To the Nines (A Stephanie Plum Novel) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "MY NAME IS Stephanie Plum and I was born and raised in the Chambersburg section of Trenton, where the top male activities are scarfing pastries..." (more)
Key Phrases: Samuel Singh, Grandma Bella, Bart Cone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"My same is Stephanie Plum and I was born and raised in the Chambersburg section of Trenton, where the top male activities are scarfing pastries and pork rinds and growing ass hair." Within pages of this elegant introduction to the latest installment in Evanovich's bestselling numbered series, the less-than-stellar bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has managed to haul in a fat, naked and, yes, furry "skip" who has greased himself up with Vaseline to literally give her the slip. In the midst of taking him to the police station, however, Plum drops everything to help her beloved Grandma Mazur, who calls to say that Stephanie's mom locked herself in the bathroom to escape the craziness of the Plum family. Finally, Plum checks in at the office, where her employer and cousin, the bailbondsman Vinnie, assigns her back-up duty on the thorny case of a missing Indian man, Samuel Singh. Vinnie previously wrote a bond ensuring that Singh would leave the country when his visa expired, so the latter's disappearance drives Vinnie to call in the devastatingly attractive Ranger, his star enforcer, and assign Stephanie to help him. As fans know, the mysterious Ranger has long competed with the equally sexy Morelli to be the object of Plum's desire, so his presence-just as Plum has temporarily moved in with Morelli-keeps the sexual tension high. An awkward plot that takes Plum to Vegas is the weakest course in this meal. Yet Evanovich's many fans will be more than happy with their latest serving of Stephanie Plum-that cute, bumbling, irresistibly average Jersey girl-who just happens to have more laughs, more sizzling sexual tension, and more nonstop, zany adventure than anybody else around.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Stephanie Plum is a Jersey Girl, a bounty hunter, and a resident of a part of Trenton where you can still go to Mom's for dinner and your cop boyfriend Morelli's grandmother has visions that include you in a coffin. Stephanie is on the trail of an Indian contract worker named Singh who disappeared when his visa was up. When she interviews a McDonald's employee who knew him, he's shot as she stands there. Then rose-and-carnation bouquets with very sinister notes start appearing in Stephanie's apartment and in her e-mail, and a few more bodies turn up with bullet holes. Meanwhile, Stephanie's sister, Valerie, is about to give birth; her sidekick, Lula, goes on the loudest diet ever written; and a trip to Vegas--yes, it's business--involves both Elvis and Tom Jones impersonators. Evanovich, and Stephanie, are at the top of their form here: laugh-out loud moments jostle with sticky, visceral terror; Stephanie's mentor, Ranger, and Morelli don't so much vie for her favors as bestow them in turn. Ever smarter, funnier, sexier, scarier. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312265867
• ISBN-13: 978-0312265861
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (268 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #217,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #98 in

  Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( E ) > Evanovich, Janet

• This is item 9 in The Stephanie Plum Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rent to Pay, People to See, and A Job That Needs Done, August 19, 2004

By	prisrob "pris," (New EnglandUSA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Stephanie Plum is one of my heroes. She has such a cute way about her; loves her job, doesn't really care how she looks most of the time, has a personality and looks that attract the men, and is not wonder woman! Janet Evanovich, author of "To the Nines" has created characters that have me laughing and chuckling to myself. They are so real that I can see them in my mind. I have an image of Lula, the big size ex-ho, turned bonds-woman; Ranger, the ex-Special Forces turned bond enforcement; grandma, the woman who likes wigs and is as crazy as Stephanie-wonder whom Stephanie takes after; and Morelli, the cop, Stephanie's lover. Janet Evanovich has such a wonderful imagination- I want to meet that woman.

Stephanie is in trouble again. She is working with Ranger to find Samuel Singh, a missing computer nerd who is out on bail. Vinnie, Stephanie's boss will lose money if Mr. Singh is not found. Stephanie does all the right things, she looks in all the right places, asks all the right questions, and of course, she is a marked woman. Trouble seems to find her, she is left flowers with a devious message, shot at with a dart, email messages of a dark nature left on her computer. This mystery takes her to Las Vegas and has one of the funniest scenes with Lula I have read. Lula may just be taking some of the best scenes from Stephanie- Stephanie should talk to the author about what is going on:-)
Stephanie's family seems to take front page in this mystery. Her sister Valerie, is pregnant, large as a house and eating as much as she can. He boyfriend wants to marry her, but she isn't quite ready, and Valerie's two children are all living with Stephanie's mom and dad. No one is happy about this, and the house is getting too small, especially since Grand mom lives there also. What a mess.

This novel is one of the better ones. Many readers of Janet Evanovich, complain that her books tend to follow the same format-well, they do, but each one is different and so enjoyable. Ms. Evanovich lives near my hometown- I have to meet this woman who has brought me so much enjoyment, A mystery novel that brings humor to the forefront- what more could one ask? prisrob

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Almost Perfect Plum!, July 22, 2003

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Anyone who has enjoyed any of the eight previous Stephanie Plum novels would be very foolish to skip this one. If you haven't read any of those, you can safely start with this one . . . but don't expect the earlier ones to be nearly this good.

Stephanie Plum, the down home city girl from the Burg in Trenton, continues in her bounty hunter job, and she takes on some pretty unusual ones in To the Nines. As Stephanie describes it, her retrievals have more to do with Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy than with Wonder Woman. The book opens with Stephanie and Lula, her sometimes heavyweight sidekick, trying to pick up Punky Blalog. The rest of the escapade has to be read to be believed . . . but Vaseline plays a large role. When she returns to the office, she discovers that her cousin Vinnie faces an enormous embarrassment if he cannot find and bring in one Samuel Singh, a temporary worker from India, for whom Vinnie wrote a visa bond. Vinnie sends Stephanie and her mentor (and sometimes squeeze) Ranger out to find Singh. A major plot line of the book revolves around this search which takes her to Las Vegas before the book is done.

A secondary and engrossing plot involves the mystery of who is threatening Stephanie and killing people around her after she has lunch at McDonald's. Because of the threats, Ranger or his men play bodyguard for Stephanie whenever her undercover policeman boyfriend, Joe Morelli, isn't around. In many of the novels, Stephanie goes through cars like tissue paper. In this one, the bodyguards take it on the chin . . . and just about everywhere else.

A third and happier plot involves Stephanie and Morelli becoming much closer to one another.

A fourth plot focuses on Stephanie's unmarried sister, Valerie, who is nine months pregnant and the family's desire to get Valerie married and out of her parents' house.

There's also a fine and funny story line about Lula trying different diets so she can become a super model.

On top of these interesting plots and subplots, the mystery is quite engrossing. I had no idea what was really going on until about 60 pages from the end.

On top of this, the book is filled with hilarious little scenes featuring the manic members of the Burg, including her man-crazy Grandma Mazur, Morelli's Grandmother Bella who has visions of dead women all the time, the generously endowed Connie Rossolli from Vinnie's office, and even Stephanie's mother who's having trouble coping.

The pace of this book is amazing. There's something significant happening on almost every page. The scenes intersect with each other in truly inspired ways. For example, while Stephanie is finishing up her first bounty hunting gig, she gets an emergency call from her Grandmother Mazur. And you'll never guess what the problem is. The result of that scene then cuts into a woman making off-color comments about Stephanie because she seems to have an excess of Vaseline about her. And on it goes. The laughs come almost as fast.

I was thoroughly delighted with this book . . . except for one little problem. It was totally clear who the evil doer was in the last 60 pages. The attempts at misdirection seemed strangely inept. If Ms. Evanovich had cut down that section, this book would have been the perfect Plum. As it is, I think To the Nines is my favorite Plum to date.

After you finish racing break-neck through these pages, think about where your heart's desires may be leading you in contradictory directions. Then, go do something about it!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Janet, you never disappoint me., July 19, 2003

By	Karen Kirsch "blazerlib" (Novi, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got to Border's at 9:10 on Tuesday to get the new Stephanie Plum and raced through it. Stephanie's cousin Vinnie has bonded
Singh and he's going to lose much money if Singh doesn't show up before his visa expires. As Stephanie tracks down leads, the people surrounding Singh turn up dead...one killed right in front of her. The search takes Steph, Lula, and Caroline to Las Vegas. Will Vegas ever be the same again? Not after a confrontation between Tom Jones and Elvis impersonators brought on by our lovely ladies and a giant pink thong!
Flowers and notes from the psycho killer follow Stephanie wherever she goes. The bodyguards that Ranger assigns to protect our heroine are dropping like flies.
There are many funny food moments as Lula consumes huge amounts of meat on her new high protein diet (animals are following her everywhere) and Stephanie's sister Valerie, 9 months pregnant, consumes everything in sight.
While Evanovich has not departed from laugh-out-loud adventure, 2 things were missing...Stephanie's vehicle did not get demolished and we did not visit the funeral home this time.
I do not read this series for the plot, although this one was
a little more intricate that most of the others. I read it for
the zany cast of characters that I have grown to love.
P.S. Ranger, come see me sometime...anytime!!!