You may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned Janet Evanovich yet since I know she’s one of the most popular female mystery authors. She has a new book coming out in June, Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, which is, as you might guess, the 15th title in her Stephanie Plum series. Stephanie is a Jersey girl born and raised in the Burg, a neighborhood in Trenton. She’s still single and lives in an apartment with her hamster, Rex, most of the time. When her apartment has been trashed or she needs to hide or feel safe, she moves in with Joe Morelli or into the Rangeman complex.
In the first volume, ‘One for the Money’, she has lost her job as lingerie buyer for a department store and is looking around for a job. Her cousin, Vinnie, is a bail bondsman looking for someone to find people who did not appear for their court dates. If they are not found and do not reschedule, then Vinnie is out the bond. When he hesitates to give Stephanie the job, she blackmails him; Vinnie has secrets. Stephanie earns a percentage of the bond amount to bring them in.
Evanovich’s books are full of funny, quirky, characters and laugh-out-loud antics. Her Grandma Mazur has come to live with Stephanie’s parents and has her nose in everything. Grandma forgets she’s not a spring chicken any longer (by a long shot!) and wants to assist her granddaughter in her job. Stephanie meets up with quite a few other individuals, many who are funny and a few who are sinister. Her mother, who wonders where she went wrong in raising Stephanie that she turned out without a steady job and carrying a gun, and her long-suffering father, who just wants dinner on the table at a reasonable time are among Stephanie’s foibles along with Joe Morelli, with whom she has a long history and is the subject of her first apprehension, and Ranger, Carlos Manoso, who is an expert employee of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and helps Stephanie learn the ropes. There’s lots of sexual tension between Steph and these two hunks.
I have listened to many of the Stephanie Plum titles on audio and I enjoy C J Critt’s readings. She is not the only narrator, however, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide. There are 4 titles that feature Stephanie Plum in what Evanovich calls her Between the Numbers Series as well, but these are shorter, though even more outrageous.

Published by Scribner

One for the Money, 1993
Two for the Dough, 1996
Three to get Deadly, 1997

Published by St Martin’s Press

Four to Score, 1998
High Five, 1999
Hot Six, 2000
Seven Up, 2001
Hard Eight, 2002
To the Nines, 2003
Ten Big Ones, 2004
Eleven on Top, 2005
Twelve Sharp, 2006
Lean Mean Thirteen, 2007
Fearless Fourteen, 2008
Finger Lickin’ Fifteen, 2009