Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (2007)

[lightreads]

Thirteenth Stephanie Plum book, in which Stephanie’s bastard x-husband vanishes after – you know what? I’m not going to give a plot summary, because that’s entirely secondary. It’s a freaking Stephanie Plum book – I read it pretty much cover-to-cover today, and it made me laugh hard enough to hurt my stomach muscles.

Where does she get it all? I mean, seriously, a book a year like clockwork, and they’re still freaking hilarious. It’s a sort of dry, off-kilter, sarcastic humor, which fits just right in this universe where everything is just a bit bigger and bolder than you expect.

"Small detour," I said to the RangeMan guy. "What's your name?"

"Brett."

He didn't look like a Brett. Guys named Brett were supposed to have a neck. This guy looked like he should be named Grunt.

And there’s an exploding beaver and a grave robber and an unfortunate stun-gun accident. God, I love these books.

I do have to register again though, as I did for the last book, that I really wish she’d make just a bit more haste in progressing the love triangle. The status is very quo, and I was frustrated by the very small, quiet references to Stephanie’s frustrations with her life and her fears for the future that, yet again, didn’t go anywhere. (And it is absolutely possible to address those complex subjects while retaining the light tone).

Well, actually, it’s mostly that I was so thoroughly disgusted by Joe freaking Morelli. Excerpt taken just after Stephanie has handled a frightening and demanding situation with smarts and style:

Morelli didn't look happy. "You're getting too good at this," he said. "You've been scared and threatened so many times, you're starting to think it's normal.
You were so cool with that guy. And he was insane. Genuine psychopath. And you played him."

"Isn't that what I was supposed to do?"

"Yes, but that isn't what I want the woman I love to do. You should have freaked. You should be shaking and crying. Look at you. You're smiling."

Fuck you, too.

I really hope Evanovich is playing a long game here with the relationships and the comparisons between Joe and Ranger, because I will be very very irritated if that sort of bullshit goes unchallenged forever.

Comments

[readerjane]

There has been discussion in the babe group as to whether Janet is deliberately making Morelli's unacceptable behaviors more and more clear to pave the way for Stephanie to reject him, or whether Janet thinks those behaviors are cute. I hope it's the former, but I'm not holding my breath. I wish she'd resolve the triangle too. Since Janet's said in several interviews that she "prefers the chase", though, I suspect we'll be lucky to get a resolution before she dies.

OMG. Just had a flash of Alex Evanovich (Janet's daughter and webmaster) doing a Christopher Tolkien, cobbling together books from her mother's notes after Janet's demise. Eep!

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

I like the chase, too, and even I'm tiring of this.

And really, just shaking things up is not the same thing as resolving them. I mean, I doubt she's interested in having Stephanie trade back and forth between them (though, you know, before this book I would have been fine with that, though none of them would have been). It's more the stasis that's getting to me.

And yes, I'm with you -- I really hope she doesn't think it's cute.

OMG. Just had a flash of Alex Evanovich (Janet's daughter and webmaster) doing a Christopher Tolkien, cobbling together books from her mother's notes after
Janet's demise. Eep!


*cracks up*. That would probably be just as bad as that kid of Anne McCaffrey's whose writing Dragonrider books now. *shudder*