****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I only just started reading the Plum novels, and not in order, but of the six or so I've finished, this is by far the best one. Instead of a cardboard horny gang member with an attitude, Ranger turns out to be a real - and really unusual - person. He's still got his hard-ass Special Forces persona, but we see way under it. We find out he gave his child up for adoption so she would have a better life than he could give her, that Julie resembles him in important ways, that even he can be overwhelmed by circumstances, and that he loves Stephanie (OK, so he says "emotionally involved"...but in the context of that paragraph, that's what he means). Yes, he keeps crawling into bed with her, but mostly because he needs someone to hold for comfort. I thought the whole book was genuinely suspenseful, which in turn made the slapstick interludes even funnier.And wow, is the slapstick funny! Some of the other books try too hard - there's too much, it's too silly, and the narrative doesn't hold together. This one, though, avoids those problems - the humor builds around Sally's band as the tension builds in the increasingly desperate search for the little girl. The dinner scene with Steph trying to get her Dad out of the house before the band starts rehearsing - particularly Grandma Mazur imitating Mick Jagger - is priceless. (I just love Grandma Mazur, and it was interesting to see her contrasted with Ranger's Cuban grandmother - presumably the one who raised him through high school).We get less character development with Joe, but still some: Morelli doesn't do his usual Maalox routine when Steph decides to meet Scrog - he's quietly supportive and asks her what she wants him to do. Stephanie's scenes with little Julie are very warm and sweet, despite the violence around them. I do wish Stephanie had been developed a little more, though - she does comfort Ranger in a couple spots, and finally tells Morelli she loves him, but given what Evanovich managed to do with Ranger's character, it could be better. The one problem with the book (in fact all of them) is that Stephanie never seems to learn anything - Evanovich develops male characters better than female ones. Can't be earnest or serious - that would kill the fun - but there ought to be something.I do disagree with the voices claiming that Steph should just make up her mind between Morelli and Ranger - it is entirely possible to love more than one person at a time, particularly when both of them have wonderful qualities mixed with serious drawbacks. Morelli is dependable, responsible, and family oriented, but he's usually trying to get Steph to be quieter and more civilized. She'd hate that. Ranger, on the other hand, notices and tries to help develop her talent, but he apparently has some awful secret in his past that makes him unable to promise her anything more than sex. It's a good setup for a lot more story, and I'll be disappointed if Evanovich eventually wraps this up with some trite, Hallmark card-style solution. A three-cornered outcome of some sort would be much more interesting, particularly since Ranger and Morelli have become, well, not close friends, but complementary.Anyway, still not Dorothy Sayers (if you're not familiar with her Lord Peter Wimsey crime novels, you're missing out), but hilarious, suspenseful, and worth a repeat reading.
