Here’s the short version: she’s done it again! Janet Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum novel was one of only three titles on my Christmas wish list. I get most of my books free prior to publication, and the rest I can generally find at the library. But I wanted this one hard, and my eldest son came through. And for the first 36 pages, I thought our writer had lost her magic. Turns out she was just warming up; my first laugh was on page 37, but most of the fall-down-funny moments take place during the last third of the book.

This one starts out with Stephanie finally ready to get off the fence and make a definite choice between Morelli and Ranger. Just as she gets ready to commit, she is surprised to discover her charms are rejected. Bummer. But her bad luck has only just begun. She’s being stalked by an amorous stranger who knows where she lives, and what appears to be a fairly routine FTA re-schedule job turns out to be a madman on the loose, one that may be breeding biological weaponry.

In this installment Grandma Mazur discovers social networking in a big way; Stephanie discovers there are new and different ways to have her vehicle destroyed; and Stephanie’s mother breaks loose from her kitchen and kicks some ass.

You probably won’t want to miss this one! I read it in three evenings and was sad when it was over.