Visions of Sugar Plums and Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich

[lightreads]

These are two short, holiday installments – Christmas and Valentine’s Day – to the Stephanie Plum series. They’re a pleasure, not just because Evanovich brings the usual mad comedy, but also because these books feel explicitly extra-canonical. Evanovich knows she can’t do any significant character work with regards to Stephanie or her longstanding love triangle, so she tucks most of that away, introduces a new character, and flavors the whole thing with a touch of the supernatural. In Visions of Sugar Plums, Stephanie is after a skip by the dubious name of Sandy Claws, a local toymaker, and in Plum Lovin’ she has to temporarily take over the work of a particularly talented matchmaker. The whole thing is done with a deft, tongue-in-cheek touch which dares the reader not to just shrug and go with it. There’s no system of supernatural order here, no explicit taxonomies, just a few odd happenings and the appearance of some “unmentionables” (heh). All of which slots in surprisingly well with this bigger-than-life, occasionally cartoonishly funny universe.

And it’s backed by the usual supporting cast of friends and family. Lula is particularly memorable – Stephanie gets a “my one phone call,” and when she asks what the charge is Lula says, “disturbing the peace. Tying a guy’s dick in a knot.”

That, and I just like tossing around extra-canonical material like this. Bit of a publisher’s scheme, sure, but I just like permeable universes, and this one does detour surprisingly well.