#PopsugarReadingChallenge Book 34: Plum Spooky

Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book with a pet character
Plum Spooky, by Janet Evanovich

This long-running comedy/mystery series chronicles the adventures of Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter who always seems to be attempting an arrest under ridiculous circumstances, like the middle of a food fight. My favorite part of the series is the love triangle between Stephanie, bad-boy cop Joe Morelli, and even-badder-boy bounty hunter Ranger. In the "between the numbers" books, including this one, Morelli and Joe take a back seat to the mysterious Diesel, who may or may not have supernatural powers.

Stephanie is looking for an escaped felon who's a tech genius. Diesel is looking for the felon's partner, an alleged vampire named Wulf who is also Diesel's cousin. The search takes them into the Pine Barrens, a creepy forested area that's a change of pace from the usual Trenton setting. There's at least one destroyed car (I have no idea how Stephanie still has insurance), a ridiculous personal problem for Stephanie's partner Lula (she appears to be allergic to her boyfriend), and considerably more gross-out humor than usual for this series.

All Stephanie Plum books include Stephanie's long-lived pet hamster Rex, and Morelli's omnivorous dog Bob, though they usually don't do much. This book also has Stephanie finding a monkey on her doorstep, with a note from a former arrestee asking her to babysit. Carl turns out to be a very smart monkey, able to play video games, flip people off when appropriate, and do at least one timely rescue. And, after the aforementioned destroyed car, Stephanie has to call Ranger and explain that she's locked out of the new car he loaned her - because it's full of monkeys and they won't let her in.

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