‘Fifteen’ is Evanovich at her (almost) best

From Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier --

‘Fifteen’ is Evanovich at her (almost) best --

By Amie Steffen --
August 20, 2009 --

“Sometimes it was good not to have a lot of expensive stuff,” muses narrator and main character Stephanie Plum nearly two-thirds of the way through “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen.” “Less to feel bad about when it got firebombed.”

For those who know the antics of Plum from Janet Evanovich’s previous 14 novels on the New Jersey bounty hunter (no, I do not count the between-the-numbers books), this quote is not so much telling, but reassuring. Plum is back — and so is the hilarious trouble that befalls her.

It’s difficult to sustain a series for at least 15 books, and some fans I’ve talked to were disillusioned by a few of Evanovich’s latest books. But those people also told me that the author was back on her game for “Fifteen,” and I’m inclined to agree.

The story starts out when Lula, former streetwalker and wannabe bounty hunter, barges into the office to report she saw a guy get his head chopped off while she was sitting in her car. It turns out that guy was a celebrity chef, in town for a barbeque cook-off.

When someone puts out a million-dollar reward for the capture of his killers, Lula thinks they’ll be at the cook-off and decides to enter the barbeque contest, even though she doesn’t cook. (Picture scenes with Lula exploding pressure cookers and setting her hat — and everything else — on fire.)

Meanwhile, Stephanie’s love life is, unfortunately for readers, pretty nonexistent. She and Trenton cop Joe Morelli are off-again because of an argument about peanut butter. But because of several factors, including working a gig at Rangeman, Stephanie does end up spending several nights in the luxurious apartment — and bed — of her other love interest, Ranger. Sadly, however, most of those nights she spends only sleeping.

That’s a downer for me, because the last time I remember Stephanie hanging out in Ranger’s bed it was a lot steamier. Though she usually tones down the descriptions, Evanovich inserts plenty of playfulness, touching and dirty talk in most of the books, usually involving Stephanie and Morelli or Ranger. There’s a few kisses from Ranger, but in “Fifteen,” they feel platonic, like they’re obviously not leading anywhere.

Don’t get me wrong — Evanovich still weaves a clever story, filled with the hilarity we’re accustomed to reading from her. But with Stephanie on the unnaturally chaste side, “Fifteen” seems one ingredient short of finger-lickin’ good.

Plum pleasure (Janet Evanovich)

From Toronto Sun --

Plum pleasure --
Janet Evanovich knows how to play the numbers game --

By DON ERMEN --
Last Updated: 2nd August 2009 --

There are very few characters that can survive for almost 20 novels.

But Stephanie Plum is one of them. The female bondsman with the wacky family and the two men who keep coming and going into her life, Plum is comfort food for her fans.

Author Janet Evanovich has a new Plum adventure on book shelves -- Finger Lickin' Fifteen.

The strength of Plum is Evanovich's writing and her commitment to the characters. For fans, these characters are like family. They're well drawn.

There might not be a lot of surprises but they're dependable --Ranger, Joe Morelli, Grandma Mazure, the parents and Lula. Throw them into some interesting adventures and you've got a recipe for a good weekend read.

And speaking of adventures, Lulu takes centre stage in this one. She's the only witness to the murder of celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle who travels to Trenton, N.J., to participate in a barbecue cook-off.

Lula, who usually plays sidekick to Plum, convinces Plum to help for find the killers and collect the million dollar reward. That's on top of her day of job of tracking down bail skippers and working at night for Ranger's security outfit.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen is Evanovich at her best and Plum fans won't be disappointed.

Recently, I had a chance to hook up with Evanovich by e-mail.

Q. Fifteen books in the Stephanie Plum series (plus a few non-numbered ones). Congratulations. Does it get more challenging with each novel to keep Plum fresh, a woman you know so well?

A. It's increasingly difficult to maintain the sexual tension between Stephanie and the two men in her life, but it's still great to get up in the morning and go back into the WORLD of PLUM.

Q. One of the things I've always enjoyed about the novels is how unconventional Plum is -- and not just because she's a bounty hunter. But also because she has this sexual/romantic tension with two recurring characters. There have been numerous TV series and movies where it starts with two character that the audience is just waiting to see if they get together. Is there temptation ... to finally resolve Plum's relationship status?

A. No! I hated when Maddie and Dave got together in Moonlighting. It was all downhill from there. The fun is in the chase.

Q. I've often thought Stephanie Plum would make a great movie character as well. Maybe a Sandra Bullock. Any idea when Hollywood might finally make this a reality?

A. If you could see me, you'd know that I'm rolling my eyes and wildly waving my arms in the air in frustration. I have no idea what's taking TriStar so long to make this into a movie.

Q. You've also started a few other series (Alex Barnaby and Full novels). Are those going to continue and what is the attraction to writing about the same characters?

A. I like developing characters and sticking with them as their life rolls along. Alex Barnaby is going to become a graphic novel published by Dark Horse in 2010. The Full novels have ended because it was time for my co-author to set out on her own. She's now publishing terrific books under her own name.

Q. The business of writing is a family affair for you. What's it like to have son, daughter and husband all working full-time for you?

A. It's good. I have a very talented family and we work really well together. We all live within 10 minutes of each other, and not only do we work together but we also frequently eat together.

Q. What's next for Janet Evanovich?

A. I'm currently writing the next full size book featuring Diesel. It will be in stores late summer 2010 and I'm very excited about it. I think Diesel is my most fun hot guy.

Stephanie Plum mysteries keep laughs coming (Janet Evanovich)

From News & Record (Greensboro, NC) --

Stephanie Plum mysteries keep laughs coming --

by Whitney Cork --
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 --

Reading a mystery by Janet Evanovich always provides me with laugh-out-loud moments, and “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” didn’t let me down. For a mystery book with humor (or a humor book with mystery), Evanovich is my go-to author.

In the 15th of the numbered mysteries, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her friend Lula try to solve the murder of a TV chef. Along the way, Stephanie eats some less-than-delicious barbecue, runs afoul of a pyromaniac, tries to outsmart high-tech burglars, and dresses up in a hot dog costume. What’s not to like?

For romance fans, the fun and mayhem also includes Stephanie’s ongoing struggle to figure out whether her true love is Morelli, a Trenton, N.J., cop, or Ranger, a dressed-in-black man of mystery.

“Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” hit the bookstores in late June. It’s still on the NYT’s best-sellers list, which means a substantial discount at many bookstores.

Evanovich pulls out a Plum

From The Chronicle Herald - Halifax, NS --

Evanovich pulls out a Plum --
Best-selling author brings literary punch to crime formula --

By STEPHEN CLARE --
Sun. Jul 19, 2009 --

FOR SOMEONE who seems to have a lot to say, Janet Evanovich is proving herself to be a very good listener.

In fact, over the course of our 30-minute phone interview, I find myself opening up to the popular American author quite freely.

"I have to come clean about something before we begin," I say sheepishly at the start. "Um, up until just a few days ago, I had never actually read any of your books.

"To be completely honest," I continue, now a little embarrassed, "although I have seen your name before on bookstore shelves and bestseller lists, I really had no idea who you were or what kind of novels you wrote."

I confess to my new-found confidante — I am now sputtering like a madman, determined to let it all fall to the floor — that I am probably "not as well versed in the genre of mystery-adventure-romance novels as I perhaps could be," and that I have always been "somewhat suspicious" or even "disdainful" of writers who pump out two or three books a year like some sort of literary "mass-production appliance."

And then I tell her that it feels really good to finally get all of this off of my chest.

Evanovich laughs. I laugh also, maybe a little too long. There is a pause — a moment of awkward silence. I feel like an idiot, waiting for the receiver to drop on the other end. Finally she replies, "Well, I guess we have a lot to talk about then!"

I am overcome with relief. I then admit to her that I was actually quite surprised at how much I enjoyed her new book Finger Lickin’ Fifteen and how much I was looking forward to back-stepping my way through the previous works in her catalogue.

I am telling Evanovich the truth. The latest in her widely-acclaimed Stephanie Plum series is masterfully constructed; the writing is excellent, the pace is fluid, the storyline is well-developed, as are each of the characters — especially the story’s central persona.

"Thank you," she says.

"I have had a lot of practice at piecing these books together — Finger Lickin’ Fifteen is Stephanie’s 18th time around in print."

Although the New Jersey-born writer never goes so far as to call her style of writing a formula for success, she does understand the power of familiarity.

"By now I have figured out what my readers want and what they don’t want," she says.

"Like a favourite meal or a well-worn pair of slippers, they are looking for what they know. We are, after all, creatures of comfort."

As such, the series’ protagonist has become like a close friend or a family member for many book lovers.

"You can get to know someone — even a fictional bond enforcement officer — pretty well after 15 years," notes the 66-year-old novelist. "A lot of people have grown up with Stephanie, and they have watched her character evolve alongside the course of their own lives."

Evanovich believes that her readers have come to identify with Plum’s all-too-human qualities. "Because Stephanie isn’t perfect — because she has all of these fears and flaws and makes mistakes in both her personal and professional lives — we are able to relate and connect with her."

That bond of trust, adds the author, is the real secret behind her good fortune. "People come up to me all the time at book signings and readings and talk to me about what is going on in their own lives. I probably do more listening at these events than speaking and I absolutely love that part of the job.

"And it is really heartwarming for me to know that others are as passionate about Stephanie as I am. A lot of them ask me personal questions about her life and about what I have planned for her. And I tell them quite honestly I don’t know."

That is part of the fun, says Evanovich.

"I get as much of a kick out of writing these books as others get out of reading them. Stephanie’s future is as much of a mystery to me as it is to my readers and I think that it is this combination of the known and the unknown that keeps all of us coming back for more."

Evanovich formula still finger lickin’ good

From The Boston Globe --

Evanovich formula still finger lickin’ good --

By Rich Barlow --
July 15, 2009 --

We observed one of summer’s major holidays on June 23. In case you missed it, that was the day the new Stephanie Plum novel hit bookstores. Every June, mystery writer Janet Evanovich releases the latest installment about bounty hunter Plum, whose saga now totals 19 books with “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen.’’ (Reviewer bias: I’m a proud native of Trenton, N.J., where the stories are set.)
As sure as the summer solstice, the books hit the bestseller lists, and the series has made New Jersey-born Evanovich a multimillionaire who splits her time between New Hampshire and Florida.

The real mystery is why this one-woman hit factory can’t singlehandedly support the entire publishing industry. The mysteries in her books, by contrast, are mere appendages, having evolved from plot to formula to specimens preserved in literary amber during the series’ 15-year run. Plum plots are devices to introduce Evanovich’s focus and trademark: humor involving Stephanie’s oddball circle. These include Lula, her flamboyantly flatulent fellow felon-finder; her Grandma Mazur, young at heart but proof that seniors with impulse-control issues shouldn’t carry guns; her cousin Vinnie, who employs Stephanie at his bail-bond agency and is suspected by his employees of being a closet pervert; and detective Joe Morelli, Stephanie’s on-again-off-again boyfriend.

The question each summer is whether the new book delivers more or fewer laughs than is par. “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen’’ delivers more, earning it a thumbs-up and a beach pass.

There are two plotlines, the first involving a celebrity chef’s beheading by mob thugs who then target the lone witness, Lula. As gruesome as this sounds, it’s played more for laughs: Lula’s gastrointestinal issues are pivotal, and the killers are incompetents, one of many examples of the series’ indifference to realism.

The other plot involves Stephanie’s moonlighting for a security agency run by Ranger, an ex-soldier and Plum fantasy object whose vocabulary approximates Rambo’s. (“Babe’’ is his standard greeting for Stephanie.) Someone is burglarizing Ranger’s clients, and since it appears to be an inside job, Ranger brings in Stephanie to find the turncoat. That a self-described bungler at bounty hunting could be helpful to the supposedly precision-trained, superman Ranger requires another suspension of belief.

A subplot has Stephanie helping Lula’s efforts to win a barbecue contest at which the decapitated chef was to appear. As these story strands unwind, the forever put-upon Plum loses her apartment and two company cars to assorted bombings and arson. She and her building supervisor commiserate that the apartment fire didn’t reach her ratty bathroom. The super tries to cheer her up: “I’m sure this isn’t the last time you’ll ever get firebombed, so maybe you’ll have better luck next time.’’

The New Jersey of “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen’’ is a place where people use words like “boinking,’’ “number two’’ (a bathroom reference), and “doodah’’ (a woman’s genitalia), and where funeral home viewings are social occasions as much as occasions to mourn the dead. Referring to the section of Trenton where her family lives, Stephanie says: “Death in the Burg was like pot roast at six o’clock. An unavoidable and perfectly normal part of the fabric of life. You got born, you ate pot roast, and you died.’’

Blissfully ignoring the far-fetched parts, I giggled throughout. Near the end, one of Stephanie’s co-workers suggests that they learn the winner of the barbecue contest in the next day’s paper. People reading newspapers in 2009? Talk about unrealistic.

Evanovich's latest sticks to script but sparkles (Janet Evanovich)

From The Tampa Tribune --

Evanovich's latest sticks to script but sparkles --

By AMANDA SELLET --
July 5, 2009 --

"Finger Lickin' Fifteen," by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press, $27.95)

If Stephanie Plum lived in the real world, she would be pushing 45 - an age at which the effects of doughnuts and Tastykakes, not to mention the romantic dithering, would be far less attractive.

The demands of realism might also require the hapless bounty hunter heroine of Janet Evanovich's bestselling series of comic mysteries to find a career for which she is better qualified, or at least less likely to blow up so many cars. She would stop mooching dinner from her parents and find an apartment that invites fewer break-ins.

But who wants to read a book like that?

Fans who have expressed disappointment in the past few installments of the numerically titled franchise (the most recent, "Finger Lickin' Fifteen," hit bookstores June 23) would do well to remember that when they complain about the formulaic nature of the stories or the fact that Stephanie never decides between her smoldering Alpha male love interests. This is a series in which seasons pass, but Stephanie Plum is always 30; birthday cake is eaten with abandon, but jeans still (mostly) fit; and a pair of hot, infinitely patient men are perpetually available for sexually charged banter, lifesaving and sometimes more.

If that doesn't sound better than reality, you probably don't need to read these books.

In "Finger Lickin' Fifteen," Stephanie's longtime sidekick, Lula, the plus-size ex-hooker, witnesses the murder of famous TV chef Stanley Chipotle, who was in town for a barbecue cook-off. Along with pistol-packin' Grandma Mazur, Lula enters the contest so they can find the killers and score the million-dollar reward, with predictably messy results. At the same time, Stephanie is moonlighting for Ranger (aka Love Interest No. 2) after a series of break-ins threatens his security business. Her currently off-again cop boyfriend, Joe Morelli, is also on hand, doing his best to get Stephanie out of trouble and back in his bed.

Throw in bungling bad guys, neighborhood eccentrics and wacko bail jumpers and you have the usual Evanovich summer read - a twisted soft serve that is often laugh-out-loud funny.

The recipe is familiar, but the ingredients (slapstick action, screwball characterizations and razor-sharp one-liners) haven't lost their sparkle. "Fifteen" is less steamy than its predecessors, and the ending is abrupt enough to feel anticlimactic, but the prolific author compensates with other kinds of pyrotechnics.

Is it worth paying full price for a few hours of light entertainment? That depends how long the waiting list is at your library. If you do pick up "Finger Lickin' Fifteen," think of it as a work of science fiction about a planet called Trenton, New Jersey, where time stands still, Ranger and Joe will always vie for Stephanie's affections and Butterscotch Krimpets are capable of sustaining human life.

The Interview: Author Janet Evanovich - Evanovich Inc.

From TorontoThe Globe and Mail --

The Interview: Author Janet Evanovich - Evanovich Inc. --

By Sarah Hampson --
June 28, 2009 --

"Oh, I had a little work done,” confesses Janet Evanovich.

“You know, gravity is not kind… I had no relationship with the person in the mirror. I didn't know who she was. I had a total face lift, and it was fabulous,” she exclaims, as though describing a great vacation. “They take your skin and they staple it to the back of your head. It's great”

The 66-year-old author of the best-selling Stephanie Plum adventure romances – the latest, Finger Lickin' Fifteen , hit bookshelves last week – is as accessible as her work. Just as her writing barrels along from one scene to the next using straightforward language, so does Ms. Evanovich.

One minute she's on the subject of her refreshed face, the next she's discussing how she hired a personal chef, whose food has helped her drop 10 pounds since January, and after that, she's explaining the brand of the Evanovich Inc. enterprise, which she runs with the help of her two adult children, her son-in-law, and her husband of 45 years.

(In addition to family members, she employs a staff of 10.)

“I made a choice that I was not going to be a pretentious writer,” she responds without hesitation when asked how she deals with the perception that she is a mass-market, low-brow novelist. “I work real hard so the reader doesn't have to. I don't want them to have to look up words. And there are no flashbacks. This is a linear novel.”

Stephanie Plum was born out of Ms. Evanovich's frustration as a romance writer and her worries as a cash-strapped mother of two. A graduate of art school, she wrote romance novels for Bantam Loveswept, among others, under the pen name Steffie Hall for five years, starting in 1987. She was paid $2,000 for the first one – a huge sum, she thought – and by the time she had written her 12th, which was to be her last, she was earning $7,000 a book. “Some years I wrote four books. It depended on how bad I needed money,” she says, explaining that when her children were small, she would often stand in line at the supermarket “sweating and adding everything up on the bill, and half the time I had to take an item off.”

Despite her success, she was dissatisfied creatively. “I was sort of kicked out,” she says. “It was getting more and more difficult.… I wanted to go into romantic adventure, which is what I am doing now, but I couldn't sell it.”

She studied mystery writers, from Sue Grafton to Tom Clancy, and figured out a hole in the market she could fill. “I wanted to take what I liked from the romantic genre – the sexual tension and positive characters and the humour – and move that into the mystery structure. … Sue [Grafton] and others brought the female detective to the front of the stage but they were still pretty hard-boiled, and my lady was soft-boiled. She is a girly girl. She is a Jersey girl.” Stephanie is actually a composite, Ms. Evanovich says, of herself (she grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of a factory worker and a housewife) and people she knows.

“I became very deliberate. What I realized halfway through writing romance is that you start out intuitive, and you make all these choices mostly based on yourself and what you like and what talent you have, and … if you want to have any quality control over your product, you have to stop being intuitive and start being more of an analyst.”

She describes the attributes of her brand with bullet-point clarity. Write in the first person because it's fast and more immediate. “A lot of narrative gets tedious.” Be funny. Make it a “positive read.” Don't make readers cry. Don't try to solve world problems. “[Steven] Spielberg presents us with the dark side. [But] that's not my job. That's Spielberg's job. I am on the other side. My job is to remind the world that there are small heroes all over the place.”

The first book in the Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money , hit the jackpot in 1997. She was paid her usual $7,000 as an advance, but soon got a call from Hollywood with an offer of $1-million for the film rights. (A movie version has yet to be made.) “We were living in this little brick house in northern Virginia. We had no money. We had two kids who had gone through two very expensive post-secondary schools. It had been a hard winter. The shingles from my roof were on the front yard, and we had no hope of getting a new roof.”

The family leapt on the opportunity to build a business. Her husband, a mathematician who was working for the U.S. Navy at the time, quit his job to help his wife, who set about her novel-writing, pressing out words like widgets. She rose at 5 in the morning to work seven days a week until 6 at night. (She still keeps the same hours. “I actually put in two whole days every day,” she says. They moved to New Hampshire, where life was less hectic, paid off their children's student loans, and gave them the opportunity to work on their mother's brand. Their daughter, a graduate of Brooks Institute, an arts school in California, works on the website. Their son, who attended Dartmouth College, came on board as financial officer and later became her agent.

Three years ago, the entire family moved to Naples, Fla., where they all live within five minutes of each other.

As the chief word-maker, Ms. Evanovich is acutely aware of her responsibility. When she swapped roles with her husband, she suddenly became aware of “the pressure that he had to provide.” She also had an identity crisis. “I knew who I was as a housewife, and I had no idea who I was as a professional.”

But she adapted quickly. While her husband has taken up golf and tennis in the last few years, she has no intention to retire. Not even to play golf with her husband?

“My world is better,” she says, snapping the words like gum. “Why would I want to waste my time playing golf? I can get up in the morning and be in this whole other world. I love my life.”

And that includes the money.

Early on in her million-dollar success, she had a revelation that removed any doubt about her motives. With a $200,000 multi-book contract and the film money socked away, she consulted a psychiatrist about how to reconcile her private, shy self with the public figure her fame required. “Well, you know, is it worth the money?” asked the shrink. “And I was, like, ‘Lady, you have no idea,'” Ms. Evanovich recalls. “I then knew that yes, it is worth the money.”

She leans forward with her youthful, clear face, bright red hair and blindingly white, veneered teeth.

“I have been with money and without, and it's better with.”

Perfect summer reading - Janet Evanovich

From Examiner.com --

Perfect summer reading - Janet Evanovich --

By Lauren Walter --
June 29, 2009 --

With “One For the Money,” in 1994, Janet Evanovich introduced the world to fledgling bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. It was a murder mystery with a new edge – funny, irreverent, and featuring a bumbling but loveable heroine. Fifteen years and fifteen volumes later, you can still pick up a Stephanie Plum mystery and relax for a few hours in a world wehre the most important question is who’s getting the donuts. You won’t find realism, graphic gore, and hardcore action, but for the many thousands of devoted fans, that’s a plus. You’ll get the literary equivalent of a Big Mac – it may not be good for you, but it’s tasty and addictive. The formula works and Evanovich delivers full throttle every time.

Plum and her colleagues live and work in a suburb of Trenton, fondly referred to as the ‘burg. Most of her books are set within the ‘burg’s borders; everyone and everything they need is set right within reach. The important things are all within a couple of blocks, Vincent Plum’s Bail Bonds, Pino’s Pizza, Cluck in a Bucket, Stivio’s Funeral Home and Tasty Pastry.

Some backstory: When Stephanie was laid off from her job as a lingerie buyer, and divorced from her cheating husband, lawyer Dickie Orr, she blackmailed her cousin Vinnie for a job as a bounty hunter. In “One for the Money,” Plum was given the task of tracking down Joe Morelli, a molten-chocolate eyed police officer accused of murder. Of course, Plum and Morelli had a history that included a tryst behind the counter of Tasty Pastry when they were both teenagers. Several years later, she ran Morelli over with her car. Readers take great interest in the ‘on and off’ relationship between Joe and Stephanie. On an interesting note, it’s Plum who has the commitment issues, not detective Morelli, a nice twist on relationships.

A good part of the charm of Evanovich’s work is in the colorful characters who surround Stephanie Plum. Her parents are featured frequently, as Friday night requires dining at their home (hopefully with a pineapple upside down cake for dessert). Her mother is often exasperated by Stephanie’s job and her mother, Grandma Mazur’s antics. The eccentric, large living Grandma Mazur invariably brings a sense of amusement to the reader. There are few things more amusing than envisioning a seventy plus year old woman decked out to sing with a rock band (in Twelve Sharp), attempting to get her driver’s license (Hot Six), and invariably tries to peak under the lid of the coffins at Stivia’s funeral parlor.

Even better, Stephanie’s primary sidekick Lula, a plus sized, fast food loving, former ‘ho, current file clerk/junior bounty hunter at the bail bond office provides chuckle after chuckle. The descriptions of Lula’s outfits, which invariably involve animal print spandex three sizes too small often as she scarfs down buckets of fried chicken, are memorable. Her attempts to diet are insanely funny, especially the ‘all the meat you can eat’ diet that resulted in a dog attack featured in “To the Nines.”

As befits a heroine, Stephanie has not one, but two love interests: Joe Morelli, the cop who she’s loved in various capacities since childhood and Ranger, a top of the line bounty hunter and business owner with a perfect body and a limited vocabulary. Both men are prime beefcake and over the course of the series, find themselves competing for her attention.

In each adventure, Evanovich takes the reader on a laugh filled trip through the ‘burg as Stephanie chases FTAs and investigates murder and mystery. Her foibles are always amusing, to the reader and to her men. You can expect cars to explode, food to fly, and Stephanie to intuit the solution. And let's not forget plenty of doughnuts and birthday cake.

If you are looking for light summer reading, I highly recommend picking up a copy of an Evanovich book. This is perfect, by the pool reading. It won’t increase your brain cells, up your IQ, or give you talking points for the next book group meeting. But it will make you smile and give you a great couple of hours of escape.

I’ll be reviewing Evanovich’s latest, “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” later this week. So check back!

On the fast food book scale, this rates a 5 (the equivalent of a double order of Cluck in the Bucket

More laughs, less drama in new Janet Evanovich book

From Canada CTV --

More laughs, less drama in new Janet Evanovich book --

By: Constance Droganes --
June 28, 2009 --

There's a lot that bestselling author Janet Evanovich can tell you about her fans, particularly when it comes to her famous heroine Stephanie Plum.

"They're very divided and extremely vocal, especially about the men in Stephanie's life," the 66-year-old American author says with a laugh.

"One camp loves Morelli and the on-off relationship he shares with Stephanie. Others root for Ranger, the more dangerous of the two men. Some just want Stephanie to stay single," she smiles. "Lucky for me these characters have registered so deeply with my readers"

Indeed they have.

Go on to any blog devoted to Evanovich and you'll find tons of impassioned, opinionated, loyal entries from fans who talk about her characters like they're close friends.

That quality has defined Evanovich's Plum series ever since it launched in 1994.

Her first book, "One for the Money," was credited with creating a new romantic-adventure hybrid in the publishing business.

The debut book was named a New York Times notable book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1994 and a USAToday Best Bet.

"One for the Money" also scored a $1-million deal with Columbia TriStar, which purchased the rights to the book.

Inspired by Robert De Niro and the movie "Midnight Run," Evanovich's bounty hunter heroine came equipped with plenty of quirky twists to captivate readers.

Stephanie packs a gun. She loves lingerie. She lives for junk food, especially peanut butter sandwiches slathered with chips, pickles or any other kind of artery-clogging, waist-widening crap she can gobble up.

"I've written 15 books now and all along I've felt that Stephanie was the kind of woman real people understood," Evanovich told CTV.ca during her press stop for her latest Plum entry, "Finger Lickin' Fifteen."

"Sure she gets into trouble. Yes, she has a more outrageous life than the average person. But at her very core Stephanie's just like you. When she's out on some big adventure or dealing with a rocky romance you're right there with her, rooting for her all the way," says Evanovich.

Gal pals take on serious crime

In "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" Stephanie and her boisterous office gal pals set out to solve a crime, which begins with the loudmouth, chicken-loving Lula seeing a man get decapitated.

From Stephanie's barbecue-cooking granny (who longs to have a sexy agent code name like "Hot Vagina") to the dangerous Ranger and exasperating Morelli, Evanovich works it from start to finish, giving Plum fans a fun, breezy new read.

"I learned a lot doing the promos for this book," says Evanovich, who launched her career in her 30s but saw no real success until she hit 43.

Working under a pseudonym for a romance fiction company, Evanovich learned her craft in those early years, perfecting her dialogue so that Stephanie's short, snappy zingers fly at you faster than she can run in heels.

"My mother was so embarrassed when I started," says Evanovich. "Those first romance books I wrote usually had four big sex scenes. I got pretty good at describing what went on," she says with a laugh.

Yet when Evanovich hit the New York Times bestseller list, the Jersey author and wife of a machinist had the last laugh.

"I cried when that happened because I clawed my way onto that list. It was tangible proof to my family and all those people that helped me that I had made it," she says.

Since then, Evanovich has churned out a Plum book each year. Some have been critical hits. Others not so much.

With no plans of slowing down or disappointing her fans, Evanovich says she can promise readers one thing in the future. More laughs.

"Before people used to tell me they loved the action in these books. Now they tell me it's the humour in these books that makes their day," says Evanovich.

"It may not sound like much. But we live in very tough times right now. If I can help people take their mind off their troubles I'll be happy."

Book Review: Evanovich is back with new Plum novel (Janet Evanovich)

From South Carolina Upstate Today --

Book Review: Evanovich is back with new Plum novel --

By Carol Deegan --
June 25, 2009 --

(AP) — "Finger Lickin' Fifteen." (St. Martin's Press, 308 pages, $27.95): The barbecue sauce hits the ceiling in "Finger Lickin' Fifteen," Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum novel.

One reason why fans hunger for the next installment in the Plum series is the familiarity with the characters, setting and comedic mayhem that Evanovich provides in each story. But as funny as "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" is — and it is funny — nothing much changes in Stephanie's life, and it may be time for her to move on.

Her latest misadventure begins when Lula, her plus-size friend and co-worker at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds (Vinnie is Stephanie's cousin) in Trenton, N.J., witnesses celebrity chef Stanley Chipolte's decapitation by meat cleaver.

Chipolte is famous for his barbecue sauce, and the company that he was representing in a national cook-off being held in Gooser Park is offering a $1 million reward.

Lula figures Chipolte was whacked by a jealous competitor, so she enters the contest to get the inside track. Problem is, she has to create her own sauce, and Lula lacks basic cooking skills. After a fiery grilling mishap — a half-dead maple tree at the back of the yard "went up like Vesuvius" — Lula moves the operation to Stephanie's kitchen. She cranks up the heat on a pressure cooker and kapow! the lid blows off the pot, sending barbecue sauce everywhere. (Cleanup in aisle one!)

There are other complications: That handsome, mysterious man in black, Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, needs Stephanie's help in a case involving his security firm. (It may be an inside job, so he doesn't trust his own men.)

That irritates her on-again, off-again boyfriend — plainclothes cop Joe Morelli — because Ranger is always trying to make a move on Stephanie. Joe and Stephanie have broken up, due to an argument about peanut butter, but Morelli is still jealous.

As usual, things don't go smoothly for Stephanie. Her car becomes a fireball, and she's menaced by some guys in one of Trenton's seedier neighborhoods (it's gun-toting Grandma Mazur to the rescue). She also finds herself coated in various substances, including paint and flour. "I honestly don't know how you manage to do this," Ranger says. "It boggles the mind." She even agrees to wear a hot dog-and-bun costume for the barbecue contest.

Read "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" for the laughs, not the plot. And let's hope Stephanie's next adventure will be a little less predictable.

Review: Janet Evanovich uses familiar recipe for latest Stephanie Plum adventure

From The Canadian Press --

Review: Janet Evanovich uses familiar recipe for latest Stephanie Plum adventure --

By Carol Deegan --
June 23, 2009 --

"Finger Lickin' Fifteen"

Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press)

The barbecue sauce hits the ceiling in "Finger Lickin' Fifteen," Janet Evanovich's new Stephanie Plum novel.

One reason why fans hunger for the next instalment in the Plum series is the familiarity with the characters, setting and comedic mayhem that Evanovich provides in each story. But as funny as "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" is - and it is funny - nothing much changes in Stephanie's life, and it may be time for her to move on.

Her latest misadventure begins when Lula, her plus-size friend and co-worker at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds (Vinnie is Stephanie's cousin) in Trenton, N.J., witnesses celebrity chef Stanley Chipolte's decapitation by meat cleaver.

Chipolte is famous for his barbecue sauce, and the company that he was representing in a national cook-off being held in Gooser Park is offering a $1 million reward.

Lula figures Chipolte was whacked by a jealous competitor, so she enters the contest to get the inside track. Problem is, she has to create her own sauce, and Lula lacks basic cooking skills. After a fiery grilling mishap - a half-dead maple tree at the back of the yard "went up like Vesuvius" - Lula moves the operation to Stephanie's kitchen. She cranks up the heat on a pressure cooker and kapow! the lid blows off the pot, sending barbecue sauce everywhere. (Cleanup in aisle one!)

There are other complications: That handsome, mysterious man in black, Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, needs Stephanie's help in a case involving his security firm. (It may be an inside job, so he doesn't trust his own men.)

That irritates her on-again, off-again boyfriend - plainclothes cop Joe Morelli - because Ranger is always trying to make a move on Stephanie. Joe and Stephanie have broken up, due to an argument about peanut butter, but Morelli is still jealous.

As usual, things don't go smoothly for Stephanie. Her car becomes a fireball, and she's menaced by some guys in one of Trenton's seedier neighbourhoods (it's gun-toting Grandma Mazur to the rescue). She also finds herself coated in various substances, including paint and flour. "I honestly don't know how you manage to do this," Ranger says. "It boggles the mind." She even agrees to wear a hot dog-and-bun costume for the barbecue contest.

Read "Finger Lickin' Fifteen" for the laughs, not the plot. And let's hope Stephanie's next adventure will be a little less predictable.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

“Finger Lickin’” not as tasty (Janet Evanovich)

From The Oklahoman --

“Finger Lickin’” not as tasty --
Fiction: 15th novel in Stephanie Plum series entertains but fails to satisfy --

By Brandy McDonnell --
June 21, 2009 --

Fans smacking their lips in anticipation of the new Stephanie Plum adventure will savor the familiar flavor but not the past-the-expiration-date aftertaste of Janet Evanovich’s “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” (St. Martin’s Press, $27.95).

For better or worse, Evanovich is still cooking from the same recipe she used for the previous 14 installments. Despite her growing experience, Stephanie still blunders through her job as a bounty hunter, though lately her foibles seem more Murphy’s Law and less sheer ineptitude. Her cars keep exploding, she still attracts kooky characters, and she can never quite commit to a romance, though she chose long ago which of the series’ two alpha males was for her.

Still, “Finger Lickin’ Fifteen,” out Tuesday, offers a breezy summer read with just enough wackiness and mystery to keep fans entertained. Thankfully, there’s no sign of Stephanie’s grating sister, who nearly chased me away from the series a few books back.

Instead, “Fifteen” focuses on Stephanie’s colorful sidekick Lula, a former prostitute turned lazy file clerk who often rides shotgun for our heroine. When Lula witnesses the murder of TV food star Stanley Chipotle, she becomes the target of the killers, who soon prove dangerously inexpert. To his dismay, Stephanie’s cop ex-boyfriend Joe Morelli catches the case.

Lula wants to snare the murderers herself and collect the big reward. With the help of Stephanie’s quirky Grandma Mazur and a cross-dressing fireman, she enters the barbecue contest Chipotle was in town promoting in the hope of smoking out the killers.

For Stephanie’s part, her mentor/ex-lover Ranger recruits her to help solve a series of burglaries to clients of his Rangeman Security, inside jobs that have him distrusting his staff of toughs. As usual, the story heats up when Stephanie and Ranger work together.

Evanovich doesn’t use the food TV premise to its full potential. The madcap antics and zany characterizations are fun, but she’s used most of them before in previous books. The author seems unwilling to give her best-selling series the real shakeup it needs.

“Finger Lickin’ Fifteen” can’t compare to the tantalizing first six Plum novels, making the new book a tasty but not truly satisfying reading experience.

Murder Well Done (Janet Evanovich)

From The New York Times --

Murder Well Done --

By MARILYN STASIO --
Published: June 19, 2009 --

Don’t kid yourself — going to sleep is a scary business. Which is why children are comforted by hearing the same stories over and over at bedtime. Certain kinds of mysteries have a similar effect on grown-ups, delivering familiar themes and ritualistic procedures that promise a safe haven in a world of darkness. Which is why rational adults who can’t bear to open their 401(k) statements will rush out to buy FINGER LICKIN’ FIFTEEN (St. Martin’s, $27.95), the “new” Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich. Whatever bad news might be coming, the madcap heroine in these comic farces won’t be delivering it.

Life is always hectic in the blue-collar Trenton neighborhood where the disaster-prone Stephanie works as an enforcement agent in her cousin Vinny’s bail bond firm. This time, a lunatic known as Marco the Maniac takes a meat cleaver to a celebrity chef bound for the big barbecue cook-off to be held at Gooser Park. Eye on the reward, Stephanie’s obstreperous fat friend, Lula, decides to enter the cook-off, which she reckons will attract the killer. In a plot complication that’s no more plausible but reinforces the sexual dynamic between Stephanie and the men in her life, she’s hired by the dangerously attractive Ranger (“a man of mysterious talents”) to investigate the humiliating break-ins that have tarnished the reputation of his fancy security firm.

Like Little Annie Fanny in the vintage Playboy cartoon, Stephanie tends to shed articles of clothing as she becomes splattered with paint or doused with barbecue sauce during the course of her duties. Since fire often figures prominently in Stephanie’s misadventures, you can also count on a few cars and one or more rooms of her apartment going up in flames. Of course, the most spectacular conflagration is reserved for the barbecue.

But even as these catastrophic events are unfolding, the author allows her heroine to keep in touch with the supportive people and familiar places that represent home base. Rest assured, there are disorderly dinners at her family’s home and a rowdy wake attended by Grandma Mazur at Stiva’s Funeral Home, along with the usual high jinks from the colorful crooks and perverts Stephanie encounters on the job. It’s not all mechanical nuts and bolts, either. Evanovich writes with flair in an absurdist vein that her imitators can only envy. (“The bacon diet is unhealthy,” Stephanie solemnly advises Lula. “You had packs of dogs chasing you down the street when you were on the bacon diet.”) And while Evanovich may go overboard on the comic mayhem, she does it only so the kids are sent off to sleep smiling.

10 Questions for Janet Evanovich

From Time Magazine --

10 Questions for Janet Evanovich --

Dennis Kleiman --
June 22, 2009 --

This is the 15th novel in the Stephanie Plum series. Have you ever felt that the quality of your stories was declining? Dodie Stephens, OCALA, FLA.

I don't feel that the quality of the stories is declining. I think that some books are more successful than others to certain readers. People who read my books for the humor, they're going to love one book. People who read my books for the mystery, they might not like that book quite as much.

There is so much talk about a Stephanie Plum movie. Do you have an explanation of why it has taken so many years and if it will ever be made? Kimberly Johnson, FAIRFAX, VA.

My fans would love to see a movie, and I would love to see a movie. It just hasn't worked out so far. I think they love the characters, for one thing. Everybody wants to see what these two hot guys look like, Ranger and Joe Morelli.

Is it sinful to lust after a fictional character? Margaret Smith FOLSOM, CALIF.

Not in my world. If you want to lust after my characters, hey, I'm all in favor of it.

What made you want to write, and how did you get started? Linda Olsen ROSWELL, N.M.

I wasn't always a writer. When I went to college and majored in fine arts, I was a painter. Then I was a stay-at-home mom. Somewhere along the line, I realized that I liked telling stories, and I decided that I would try writing. Ten years later, I finally got a book published. It was hard. I had no skills. I knew nothing about the business of getting published. So I had to keep working at it.

Do you have a set routine you follow daily in writing books? Mary Gehin BELLEVILLE, WIS.

I'm at my computer at 5:30 to 6 o'clock, and I spend a full day at that. Then around 1 o'clock, I have lunch. I get a little exercise. Then in the afternoon, I'm a businessperson. I think of myself as a professional. I get up in the morning and I go to work just like anybody else.

Have you ever felt inclined to use your success to bring awareness to a certain issue? Tash Nordstrand AUCKLAND

I think it's appropriate for some authors. I don't think it's appropriate for me. I look at myself as an entertainer. You know my books are going to end well, you know you're going to love some of these people, you know I'm never going to kill a cat--and you can count on the fact that I'm not going to put my political agenda in your face. That just is not what I do.

Why do you let readers title your books? That sort of seems like letting strangers name your children. Walden Henning, INDIANAPOLIS

Yeah, like wearing somebody else's underpants--not quite comfortable. I actually really suck at naming books, so lots of years ago, readers were sending in their ideas for titles, and what we realized is that they were smarter than us. So we thought, Hey, go for it. So now we have a contest every year.

Will the Kindle and other e-book readers help or hurt the book industry? Taylor Zaborney MIDDLETOWN, N.J.

I think that the e-book is here to stay. I think it's fabulous. Can you imagine kids? No more backpacks full of heavy books. But what happens when I go on book tour if all we have are e-books? What do I sign? Body parts?

Are you planning on ending the series anytime soon? Tracy Simpson NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.

No. You know, I wake up some days and think Stephanie should go off into the sunset with Joe Morelli and have babies, and then I wake up the next day, and I'm like, Oh, no, she's gotta go with Ranger. I don't see myself ending it anytime soon, just because I'm having a lot of fun with it.

If you could do anything else with your life, what would it be? Jennifer Frieouf BRAMAN, OKLA.

I'd be a bar singer. And I'd wear a really low-cut red sequined dress. Maybe I'd want to sit on a piano. I'm stopped by the fact that I can't sing, but, you know, aside from that.