Plum Saturdays: Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich

 

Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,

   

  Takedown Twenty is the twenty-fourth novel in Janet Evanovich's bestselling Stephanie Plum series. Published by Penguin-Random House under their Bantam imprint, Takedown Twenty pits Stephanie Plum against everyone's favorite Mafioso, Salvatore Sunucchi, who just happens to be godfather to Stephanie's boyfriend, Joe Morelli.  

 And of course, the Failure to Appear folders are not getting any smaller. This also sends Stephanie on the hunt for Mary Treetrunk (a pot-growing dealer who always smells of dead fish) and Antwan Brown (a 19-year-old wanted for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon). This is my favorite part of the series. Stephanie's skips always are entertaining to read about, and sometimes provide her with some needed help. In this book, they add to the frenzy of near-misses for Stephanie since Uncle Sunny not only is protected by Grandma Bella, but also by a shotgun-toting girlfriend and numerous henchmen. 

  This installment changed up the formula of the series by focusing more on the murder mystery rather than Stephanie's attraction to Morelli and Ranger. The story was a gradual unfolding of details that built up to a great finale. Of course, it had many laughs, but I found this book to be a bit more serious and more focused on the cases than worried about delivering one-liners. This was refreshing to me. The laughs came from the supporting cast and situations that genuinely delivered humor (Lula's fight with an elderly woman at a Bingo parlor; Stephanie's inability to fire a gun with a broken finger; Grandma Bella's cursing of Stephanie to Hell; and a cross-town hunt for an illusive Giraffe, named Kevin). 

  Takedown Twenty delivers another page-turning adventure with many thrills and laughs. And with the added narration of Lorelei King to the audiobook, you can always count on a good time reading. King's voices are fun to listen to, and often I forget that only one woman was reading this book. She enriches the series and makes each character more realistic. Even if I read a Stephanie Plum book without audio narration, I would still hear Lorelei King's voice.

  I had a great time reading Takedown Twenty and I gave it four out of five stars. 

  

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