Review: Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich (audio)

Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich

Read by CJ Critt

Recorded Books

2002

Length: 10 hours

From the back of the audiocase: The zany and hilarious Stephanie Plum mysteries from #1 New York Times best-selling author Janet Evanovich are smash hits with fans and critics alike. In this wildly entertaining tale, Evanovich’s bold heroine pursues an unusual case for a bounty hunter while maintaining her steadfast devotion to Tastykakes.

Although she’s not quite a detective, Stephanie can’t refuse to help a family friend whose daughter and granddaughter are missing. The trail leads to a particularly nasty crook Stephanie is warned to avoid. But what good is a warning if you can’t ignore it? Pursued by a thug in a bunny suit, tormented by carefully placed snakes and giant spiders, Stephanie is determined to crack the case – even if she blows up a few cars along the way.

Hard Eight is Evanovich at her hilarious best. In capturing all the Jersey “charm,” narrator CJ Critt wears Stephanie’s shoes as though they are her own.

My thoughts: Oh how I love listening as Stephanie Plum manages to find trouble while trying to do her job. There are a few things I know I can count on when picking up one of these books: there’s most likely going to be a car explosion of some sort (most likely a car Stephanie is using), Stephanie will be followed/stalked by some crazy guy, and people will find a way to get into Stephanie’s apartment without the key.

In Hard Eight, Stephanie is working on a missing persons case on account of her parent’s neighbor is worried about her daughter and granddaughter. Of course, she has no idea what taking on this case is going to entail, and the usual hijinks occur, including Stephanie getting shot at. She also gets an FTA that not only can Stephanie not manage to bring in, but the rest of the staff cannot bring him in either. 

During this installment, it seems that Stephanie and Joe Morelli seem to be in the off-stage of their on-again, off-again relationship. As a result, Stephanie seems to be spending more time with Ranger. He takes her to the shooting range to practice and he has such a good line…”Good…but let’s try it with your eyes open this time.” I was laughing so hard at this line, I had to back up the cd because I missed what came next! He also decides it’s time to settle up for all the help, cars, etc that he has given to Stephanie and boy oh boy does he collect!

I can’t wait to see what happens next…just how many cars can one person manage to blow up before the insurance companies decided they have had enough and are no longer going to carry her?

Audio Thoughts: I am one happy girl having found this one and the next two books in this series that have CJ Critt as the narrator. I doubt I will be lucky enough to find the rest of the series with her as the narrator, but I will enjoy it while it lasts. Perhaps it’s because she’s narrated the first 5 books of this series that I listened to, but I just feel she does a better Stephanie and all the other characters. It’s her voice I hear when I think back to the story.

Do you read/listen to any books just for the laughs?

(I borrowed this audiobook from the library.)

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Books in this series:

     1.  One for the Money                         12.  Twelve Sharp
     2.  Two for the Dough                         12.5  Plum Lovin’
     3.  Three to Get Deadly                      13.  Lean Mean Thirteen
     4.  Four to Score                                   13.5  Plum Lucky
     5.  High Five                                           14.  Fearless Fourteen
     6.  Hot Six                                                14.5  Plum Spooky
     7.  Seven Up                                           15.  Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
     8.  Hard Eight                                         16.  Sizzling Sixteen

     8.5  Visions of Sugar Plums              17.  Smokin’ Seventeen

     9.  To the Nines                                      18.  Explosive Eighteen

    10.  Ten Big Ones                                    19.  Notorious Nineteen

    11.  Eleven on Top