Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Something big is brewing in Trenton, N.J., and it could blow at any minute. Stephanie Plum might not be the world’s greatest bounty hunter, but she knows when she’s being played. Ken Globovic (aka Gobbles), hailed as the Supreme Exalted Zookeeper of the animal house known as Zeta fraternity, has been arrested for beating up the dean of students at Kiltman College. Gobbles has missed his court date and gone into hiding. People have seen him on campus, but no one will talk. Things just aren’t adding up, and Stephanie can’t shake the feeling that something funny is going on at the college—and it’s not just Zeta fraternity pranks. As much as people love Gobbles, they hate Doug Linken. When Linken is gunned down in his backyard it’s good riddance, and the list of possible murder suspects is long. The only people who care about finding Linken’s killer are Trenton cop Joe Morelli, who has been assigned the case, security expert Ranger, who was hired to protect Linken, and Stephanie, who has her eye on a cash prize and hopefully has some tricks up her sleeve.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Stephanie's on the hunt for a frat boy on the run, a lawn equipment thief, and a rapist. The latter two are pretty straightforward, but the frat boy, Ken “Gobbles” Globovic? Something's not right with this one, and Stephanie puts on her deerstalker to try to figure that out.

Meanwhile, Ranger needs a woman for some security work, so naturally, Stephanie's on the case. Things don't go as well with that as it should've and bodies start to show up. That's when things really start to get interesting.

Joe and Stephanie are both examining other career prospects, and watching Stephanie try out different ideas is good for a grin or two. I think I'd have preferred letting that play out a little more, honestly. She also could've played out the Grandma Mazur story longer, too – that's something I almost never say. The former would've been easier than the latter, definitely. Still, there was a time when Evanovich seemed to drag out similar storylines longer than I'd like, so this “leave ‘em wanting more” philosophy really works (“‘em” roughly translates to The Irresponsible Reader here).

Ranger stood hands on hips and looked at me. “I'm completely enamored with you, and I have no idea why.”

“I'm cute?”

“Babe, there has to be more, but honestly, I don't know what it is.”

You like her. Or you don't. If you do, you read every book in the series.

That's the category I'm in. I'm catching up. My third Plum this year. All perfect mindless reads.