Book Review: High Five

Title:  High Five
Author:  Janet Evanovich
Pages:  317
Publication Date:  1999
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Adult Fiction/Mystery

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Her Uncle Fred has disappeared. A body turns up in a garbage bag. She’s got a nasty bookie following her around town. Grandma Mazur has her hands on the stun gun. Stephanie can’t keep a car for more than forty-eight hours. Two men are trying to get her into bed. She has nothing to wear to the Mafia wedding. And there’s an angry little man (don’t call him a dwarf!) who won’t leave her apartment.

Bail jumping in Trenton is down to small potatoes. Stephanie’s only open case is a small bond for a small violation, committed by a small person who raises Stephanie’s frustration level in big ways. So short of money and long on bills, Stephanie comes up with a plan-–diversify! Signing on as an intern with entrepreneurial Super Bounty Hunter Ranger, Stephanie ventures into Ranger’s mostly morally correct and marginally legal operations.

None of this makes vice cop Joe Morelli a happy man. The cop in him can’t help but wonder as to the source of Stephanie’s expensive new cars. And the rest of him, the man who’s been friend and lover to Stephanie, can’t help but wonder if there’s more to the partnership than meets the eye.

The internship is downgraded to second priority when Uncle Fred goes missing. Even though Grandma Mazur is sure he was abducted by aliens, Stephanie sets out to look for Fred. He’s a perfectly average senior citizen, and he’s disappeared without a trace while running errands. He’s left his ten-year-old Pontiac station wagon locked up nice and neat in the Grand Union parking lot, the cleaning is carefully arranged on the back seat, and his wife is at home, waiting for him to return with the bread and the milk and the olive loaf bologna. Locked in the top drawer of his desk are photos of a body, dismembered and stuffed into a garbage bag. And locked away in the computer files of a another average citizen are the clues that will lead Stephanie to Fred."

My Review:
What's a bounty hunter to do when there is no one to hunt down?  Well, you go to a fellow bounty hunter who seems to always be busy no matter how slow it is where you work that's what.  Stephanie is a pay check to pay check kind of girl, and this whole "dry spell" of work is not what she needs or wants.  She isn't thrilled with the case that does come her way of a measly 70 bucks, but it's more than nothing.  In the meantime she starts working with Ranger on "special" assignments he picks up from...well who knows where.  The job with Ranger is a bit over Stephanie's head, but she really needs money, so she muddles through the best she can.  Soon, however, she finds herself in a pickle and then some.  She is in dangerous situations, she has gotten shot at, her "easy" 70 buck case is way more than she ever dreamed and worth much much more than a measly 70 bucks for all the crap she is dealing with this guy about.  Before she knows it she is living with a little person, being hit on by Ranger, having her life threatened by more than one person, wanting to jump Joe Morelli's bones, and to top all that off her bills are late and her Uncle Fred has gone missing.  Stephanie's family recruits her to look for Uncle Fred.  As she does, she finds out things that shock her and she can't understand.  Like why would a cheapskate like Fred just leave after buying groceries and picking up his dry cleaning?  And why on earth does he have photos of garbage bags with body parts in them in his desk??!!  What was Fred into with this guy named Bunches, who keeps following Stephanie telling her that he needs to find Fred??  Can Stephanie find Uncle Fred...and alive?  Will she survive long enough to find him?  And what the heck can she do to get this little person out on bail out of her home?!?  Is bounty hunting really for her or should she hang it all up and try to find a "real" job?  

I just loved this book!  Once again I was not disappointed with Evanovich's writing style or talent.  This is a book filled with adventure, suspense, murder, mayhem, humor, and touches of romance.  You just can't help but love a book with such great characters, old and new.  This was one of those books that hooked you in the first few pages and you just couldn't get off that hook until the very last word on the last page.  No one can get into as much trouble as Stephanie does and she is such a great character to follow because of it.  There were many times in this book that I just had to laugh out loud because it was so funny!  The things the characters do and say at times just leave you smiling and laughing.  Stephanie's love life is something worth reading about too and how all that plays out.  I simply love this series and can't wait to read on.  I personally think every book gets better and better.  The characters develop more with every book and there are always new characters to come to love too.  This book was one that was best if you had read the previous books, but could have been read as a stand alone too if need be or you didn't realize it was part of a series.  I say best if you have read the previous books because this book had a character re-appearing in it from the past, that just made more sense if you had read the past book.  For me this was a great book written by one of my favorite authors that I think everyone should experience reading.

5/5 Stars!!