I seem to have lost my reading mojo lately. I've had several books on the go and haven't been able to make much headway on any of them. I decided to try a sure fire quick read to get me going.
Borrowed from my local public library.
"Celebrity chef Stanley Chipotle comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off and loses his head - literally.
Bail bonds office worker Lula is witness to the crime, and the only one she'll talk to is Trenton cop Joe Morelli.
Chipotle's sponsor is offering a million-dollar reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the capture of the killers.
Lula recruits bounty hunter Stephanie Plum to help her find the killers and collect the moolah.
Stephanie Plum is working overtime tracking felons for the bonds office at night and snooping for security expert Carlos Manosa, aka Ranger, during the day. Can Stephanie hunt down tow killers, a traitor, and five skips, keep her grandmother out of the sauce, and solve Ranger's problems and not jump his bones?"
If you've read any of Stephanie Plum's previous adventures, you'll know that she is a magnet for trouble. In this episode, Lula is in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses Stanley Chipotle's decapitation. She decides that the best way to catch the killers is to enter the Barbecue Cook-Off. Before long she and Grandma Mazur have taken over Stephanie's mother's kitchen testing out a variety of barbecue sauces. What could possibly go wrong???
At the same time, Stephanie is trying to do her job capturing criminals that have skipped bail and is also helping Ranger to investigate a number of break ins at properties that Ranger's company provides security for. Considering how much trouble she gets into in the course of her work as a bounty hunter, it requires considerable suspension of disbelief to accept that Ranger would specifically want Stephanie to help him with this investigation. And I'm finding it increasingly difficult to understand why Stephanie is so irresistible to both Ranger and Morelli. But I guess we all know that these books are just a bit of fun and we don't expect them to be realistic!
There are lots of funny moments courtesy of Lula, Grandma Mazur, a cross-dressing guy in a chicken suit, and various other disasters involving fire-bombs and the local flasher. As usual, this is a rollicking ride from start to finish.
So what did I think? I'm finding that you can have too much of a good thing. I'm feeling a little bit "over it" fifteen books in to the series. Did I enjoy it? Yes, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed previous episodes. It's getting to be a bit "same old, same old" for me. Will I continue reading this series? Probably. And I am looking forward to the movie version of One for the money. Though I am finding it hard to imagine Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum...
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