Hot Six - Janet Evanovich

   2000; 336 pages.  Book 6 (out of 26, soon to be 27) in the Stephanie Plum series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Crime-Humor; Women Sleuths; Beach Novel.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    For bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, business is pretty good right now.  Uncle Vinnie, the proprietor of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has given her four FTA’s (“Failure To Appear”) to round up, deliver, and collect the bounty money.

 

    Three of them – Lenny Dale, Morris Munson, and Walter “Mooner” Dunphy -  look like pretty routine jobs.  Morris Munson might have some tendencies, but that just means Stephanie will pack a firearm when she goes to get him.

 

    The fourth assignment is going to be significantly more challenging.  Carlos Manoso was caught on security videotape leaving a crime scene soon after a murder was committed.  The police consider Carlos a "person of interest" in the case, which probably means they'll arrest him as soon as they get their hands on him.  Unsurprisingly, Carlos has declined to meet with them.

 

    Carlos is better known as “Ranger”, and he’s both Stephanie’s sometimes love interest and bounty hunter mentor.  Can the student really outwit the master and bring him in?  Can she keep her emotions in check while doing so?  Did Ranger commit the murder?  And last but not least, was he really so clumsy as to get caught by a surveillance camera at a crime scene?

 

    Stephanie’s life is about to get steaming hot.

 

What’s To Like...

    Hot Six has two main plotlines: 1.) figure out how Ranger fits in with the crime he's a suspect in, and 2.) if he didn't do it (and let's face it, we can safely assume that), then who did?  As usual, a large dose of romantic comedy is provided by Stephanie because she has the hots for both Ranger and Detective Joe Morelli.  But here the mayhem is augmented by: a.) Grandma Mazur who moves in with Stephanie, b.) a goofy golden retriever who moves in with Stephanie, c.) a pair of inept thugs assigned to tail her, and d.) the crazy antics by the stoner called Mooner.

 

    Once again the story is told in the first-person point-of-view (Stephanie’s).  There are 15 chapters, plus a prologue (we’ll get to that in a bit) covering 336 pages, so roughly 21 pages per chapter.  There’s a fair amount of cussing throughout the book, about half of which has to do with fecal matter and its source, but that's the norm for a Stephanie Plum book.

 

    The plot moves briskly along the whole way, and Janet Evanovich sprinkles in a bunch of interesting side plots, which range from criminal activity (there’s a major mob presence in this part of New Jersey), to hilarious situations, such as the dog-poop auction in Chapter 7.

 

    Lula gets to ride along with Stephanie a lot, and that’s always a plus.  Rex the Hamster is back, and Uncle Vinnie has lots of things to stress out about.  Mooner and Bob are both new, and personally I’m hoping they become recurring characters.  I learned that a “Tech-9” is an assault weapon, which also explains the stage name of the rapper Tech N9ne, whom I happen to like.  Donald Trump and Rocky-&-Bullwinkle both get mentioned, Stephanie goes to a Star Trek party that turns ugly, and we witness what has to be the shortest dognapping caper on record.  I also should mention that, even though they’re a crime family, I loved the names Alexander Ramos gave his three sons: Hannibal, Ulysses, and Homer.

 

    The ending is good, with sufficient excitement plus a couple of neat twists I didn’t see coming.  Ranger gets off the hook - well, that isn’t really a spoiler now, is it? - and the love triangle of Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger remains unresolved, which also isn’t a spoiler.  Not everyone gets their just desserts (yes, I know technically it should be “deserts”, but I prefer the two-S spelling), and Mooner and Dealer receive an unexpected reward.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 1,051 ratings.

    Goodreads: 4.19/5 based on 117,489 ratings and 2,428 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “You see, Carol was coming out of the Frederick’s of Hollywood store, and she was flustered because she’d just gotten some sexy panties.”

    “Is this going to be embarrassing?”

    “Do you get embarrassed easily?”

    “What’s the point to all this, anyway?”

    “I was hoping you’d drop the charges.”

    “No way!”

    I sat down in the chair by his desk.  “I’d consider it a special favor.  Carol’s a friend.  And I had to talk her off a bridge this morning.”

    “Over panties?”

    “Just like a man,” I said, eyes narrowed.  “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

    “Hey, I’m Mr. Sensitivity.  I read The Bridges of Madison County.  Twice.”  (pg. 32)

 

    “You don’t actually think I’m your wife, do you?”

    His mouth pulled back into a loopy grin.  “No, but if they think I’m really flipped out I can plead insanity.  Poor distraught husband goes berserk.  I’ve laid all the groundwork with you.  Now all I have to do is carve you up and set you on fire, and I’m home free.”

    “You’re crazy!”

    “See, it’s working already.”  (pg. 166)

 

“He’s dead all right. (…) The giveaway is those three holes in his forehead.”  (pg. 227 )

    There’s not much to nitpick about.  There’s a short prologue at the very beginning, which answers an epilogue teaser from the previous book.  If you’re reading the series in order (and I am), it’ll make sense, but if you aren’t – and frankly, I think they can be read in any order – you’ll wonder what the heck it has to do with anything.

 

    The only other thing that bothered me a bit was the stereotyping of the Arab thug, Habib.  But Hot Six was published in 2000, a year before the 9-11 tragedy, and it was a different world back then.

 

    This series is now up to 26 books, with #27 due out later this year.  I suspect that at some point, it will start to feel like the stories are “same-old, same-old”, but that hasn’t happened yet.  As long as Janet Evanovich keeps introducing new criminals for Stephanie to catch, new lovably weird characters to stir things up, and new situations for her family and friends to drive her crazy with, I’ll remain an avid and loyal reader.

 

    8 Stars.  For those veteran Stephanie Plum readers who keep count of the vehicles that she totals in each book, there was only one here (her Honda Civic gets torched), although she’s an accomplice in three more.