Finger Lickin' Fifteen (Stephanie Plum Novels) (Hardcover)

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Book Description
SAVE THE DATE: Tuesday, June 23, 2009

EVENT: The next Stephanie Plum novel, in which complications arise, loyalties are tested, cliffhangers are resolved, and donuts are eaten.

WHERE: Wherever books are sold across America

WHAT TO BRING: Sunglasses, insect repellant, a flotation device, suntan lotion, cheez-doodles, extra-large towel, fire extinguisher, baseball bat, lip balm, monkey leash, sixty three pieces of chewing gum, and one canister of oxygen (don’t ask). Hey, it’s a Stephanie Plum novel!

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Janet Evanovich and Michael Connelly: Author One-to-One
In this Amazon exclusive, we brought together blockbuster authors Janet Evanovich and Michael Connelly and asked them to interview each other. Find out what two of the top authors of their genres have to say about their characters, writing process, and more. Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of the Harry Bosch series of novels as well as The Poet, Blood Work, Void Moon, Chasing the Dime, and the #1 New York Times bestseller The Lincoln Lawyer. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. Read on to see Michael Connelly's questions for Janet Evanovich, or turn the tables to see what Evanovich asked Connelly.

Connelly: Let's get the business out of the way. What's Finger Lickin' Fifteen, the new Stephanie Plum novel, all about and what brought you to the story?

Evanovich: I wanted to do a book that featured Stephanie's wheelman, Lula. Lula is one of my favorite characters because she's pulled herself up from hard times and now is just more of everything. Fifteen opens with Lula witnessing a crime, and it all gets complicated after that. We're talking about barbecue gone bad, cross-dressing firemen, dancing hot dogs, etc.

Connelly: You strike me as an author who is involved in every aspect of the publishing of her work. But the output--at least two solid novels a year--suggests otherwise, that you delegate all over the place so that you can focus on writing high-quality stuff. So which is it? (And if your answer is that you do indeed delegate, how the heck do you learn to do that?)

Evanovich: You reach a point in your career where the business side threatens to eclipse writing time and you either delegate or power back. I delegate everything but the writing. My daughter and her staff manage the website, the fan mail, the book tour, the author publicity and marketing. My son is my agent and finance officer and chief problem solver. When no one else can solve the problem it gets dumped on my son's desk! I oversee all aspects, but I've had to learn not to micro-manage.

Connelly: We have an author friend in common-- Robert Crais--who has steadfastly refused to sell or option his series character Elvis Cole to Hollywood. On the other hand, I've flogged Harry Bosch up and down the studio strip. (Interestingly enough, to the same effect--no movies made!) Where do you stand with Stephanie and will we ever see her on the big or small screen?

Evanovich: Jeez Louise, I wish I knew the answer to this one. TriStar owns the Plum franchise with Wendy Finerman attached as producer, and Wendy has been trying to get this sucker off the ground for fifteen years. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of three million people read each of my Plum books, but for whatever reason, TriStar has yet to greenlight the project.

Connelly: Speaking of that L.A. business, do you remember when we first met? Since you conveniently put numbers in your titles, it is easy for me to remember that it was fourteen years ago in L.A. I bet you don't remember the name of the restaurant, which sadly is no longer there. But, luckily, we're still here and my memory of that lunch is important to me because at the time we had probably sold a hundred books between us (not counting romance novels).

Evanovich: What I remember is that what I consider to be my graduating class (you, Crais, and Jan Burke) would get together at all the mystery conferences, and you would be our fearless leader!

Connelly: Did you know that in my most recent novel a very bad man plans to use a Janet Evanovich novel to get close to an unsuspecting, potential victim? It's scary stuff--the plan, not the Evanovich novel. Have you reached a stage where your work is part of the terrain and gets these sorts of little nods here and there?

Evanovich: Every now and then my name or one of my character names pops up and it's usually in the work of a friend. I think it's fun and I always reciprocate...so live in fear.

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From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Evanovich recycles tired themes better executed in earlier adventures in her latest Stephanie Plum adventure (Fearless Fourteen, etc.). When Lula inadvertently witnesses the beheading of culinary TV star Stanley Chipotle in a Trenton, N.J., alley, Stephanie's on-again off-again boyfriend, cop Joe Morelli, reluctantly takes the case. Lula, with the help of Grandma Mazur, enters the same barbequing competition Chipotle was in town to promote, hoping to lure the murderers out of hiding. Meanwhile, Ranger has recruited Stephanie to help solve a series of break-ins at properties under the protection of Rangeman Security. The inevitable sparks fly between Stephanie and Ranger, with Morelli grumbling on the sidelines. Evanovich dishes up her usual mixture of shoot-'em-up action (numerous cars explode) and quirky characters (notably a neighborhood flasher with a devoted following), but the lackluster plot will disappoint fans. (June 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312383282
• ISBN-13: 978-0312383282
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (430 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #352 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 15 in The Stephanie Plum Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bad way to end., September 8, 2009

By	Love TT - See all my reviews

Normally, I start a review by discussing the author, but Janet Evanovich is such an accomplished writer, I don't think that will be necessary. It is hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since we were first introduced to the sassy bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. A show of hands from those who can remember One for the Money: One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1). Well, Stephanie, has come a long way since she first started chasing Joe Morelli. The last few books in the series, however, had readers convinced it was time to put this series to rest - and I was one of them. But Finger Lickin' Fifteen is, in some ways, a return to form for the best-selling author.

Stephanie Plum has had enough experience by now to be a seasoned vet, but somehow she still manages to stumble along the way - but I guess that is part of her charm. There are two things we can count on about Ms. Plum: She will bumble her way through the book and never commit to a serious relationship - both hold true in her latest adventure. Fifteen Lickin' Fifteen has all the characters that we've come to love and even spends time developing some of their stories. Lula, the clerk with a dubious past, witnesses the brutal murder of television star, Stanley Chipotle. This brings her the unwanted attention of keystone-capered-type-killers that are just as inept at their chosen career as Ms. Plum is at hers. Well, a big reward is offered for the capture of the killers, and Lula, along with Grandma Mazur, enter the cooking contest the TV star was in town to promote in hopes of catching them. Stephanie, meanwhile, is working with her on again, off again lover, Ranger, to solve a series of burglaries that appear to be inside jobs.

Let me end there so I don't spoil it for you, but I will say that I really, really, really, really, wanted to give this book a top score. I love Janet Evanovich, and her Stephanie Plum series, but this fifteenth installment failed on more than a few fronts to fully engross the reader. The Lula story is never fully developed, and while there are hilarities, they are rather shallow and pedantic. The heat begins to rise when Stephanie and Ranger are together, but this too is rather tiresome. Overall, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, has just enough humor and passion and mystery to qualify as a summer breeze. It doesn't achieve what the first six books in the series did, but it is slightly better than the more recent books in the series....I would recommend instead JoAnna Wylde's novel: Price of Freedom --Price of Freedom a much better novel.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Plum and pals on autopilot; the fun is gone, gone, gone, July 30, 2009

By	IRG (NYC) - See all my reviews

I'm a big Stephanie Plum fan. But even I was truly bored by this latest book. It's sad when a best-selling author like Evanovich is just phoning it in--I'm at the point of wondering if she has assistants writing these. Formulaic is too kind a word to describe this book, which features the same old, same old and then some.

Yes, we love the characters and laugh at the stuff they get themselves into. But Plum and company are now rendered so one note, and so repetitively so, that the fun is gone, gone, gone.

I read a lot of book series. The best retain their sense of character but evolve. Plum and company are stuck.

Even for summer/quick reading, this is super, super "lite" and not in a good way.

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I thought this book was written for adults?, July 11, 2009

By	Read Allthetime (ct) - See all my reviews

Up to book 13 - the book that began the downward trend in Janet's writing - I looked forward to her new books like a 5 year old looks forward to Christmas day. I would read each book in a sitting and re-read it several more times before I could put the characters away for another year. Often I would re-read the entire series before the release of a new book. No longer... now I can barely get through one reading, and only because I have been such a rabid fan of her past works. Number 14 was so horrible that I hardly had any interest in reading FLF, but having some faith in JE's talent, I dutifully went out and purchased the book (although waiting - unheard of for me - a week after release date). I was very apprehensive about what further degradation of my beloved characters that JE would wreak. She managed to take a small step up from the horror of 14, but not much. I really hoped that she would acknowledge the fans feedback and actually TRY when she wrote FLF. She didn't. It was a rehash of old material, "jokes" and formulas. I will scream if she reviews with the reader one more time why grandma M is living with her parents, why the funeral parlor is a social gathering and where the Buick came from etc., etc. Seriously, no one knows this stuff?

She continues to reduce the characters into shallow cartoons of their former personalities. The plot was so thin and disjointed that as a reader I was bored and barely paid any attention to it, continuing to read just to get to an interaction between familiar characters. Since when is Ranger stupid? I often suspend my logic or reason when reading a SP novel, but more and more JE is forcing the ridiculous to a point that it is no longer funny, remotely possible or in any way enjoyable. The humor in JE novel's while always ridiculous now it is merely juvenile. How many grown woman do you know that find potty humor funny? The characters are silly caricatures of their former selves becoming shallower and more one dimensional with each of her recent books. Don't characters usually become more complex as a series progresses?

I always look forward to the heat between Stephanie and Ranger, made hotter by the conflict of her relationship with Morelli. Now there's no heat between anyone. Ranger used to constantly push the envelope with Stephanie and make it clear that if he really wanted things to progress between them that they would. Now he barely has physical contact with her and when he does, she acts unaffected or turned off. The attraction between them in the past gave some credence to Ranger's constant rescuing of Stephanie and his amazing generosity toward her. Now it just seems like Stephanie takes him for granted, is selfish, using him when she needs something with no real relationship left between them. Every lead in to an encounter between them went flat in FLF. She easily ignored Ranger's charms leaving the reader to wonder if he had any left. What was up with the total lack of any romance or progression of either of the relationships in FLF? I can think of a billion ways to keep the triangle of the romance going without forcing Stephanie to make a final decision and still continue to create the tension between the characters.

I used to recommend JE to others - no longer. I really think that instead of putting some creative energy into the story line she has contented herself to "milking" this series until she no longer can sell them. Janet is telling her fans that, like Stephanie, she too is willing to use others to get her needs met without any conscience about it.