One for the Money

One for the Money
Janet Evanovich
320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's
Source: Borders, at their first liquidation sale
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

One for the Money was published in 1994 and I can remember my mother reading the series when I was child.  Recently I'd decided I wanted to read One for the Money to see what all the fuss was - the Stephanie Plum series is wildly popular, after all (see neat-o NYT graph here.)  I ended up really enjoying the book.

Stephanie is out on her luck when she loses her job and sells most of her possession to get along.  Desperate to get money, she joins her cousin's bail bond business as a bounty hunter and begins her first case - hunting down Joe Morelli, whom she knows intimately from her past.

Despite a few descriptions of rape and murder, I actually found this book to be cute and sweet.  I think that is due strictly to the character of Stephanie.  She's so endearing, she was fun to read about.  I loved her relationship with her family and the character of her grandmother led some much needed humor into the storyline.

I couldn't decide while I was reading whether or not to give the book three or four stars.  Three and a half seemed appropriate, but I don't do half stars.  By the end, however, I was pulled in so much that I decided to go with four stars.  This was a mystery unlike any other I've read.  I tend to prefer cozy mysteries, but One for the Money seemed more like a cross between a cozy and a general mystery.  I enjoyed it and if you haven't read anything in this series yet, I suggest giving it a look.