Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich ★★★☆☆

Still waiting for the climax!

Fiction – Mystery (Cozy)

302 pages

Publication Date:  November 20th 2012

Stephanie Plum #19

When Geoffrey Cubbin, a man headed for trial for embezzling millions from an assisted-living facility, vanishes from the hospital without a trace Stephanie Plum, even more desperate for money than usual, is eager to take up the case.   While contending with murderous senior citizens, a ticked off wife and a crazed homeless man with aspirations toward holiness Stephanie realizes that this case isn’t going to be solved easily, so she takes on a secondary job.  Ranger needs a body guard against an invisible foe and that job comes with its’ own list of problems.  But if Stephanie can survive poisoning, the bridesmaid dress from hell, and Ranger’s enemy turning his sights onto her then maybe she’ll be able to make rent this month.

As usual I was completely lured in by the book jacket blurb and ready for a good time (whoever wrote it is a genius and I would be very interested in having him/her look at some of my query letters – sorry mine sort of sucks in comparison).  At first I found the start a bit slow and stale.  Another car blown up, another junk food stop and I was beginning to wonder if I was starting to lose my loyalty to the series.  But then the story really started to pick up and I was pulled in again.  As the story progressed all of the pieces fell into place and I remembered why I keep coming back, because Evanovich is a good story teller and funny as hell.

After I finished the book I realized, in the whole 20 minutes I devote to thinking about this blog ;) in between doing dishes and yelling at children, while I found the story line great and I liked the ending it was rather anticlimactic.  I think both the Cubbin and Ranger story lines deserved to be more developed than they were.  Where is the pizzazz and suspense of Twelve Sharp; the irresistible need to find out what happens next?  This plot line had so much unfilled promise, kind of like there was a rush at the end to finish it instead of making it great like it should have been.  Also, I am bored with the Morelli versus Ranger thing; it’s time to spice it up.  Maybe Stephanie should move to a more commitment adult-like relationship with a spectacular break up plot device, seems to work real well in TV.  Oh and I really loved Tiki.  I personally have a Chrome Gnome named CG who vigorously protects our living room ( he was originally in my bedroom, but CG really creeped my Husband out, and my well thought out and cleverly worded protests that he was protecting us against giant Lego Darth Vader alarm clock killing us in our sleep did nothing to win him a reprieve).  I liked this book, but it certainly wasn’t one of Evanonvich’s best, sadly it could have been.

ISBN-10: 0345527747