NOTORIOUS NINETEEN

The latest in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, this novel has all the madcap momentum one has come to expect from her writing.

Stephanie is short of money (and a few cars by the end of the novel) and seizes an assignment that should rectify the situation. Geoffrey Cubbin has allegedly embezzled millions from an assisted-living facility and mysteriously disappeared from hospital after an emergency appendectomy.  Stephanie's main problems being that he has left no trace, no witnesses and even his wife has no idea where he's gone.

When another felon on bail goes missing from the same hospital Stephanie finds herself working with the handsome local policeman, Joe Morelli to try and get a lead in the case.  She also ends up with some more unusual assistance in the form of her grandmother Mazur as well as the usual team in cousin Vinnie's bail bonds agency.

The lack of finances causes her to take on another job bodyguarding Ranger, her rather delectable mentor, from a fearsome ex-Special Forces adversary.  To her horror this involves attending a wedding, but it soon turns out that an unflattering bridesmaid's dress will be the least of her worries.  Evanovich brings in threatening notes, food poisoning, a grandmother with a penchant for bad disguise and Tiki, a sacred carving from Hawaii, managing to weave all these seemingly disparate threads together into a satisfying, comedic thriller.  She is still on fine form to judge from this entry in the series.