Review: Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich (audio)

Title: Tricky Twenty-Two

Author: Janet Evanovich

Series: Stephanie Plum, #22

Narrator: Lorelei King

Published: November 2015, Random House Audio

Length: 6 hours 27 minutes

Source: Library

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.

My thoughts: So this is another series that I just love to read – again, not for the stellar writing or literary fiction – but just because it’s plain, old fun reading. This series just makes me laugh – the antics that Stephanie gets herself into, the characters that we meet along the way, Stephanie’s sidekicks – you get the picture. This is another series that I just love to pick up when I need a lighter read in-between some heavy, more serious reads, because I know I’m going to laugh my way through it.

It’s often a toss up who I love more – Grandma Mazur or Lula, as to who will make me laugh out loud the most, but I think Grandma Mazur wins this time. First off, she shows up to a funeral with her gun and offers to provide Stephanie with back-up. And, it turns out, Stephanie actually needs the back-up, because as usual, Stephanie has a gun, but no bullets because she forgot to buy them. Then, we find out that Grandma Mazur has been “catfishing” and is using Stephanie’s picture instead of her own…oh boy!!!

Of course, it wouldn’t be a typical Stephanie Plum book without the usual romantic love triangle and that’s back with an interesting twist. Joe has decided to take a step back from things, leaving Stephanie totally confused. But, not to worry – Ranger is there and needs a date or two. I really think this is not going to be solved until the very last book in the series – much like things with Temperance Brennan and Andrew Ryan in Kathy Reichs’ series. Ahh…just pick already. This on-again/off-again relationship thing is getting old!

At book 22, I’m not sure how long this series is going to go on for. I will stick with it, because I’ve come this far and now I just need to know how it will all end.





Audio thoughts: This is where Lorelei King shines…as Stephanie Plum! To me, she is always going to be Stephanie and all the voices that she does for this series because she does them so well!!! She makes this book that much better just by narrating it, with her voices and her inflection and humor – it’s a homerun everytime and I hope that she’ll stick around for as long as Janet Evanovich decides to write this series.