Top Secret Twenty-One (Stephanie Plum): Evanovich, Janet: 0884515969805: Amazon.com: Books

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Janet Evanovich

Top Secret Twenty-One (Stephanie Plum) Hardcover – June 17, 2014

by Janet Evanovich (Author)

7,892 ratings

Book 21 of 28: Stephanie Plum

Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Catch a professional assassin: top priority. Find a failure-to-appear and collect big bucks: top score. How she’ll pull it all off: top secret.

Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite used-car dealer, Jimmy Poletti, was caught selling a lot more than used cars out of his dealerships. Now he’s out on bail and has missed his date in court, and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is looking to bring him in. Leads are quickly turning into dead ends, and all too frequently into dead bodies. Even Joe Morelli, the city’s hottest cop, is struggling to find a clue to the suspected killer’s whereabouts. These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures. So Stephanie is going to have to do something she really doesn’t want to do: protect former hospital security guard and general pain in her behind Randy Briggs. Briggs was picking up quick cash as Poletti’s bookkeeper and knows all his boss’s dirty secrets. Now Briggs is next on Poletti’s list of people to put six feet under.

To top things off, Ranger—resident security expert and Stephanie’s greatest temptation—has been the target of an assassination plot. He’s dodged the bullet this time, but if Ranger wants to survive the next attempt on his life, he’ll have to enlist Stephanie’s help and reveal a bit more of his mysterious past.

Death threats, highly trained assassins, highly untrained assassins, and Stark Street being overrun by a pack of feral Chihuahuas are all in a day’s work for Stephanie Plum. The real challenge is dealing with her Grandma Mazur’s wild bucket list. A boob job and getting revenge on Joe Morelli’s Grandma Bella can barely hold a candle to what’s number one on the list—but that’s top secret.

Praise for Top Secret Twenty-One

“The combination of biting dialogue, outrageous characters and intense story lines are consistent throughout. And [Janet Evanovich] novels are the true definition of a guilty pleasure.”—Associated Press

“Evanovich doesn’t disappoint. . . . [She] weaves setting, family, romance and crime to pull the plot of Top Secret Twenty-One forward.”—Bookreporter

Print length

341 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bantam
Publication date

June 17, 2014
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.1 x 9.53 inches
ISBN-10

9780345542922
ISBN-13

978-0345542922
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“The combination of biting dialogue, outrageous characters and intense story lines are consistent throughout. And [Janet Evanovich] novels are the true definition of a guilty pleasure.”—Associated Press

“Evanovich doesn’t disappoint. . . . [She] weaves setting, family, romance and crime to pull the plot of Top Secret Twenty-One forward.”—Bookreporter

About the Author

Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the Lizzy and Diesel series, twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels and Trouble Maker graphic novel, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author, as well as the Fox and O’Hare series with co-author Lee Goldberg.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

One

I was perched on a barstool in a dark, noisy, overpriced restaurant in Princeton, New Jersey. I was wearing a red dress that was too tight, too short, and cut way too low. And I was wearing an earbud that connected me to a guy named Ricardo Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger.

My name is Stephanie Plum. I usually work as a bond enforcement agent for my cousin Vinnie, but tonight I was moonlighting as a lookout for Ranger. Ranger was stalking Emilio Gardi, a man many considered to be untouchable. Gardi had friends in high places, an army of thugs guarding his body, and money to burn, and his enemies tended to disappear without a trace. He was currently facing a racketeering charge in Miami, but he’d decided to keep his dinner date in Jersey rather than attend his court hearing in Dade County. This meant that the idiot who’d been dumb enough to post a bond for Gardi was out big money unless Gardi was dragged back to jail. The idiot happened to be Ranger’s cousin.

Ranger owns Rangeman, a small high-tech, high-end security firm. Ordinarily Ranger doesn’t do bond enforcement, but tonight he was making an exception. He was standing off to the side at the entrance to the dining room, and he was watching Gardi.

Gardi was wearing a tan sports jacket over a shirt with red and yellow flowers printed on it—the South Beach–meets–JCPenney look. He was in his fifties. He was balding. He was built like a fireplug. He was drinking red wine and eating rack of lamb, having a good time, entertaining three other men who were laughing too hard at his jokes.

Ranger was in his usual black—a perfectly tailored black suit, and a black dress shirt open at the neck. The Glock at the small of his back was also black. Ranger’s body is perfect. His hair is very dark brown. Cut short. His eyes are dark brown and intense. His skin is the color of hot chocolate, the lucky result of his Latino ancestry. His earbud matched his skin tone and was barely detectable.

Standing beside Ranger was a guy named Tank. Tank is big and solid and lethal. He’d been with Ranger’s unit in Special Forces, and now he’s second in command at Rangeman and watches Ranger’s back.

I didn’t see any of Gardi’s henchmen. They’d waited for him to take his table and then left the room.

“The room is clean,” I said to Ranger via the earbud.

Ranger moved forward, his gaze never wavering from his quarry. Eye of the tiger. I’ve seen him focus like this on other takedowns, and it always raises the hair on my arms and at the nape of my neck.

Tank was steps behind him, surveying the rest of the room. Ranger unbuttoned his jacket to get better access to his gun and handcuffs. He stopped behind Gardi, put his hand on Gardi’s shoulder, and said something to him, close to his ear.

Gardi shrugged Ranger away, said something I couldn’t hear, and everyone at the table laughed.

Ranger didn’t laugh, and even at a distance I knew things were about to get ugly. Ranger made another civil attempt, Gardi got angry and brushed him off, and in one swift move Ranger snatched Gardi out of his chair like a wolverine rooting out a groundhog.

In a heartbeat Gardi’s head was smashed onto the table, everyone grabbed their drinks, and Ranger cuffed Gardi behind his back and handed him over to Tank. Ranger told the table he was sorry for the intrusion and followed Tank and Gardi out of the room. The whole episode had taken maybe a minute.

A Rangeman vehicle idled in front of the restaurant, ready to take Tank and Gardi back to Rangeman headquarters in center city Trenton. In the morning Gardi would be escorted onto a plane and extradited to Miami.

My job done, I turned back to my black sambuca. Okay, I know they put food coloring in the sambuca to make it black. Don’t care. It’s sexy. And I swear the black tastes better. I guess I could also say that about Ranger. Not that he’s my boyfriend or anything, but we have had a moment.

I downed the sambuca, paid my tab, and went outside to meet up with Ranger. The Rangeman SUV was pulling away, and Ranger was waiting for me beside his black Porsche 911 Turbo.

“Babe,” he said.

“Babe” covers a lot of ground for Ranger. It can be a simple greeting, or a warning that a tarantula is sitting on my shoulder. Tonight it came on the heels of a full body scan, and I was pretty sure it suggested he liked my dress.

Ranger slipped an arm around me, leaned close, and kissed me. The kiss was a further indicator that he liked the dress. In fact, the kiss suggested that while he liked the dress a lot, he wouldn’t mind getting me out of the dress as soon as possible. And I was thinking that was a great idea. Fortunately we were in Princeton, and my apartment was at least a half hour away if the traffic was moving. I was going to need that time to talk myself out of sleeping with Ranger.

Ranger keeps me safe from everyone but himself. He’s the panther stalking the gazelle, keeping all other predators away. He enjoys the hunt. And I enjoy being the gazelle, although truth is I’m more prairie chicken than gazelle.

Ranger’s reflexes are quicker, his brain engages faster, his instincts are far superior than the average man’s. My skin heats under his touch, and his kiss sets delicious things in motion in my body. I know from past experience he’s magic in bed. I also know he has dark secrets that take precedence over personal relationships. And I know it’s in my best interests to keep him at arm’s length.

Plus, I sort of have a boyfriend.

Ranger pulled out of the restaurant lot, stopped for a light, and his hand went to my knee and traveled north.

“Um,” I said.

He cut his eyes to me. “Is there a problem?”

“Your hand is moving up my leg.”

“And?”

“We’ve talked about this.”

“Not lately,” Ranger said.

“Has anything changed?”

“No.”

“Well, then.”

“Is that a definite ‘Well, then’?”

“Afraid it is.”

“Too bad,” Ranger said.

Thirty minutes later, Ranger parked behind my apartment building and walked me to my door.

“Call me if you get lonely,” he said.

“I have you on speed dial,” I told him.

A barely perceptible smile twitched at the corners of his mouth, he gave me a light kiss, and he left.

Truth is, I would have liked to invite him in, but that wouldn’t have been the smart thing to do. Not that I always do the smart thing, but tonight I’d managed to keep from grabbing him and ripping his clothes off. Two points for Plum.

I let myself into my apartment and went to the kitchen to say hello to my hamster, Rex. Rex lives in an aquarium on my kitchen counter and sleeps in a soup can. He was running on his wheel when I looked in on him.

“Hey,” I said. “How’s it going?”

Rex blinked his round black eyes at me and twitched his whiskers. That’s about as complicated as our conversations ever get. I dropped a peanut into his cage and he jumped off his wheel, shoved the peanut into his cheek, and scurried into his soup can with it.

•••

My cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds office is on Hamilton Avenue. It’s a one-story storefront building with some parking spots by the back door. Vinnie has an inner office where he hides from people he’s stiffed, pissed off, infected with herpes, or previously incarcerated. Vinnie looks like a weasel in a pimp suit. His wife, Lucille, is a saint. His father-in-law, Harry the Hammer, owns the agency and didn’t get his nickname because he was a carpenter.

Connie Rosolli, the office manager and guard dog, was at her desk when I walked in.

“How’d it go last night?” she asked.

“It was good. Ranger walked up to Gardi, yanked him out of his chair, and cuffed him. Very smooth.”

“And?”

“That was it.”

“No naked Ranger in your bed?”

“Nope.”

“Disappointing,” Connie said.

Tell me about it. “Anything new come in for me?”

“I have a failure-to-appear. High money bond. Jimmy Poletti.”

“He owns all those car dealerships, right? He shoots his own commercials. ‘Make a deal with Jimmy!’ ”

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0345542924
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam; 1st edition (June 17, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 341 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780345542922
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345542922
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.53 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #79,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,690 in Humorous Fiction (Books)
- #4,426 in Women Sleuths (Books)
- #7,204 in Romantic Comedy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
7,892 ratings

About the author

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Janet Evanovich
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Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the co-authored Fox and O’Hare series, the Knight and Moon series, and the Lizzy and Diesel series as well as twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels, Troublemaker graphic novel, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author.
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Customer reviews

5 star		71%
4 star		17%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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I've read all the series, and this one has one different element

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2021

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In ALL the Plum series novels, Joe Morelli is the competent but rather raunchy- minded cop. He seems to barely tolerate Stephanie with the exceptions of sex, her mother's food, and laughing at her misadventures. He's almost a sexual pervert, because of the way he's always after Stephanie, whether he's at work, at home, or on top of a garbage dumpster looking for a criminal.

On the other hand, there's mysterious Ranger, whose name is Carlos. We learn in this book, and ONLY this book as of today's date, that he has one huge vulnerable spot and he goes out of his way to protect and hide this part of his personal life.
Ranger has a young daughter who's kidnapped. Stephanie helps the child in kind and endearing ways, being also trapped and understanding the threat of terroristic torture and death at the kidnappers' hands.

The book reads almost as if Evanovich took the standard Stephanie- isms of exploding cars, being slimed in her pursuits of bond jumpers, the antics of Grandma Mazur usually involving a funeral home viewing, and a hamster who lives in another time dimension, being 21 years old at this point, and added a new element of suspense that's believable.

I read it for the Ranger danger. I adore Ranger and Stephanie together. He's smart, quiet, stealthy, a sharpshooter, and Stephanie's lover sometimes.
It's slightly better than most of the series in the numbered " 20" books. If you want good writing, read the first 12 books, and stop spending money on the same formula in a different cover.

370 people found this helpful

Not really good, but better than the last 8 or 9 books in the series

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020

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I'm giving this one three stars simply because this story actually managed to hold my interest fairly well. I have hated the last several books, so this one was a marginally pleasant surprise, though it's not on par with the first 10 to 12 books of the series.

In this story, we actually have something (kind of) going on with Ranger, so he is more of a focus here than he is in most of these books. Still, though, you've also got the usual stuff that has gotten so old: Stephanie's vehicles getting trashed or firebombed, her apartment being firebombed, she gets punched in the face, Grandma Mazur has ridiculous antics, and of course the usual triangle crap between Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger. The triangle thing just isn't entertaining anymore. This series has been going on for so long that it's like the characters are just stuck in a time loop. Nothing new ever develops, and Stephanie has basically become a skank bouncing around between two guys. Furthermore, at this point I'm even wondering what the hell either of those guys really see in her. She's a thirtysomething, average looking girl with no career, no money, and no prospects, yet she has a career police detective and a mysterious badass panting after her all the time. Really? Why? Both of those guys should have better options.

Fictional timeline or not, the same old things being rehashed over and over again just gets really old. I stopped paying anywhere near full price for these books a long time ago, which is why I'm just up to book 21. I already have the next two or three of these loaded on my Kindle (I got them on the cheap), so I'll continue with the series. The books are just not worth paying much for after about book 10 or 12. From that point on, everything is on annoying repeat. At regular price, all of these books are WAY overpriced, especially considering that most of them are several years old now.

Keep reading unless you are expecting some big conclusion

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2016

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This past year, I have read all of Janet Evanovich's books. I have to say I like her style. There is humor, imagination, great characters and situations, and almost no grammatical errors. Her books are fun to read, and generally leave me feeling good. I consider them like I would a favorite TV show -- more episodes along a formulaic line.
This one left me feeling like Stephanie was finally giving Ranger pause to consider her a likely mate. Joe is still in the running if Stephanie's biological clock should suddenly go off. And grandma and Lula are still hamming up the scenes. Overall, I think this is a pretty satisfying Stephanie Plum episode.

16 people found this helpful

I really miss Stephanie from the first 10 books!

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2014

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I can't believe it took me this long to finish this book. Gone are the days of waiting with breathe that is baited for the next book, and staying up all night to speed through the book, one belly laugh after another. It took me this long because it bored me to sleep within 10 minutes of picking it up each night.

Now don't get me wrong, I've LOVED Stephanie, I might have even ordered some Tasty Cakes off Amazon just to see what they were all about, and I might or might not have purchased a $10 SAMPLE of Ranger's shower gel, hoarding it, allowing only friends that love Stephanie to use it as hand soap......but.....

deep sigh

I don't even think the same person wrote this whole book. I think Janet zipped off a few scenes and an outline and gave it to some unimaginative intern to fill in the blanks. The antics have gone from outrageously funny, laugh out loud and scare the dogs to downright stupid.

I know how I would save the books:

Stephanie needs to cut both Joe and Ranger loose. Joe needs to get married to a blonde bombshell and Steph needs to loose her mind and rip her jeans just one last time, in the bushes outside the church trying to see in the windows. Ranger needs to become a phantom dream, and she needs to concentrate capturing interesting and outrageous skips, bring back the good supporting character, like Sally Sweet ( who might be a suit now), and Mooner. Grandma is getting on in years, but she's got plenty of spunk left....

I think you get my drift....

22 people found this helpful

Warren A. LewisTop Contributor: Historical Fiction Books

Still Fun with Stephanie Plum

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2020

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Can the Stephanie Plum books get any better? Yes, it's the best book yet. Don't the antics begin to get stale? No they don't. This book has so many subplots going on, and this is Stephanie's most successful book to date on catching FTA's. Of course, if she didn't have to buy a new car every book she would be more financially independent. In this book she gets to learn more of Ranger's past, and Ranger fills one of Grandma Mazur's bucket list items. And Stephanie gets a look at Morelli's bucket list, but the list totally involves Stephanie.

4 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Sam

A real step in the right direction.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

Immediately as soon as I began reading this book, I felt it had a very different feel to it. My initial feeling when startng the first page was I had opened the wrong file on my kindle and I actually went back to the home page to check. So I think twenty one was a definite change in tone for the author, and more of a return to earlier novels.

Anyone who follows this series knows there has been has a lot of criticism recently regarding the development of the central characters, and I can't say this latest edition really did make that leap that I think a lot of people are looking for. It did however seem to have a more grown up and developed plot. Also Stephanie as the main protagonist cut a more subtle figure, even the way she dressed seemed to reflect it.
She also seemed to have made a choice between the men in her life, and I felt this added to her more mature take on the madness that is her life.

Don't worry though there were a lot of laugh out loud moments, and the usual tally of car loss and explosions, which just adds to the lovely flavour of this delicious dish, and is one of the most important ingredients involved.

Stephanie also ruminates at times in the stories progress about where she is in life. She does seem then further on in the novel to answer the questions she is asking herself, which led me to wonder if this was the author answering some of the levelled criticism that has been written about this issue.

The answer I felt was ultimately that these adventures are what they are. Personally without Rangers interventions and temptations, Lula's loudness, Grandmas loose canon status, Joe Morelli's gorgeousness, and the other assorted places and people that are Ms Plum's world, we wouldn't all be reading these endlessly entertaining romps, however light they might be. Any real change would disrupt this too much. Well for me anyway.

I am happy to carry on buying these books, and look forward to twenty two. Overall this was a much better offering compared to recent ones, and I feel real excitement about reading the next instalment, and long live Stephanie Plum.

11 people found this helpful

A Reader

Nothing new to see here

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Like a lot of readers (or at least the reviews I've read) I enjoyed the first couple of books and then drifted off after a while as nothing seemed to change. Book 21 is the first I've read for a couple of years and really nothing has changed. Stephanie still seems as incompetent (yet lucky) as before as well as undecided as to who she wants to be with and blowing up cars. The other characters haven't changed in the slightest. Grandma is still wacky and hanging out at the funeral parlour, her mum (mom?) is still ironing and even the Rex the hamster is still going strong.
If this is the first book you've read or you're relatively new to the series then there's a lot to enjoy. Everything that was funny in the earlier books is still here and for me that's the problem. After 20 books I would have liked to see a bit of change, a bit of character development even some changes in the regulars but nothing. Its as it we're on book 5 or 6 rather than 21 and I might as well re-read the earlier books.

3 people found this helpful

cathy2234

Why?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2016

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This book was chosen as our book club read. WHY did we start at 21.
Brilliant, funny and a real laugh out loud book. WHY did we not read book 1 first.
Well I'm told it doesn't really matter but know I want to read all the other books, but damn the cost. I have to read more.
I don't want to give the story away but it had a few obvious twists and turns but was so very funny in places. An absolute hilarious easy read.

Susan Bailey

a very good book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2016

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A good book. all the books in the series are good and have great stories in them.
they are exciting, the people make you like them, even most of the villains, although you might not like some of them.
there are car chases and shoot outs and death defying moments.

Each book can be read as a separate book, but I recommend you read the whole series.

Ali

Still good fun

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Have read all the Plum books and while they are now all very similar and I don't rush to buy the newest one I treated myself to a Kindle version of this for a recent holiday and really enjoyed reading by the pool, still makes me laugh and very easy to read, although you don't need to read the whole series I would recommend starting at one for the money. I wonder how long the series can go on for but if you need a book for a long journey or beach reading then you can't go far wrong with this.

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