Deli managers mysteriously disappear without a shoe

This week, I browsed the library’s large e-book selection and chose Janet Evanovich’s “Look Alive Twenty-five.” As the title says, it is the 25th book in her Stephanie Plum series.

Stephanie is 30-something and lives a complicated single life in a nondescript one-bedroom apartment in Trenton, New Jersey. For the last several years, she has worked for her cousin Vinnie as a bail bonds enforcement officer. Stephanie is well aware that she is utterly inept as a bounty hunter and usually brings in “skips” by good luck alone. Most misadventures include her sidekick and former “ho,” Lula, plus a healthy dose of chaos.

This book opens with Stephanie receiving the files on three bond skips. One is Annie Gurky, an elderly woman who shoplifts when drunk. Another is Wayne Kulicki, a man who destroyed a fast food joint for shorting him on his order, and one is Victor Waggle.

Waggle is high bond because he stabbed a couple of people and peed on a dog while having a “bad day.” The first two shouldn’t be too hard to bring in, but Waggle is more of a challenge. They’re about to leave when Vinnie informs Stephanie and Lula that they must take over managing the Red River Deli. Vinnie had posted a high bond on the deli owner Ernie Sitz, but he disappeared. He also tells them that the three most recent managers have disappeared, too. Each took the garbage out and disappeared, leaving behind one shoe.

Stephanie and Lula know nothing about cooking or running a deli. On their way to the deli, they pick up Annie and leave her sleeping in Stephanie’s beat-up Nova while they open the deli for lunch. They have longtime employees Stretch and Raymond to guide them, but they still turn lunch into a fiasco.

When they come out, the Nova is gone. Stephanie knows that fellow bounty hunter Ranger has a GPS device on her car, so she calls him. Within minutes it is found, with Annie still asleep. Before Stephanie can get her bond money, Annie disappears. Then she calls and demands that Stephanie get her cat back from her ex before she’ll turn herself in. Naturally, things get dicey before it’s over.

Next, they go after Kulicki. He agrees to come in, but first they appoint him deli manager while they try to track down Waggle. He’s lead guitar in a band called “The Angry Armpits” and sports a snake tattoo on his face, so finding him shouldn’t be difficult — but it is. When Kulicki disappears, Ranger installs surveillance cameras at the deli and has Hal shadowing Stephanie. When he disappears, both Ranger and Morelli are involved.

To her dismay, Stephanie learns that Wulf — a strange guy with stranger abilities — is now involved in finding the missing men. Unlike previous books, Stephanie is seldom in real danger from anyone but Lula or herself, but finding the missing men wears on her last nerve.

Between Morelli, Ranger and Stephanie the facts begin to emerge exposing a very tangled web connecting Waggle’s manager, Waggle, the missing men, the Colombian mob, Wulf and more. The finale is more comedy than takedown, but it fits Stephanie Plum’s life perfectly.

Now if she could get her personal relationships in such neat order, life would be good. But in truth, our Stephanie isn’t ready to commit or settle down. Most days she’s perfectly happy with some “alone time” between trysts with Morelli and encounters with Ranger.

Most of us have had to get comfortable with alone time. While it might get boring or frustrating, it is for our own good. Help pass your alone time with books from your public library. They have whatever you might enjoy. All you have to do is check it out.

AT A GLANCE

BOOK: “Look Alive Twenty-five”

AUTHOR: Janet Evanovich

PUBLISHER: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

PUBLISHED: Nov. 13, 2018

PAGES: 317

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