{"id":2248,"date":"2018-01-03T10:43:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T17:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2248"},"modified":"2018-01-03T10:43:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T17:43:17","slug":"zombies-a-giant-snake-and-a-plum-good-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=2248","title":{"rendered":"Zombies, a giant snake and a Plum good story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson<\/p>\n

HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR. By Janet Evanovich. Random House Audio. Read by Lorelei King. 7 hours; 6 CDs. $32. Also available in print from Putnam.<\/p>\n

\"hardcore\"<\/a>How does she do it? This is No. 24 in Janet Evanovich\u2019s Stephanie Plum series, and it\u2019s just as outrageous, hilarious and entertaining as any of the 23 that came before.<\/p>\n

Stephanie\u2019s still working as a bounty hunter in Trenton, N.J., hauling in people who jump the bail that was supplied by her Cousin Vinnie, a bondsman. She\u2019s still living in her apartment with her pet hamster, Rex. She\u2019s still anything but the stereotype of a tough bounty hunter, and, as often happens, she\u2019s pretty much broke. Her relationship with Joe Morelli, a cop, is getting a little more serious, but that doesn\u2019t mean she isn\u2019t still attracted to Ranger, the handsome man of few words (mostly \u201cBabe\u2026\u201d) who owns a private security company and often comes to Stephanie\u2019s rescue when she\u2019s in danger or her current vehicle has been destroyed in one way or another. Lula, the colorful former \u201cho,\u201d is still her sidekick, and Stephanie\u2019s nearby family still drives her crazy even while frequently feeding her and helping her in other ways.<\/p>\n

But, these familiar elements all just add to the fun as Stephanie deals with much that is fresh, inventive, wacky and sometimes dangerous in her latest outing.<\/p>\n

First, her soft heart gets her into trouble. When she tries to haul the grave robber Simon Diggory back to jail, she agrees to his demands that she look after his pet boa constrictor, Ethel, even though she and Lula are decidedly not fond of large snakes. Adventures ensue as she tries to corral Ethel and keep her fed.<\/p>\n

Then there seem to be zombies everywhere, stealing heads from corpses and even murdering people in order to extract their brains. Morelli\u2019s latest case and Stephanie\u2019s county hunting begin to overlap.<\/p>\n

Then Diesel, who\u2019s extremely good-looking but troublingly mysterious, reappears in Stephanie\u2019s life \u2013 and in her apartment. Despite Morelli\u2019s objections, Stephanie gives in to her soft heart again and lets Diesel stay. Although, really, since locked doors don\u2019t stop him and he doesn\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer, she has little choice. But is Diesel somehow connected with the weird and increasingly scary things that are happening around town?<\/p>\n

Complicating life further, Stephanie\u2019s Grandma Mazur has a new \u201cboyfriend\u201d in Florida, driving Stephanie\u2019s mother to drink.<\/p>\n

You get the picture. This book is pure fun. Lorelei King \u2013 who sounds exactly the way Stephanie should sound, not to mention Lula, Ranger, Grandma Mazur and all the others \u2013 brings the audio version vividly to life. Hang on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR. By Janet Evanovich. Random House Audio. Read by Lorelei King. 7 hours; 6 CDs. $32. Also available in print from Putnam. How does she do it? This is No. 24 in Janet Evanovich\u2019s Stephanie Plum series, and it\u2019s just as outrageous, hilarious and entertaining as any of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,426],"tags":[820,373,115],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio-books","category-popular-fiction","tag-audio-books","tag-janet-evanovich","tag-stephanie-plum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions\/2250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}