DIRTY THIRTY - Janet Evanovich

 Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is offered a job that seems almost too good to be true - track down Andy "Nutsy" Manley who until recently had been employed as a security guard at a local jewelry store. The store had recently been robbed and Nutsy went MIA immediately after the robbery, leading the owner to be convinced that it was an inside job.

The job should be easy because Stephanie has known Nutsy since their school days and he's been a creature of habit. Sure enough, he's easy to find, but not all is at it seems.  Nutsy has a story that is even nuttier then he - Martin Rabner the jeweler stole his own diamonds, killed a homeless man in the process and is after Nutsy because he knows the truth. It's almost too much for Stephanie to believe as the Rabner jewelry store has been a fixture in the community for decades with Martin being at least the third owner in the long family line.

Meanwhile, Stephanie's boyfriend Morelli is out of town on a business trip and her other boyfriend, Ranger, decides to take their relationship up a notch in Morelli's absence - easier to do when Stephanie is staying at his place as her place becomes too crowded with Nutsy and her assistant Lula camping out there.

The action ratches up a notch and Stephanie finds herself in the crosshairs of someone who has it in for her - which could be almost anyone as she's made countless enemies in her line of work.

The 30th book in the series, clearly Janet Evanovich has struck gold on a formula that works. 

The story is pretty straightforward.  Not a lot of red herrings, but this is more thriller than mystery and in that vein we're right on target with Stephanie (with both Lula and Bob [Morelli's dog] at her side almost constantly) in harm's way at every turn.

The plot is pretty simple and an average reader should be able to figure out what's coming next with each turn of the page, but it's the characters that readers have become attached to who make this a much-anticipated book. At the center is Stephanie, a talented and lucky bounty hunter who is as comfortable navigating the seedy back alleys of Trenton, New Jersey as she is in the comfortable world of the local rich and famous. Surrounding her are three people in various areas of law enforcement - Morelli, the steady boyfriend she's known since her school days, Ranger, who has just about any resource one could ever ask for at his fingertips, and Lula, once an escort and now her office manager.  Toss in Stephanie's mother and grandmother, who make regular appearances, and we have a sitcom's-worth of characters.

I'm personally not a fan of Lula and she's in this book a lot. This made the book less than ideal for me, but the 'surprises' in the book (and the book ends on a 'surprise' (I use a quote here because I could see it coming a mile away)) over-shadow Lula's presence.

This is a fun read.  Quick, light, and easy.

Looking for a good book? With this 30th book in the Stephanie Plum series, Janet Evanovich has found a way to keep the anticipation for the next book as high as the action level within in Dirty Thirty.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

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Dirty Thirty

author: Janet Evanovich

series: Stephanie Plum #30

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 9781668003091

hardcover, 336 pages