Review: Hard Eight — Janet Evanovich

Posted on | July 29, 2010 | No Comments

Hard Eight is far less humorous and more introspective than other Stephanie Plum novels. Stephanie takes on a missing person case for her parents’ neighbor, Mabel. Mabel is a friend of Grandma Mazul’s. Though Stephanie isn’t keen on taking a case for free, especially with the drought at Vinnie’s, when Mabel cries, Stephanie can’t stand it, so she takes the case. Mabel’s daughter, Evelyn, and granddaughter have gone missing. Evelyn had a child custody bond (not through Vinnie) that was taken out to ensure that she nor her ex-husband could take off with their daughter. Mabel’s house was used as collateral and because the two girls disappeared, Mabel is at risk of losing her home.

During her search, Stephanie finds that Evelyn skipped town with good reason. She ends up with a perpetually annoying, dough boy of a lawyer (whose office is next to a laundromat) tagging along with her, finds a dead guy on her couch (“death cooties!” — an ongoing funny spot in this darker novel), and begins to learn to use her gun as more than a cookie-jar filler.

Stephanie’s confusion over her love triangle continues. It appears she won’t be making a choice about her relationships for a long, long time.