest assignment is to bring in Maxine Nowicki, who stole her boyfriend's car and then failed to show for her court date after she was arrested. An open-and-shut case, right? Wrong. Everyone Stephanie interviews is either uncooperative or, in the case of Maxine's ex-boyfriend, more interested in putting the moves on Stephanie than in finding Maxine. Stephanie's intuition tells her there's something bigger than bail jumping going on, especially when Maxine's mother is scalped, Stephanie's car is blown up, and her apartment is firebombed. Many headaches and dead ends later, Stephanie is so desperate to solve the case that she hires her 83-year-old Grandma Mazur along with seven-foot transvestite Sally Sweet and Lula, a massive mama whose weapon of choice is a .44 Magnum. Providing moral support and cop-type advice is officer Joe Morelli, who can get Stephanie's hormones raging in less than 10 seconds. Side-splittingly funny and a fine mystery to boot, Evanovich's latest (and her best yet) provides belly laughs, braggadocio, and a boatload of hilariously memorable characters. Top-notch fun. ((Reviewed April 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)