My Reading Nook

What a fun book this is to read! Janet Evanovich‘s humor has me rolling while the suspense and drama of the plot line has me feverishly turning pages just to see what’s going to happen next!

If you’ve ever read any of the Stehpanie Plum novels, then you’re aquainted with our heroine. She’s a bond enforcement agent which is a fancy way of saying bounty hunter. She brings in people who have skipped out on bail. It’s not your average 9-5 job, but it suits Stephanie.

Her unlikely partner is Lula, a rather voluptuous African-American ex-prostitue. Her two unlikely boy friends are a mysterious securtiy expert named Ranger and Trenton cop, Joe Morelli with whom Stephanie grew up.

Twelve Sharp begins with Ranger leaving on another mysterious job; this time headed to Miami. Stephanie and Lula are doing their normal job of pulling in bail skips when a woman begins stalking Stephanie. In confrontations with her, Stephanie learns that she is Ranger’s wife and that she’s looking for him.

Something isn’t adding up for Stephanie, so she tries to contact Ranger, but he doesn’t respond to messages left on his phone. Then a news report breaks that Ranger’s daughter by his first wife has been kidnapped by her natural father. This rings even more false to Stephanie who knows Ranger’s relationship with Julie, her mother and stepfather are cordial and known to only a select few.

Then Carmen Manoso, the lady who is purportedly Ranger’s current wife and Stephanie’s stalker is found dead in her car which is parked across the street from Lenny’s Bail Bonds where Stephanie works. Then Ranger reappears only he’s in hiding because of the manhunt out for him as the kidnapper of his daughter. He must stay clear of the police and FBI in order to track down the true kidnapper.

Together, Ranger and Stephanie discover who the man impersonating Ranger is and set out to capture him and save Ranger’s daughter Julie. It turns into a cat-and-mouse game with the impostor as he stalks Stephanie attempting to fulfill his fantasy of becoming Ranger in actuality.

I won’t spoil the book for you; it’s too good of a read to do that!

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
Published by St. Martin’s Press
ISBN 0-312-34948-3