Three To Get Deadly - Janet Evanovich (*****)

Grandma Mazur ... I'd like you to meet Lula!

It was a slow day in the bounty hunting business and the best that Stephanie could do was an FTA. "Uncle Mo" Bedemier, well-loved owner of the local ice cream parlour, was a "failure to appear" on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. Stephanie didn't like the idea of having to chase down one of the burg's most respected citizens and the local populace, thinking the charge bogus and ill-advised in any event, certainly weren't tripping over themselves to give Stephanie a lending hand finding her man. But business is business and Stephanie is Stephanie. She leaped into the deep end of the pool and soon found herself up to her neck in murdered drug dealers, vigilantes, bible-thumping snake-charming country preachers and the porn industry. Plenty of room for fun and games in this little story!

But from the first moment a grateful reading audience read Stephanie Plum's exploits in her debut novel "One for the Money", the plot never has been the thing. "Three to Get Deadly" doesn't change a thing about that. Character development, slapstick comedy, earthy blue-collar New York dialogue and sticky wickets that would do "The Perils of Pauline" proud are what has rocketed this series to the top of the best-selling lists. No doubt about it. Janet Evanovich continues her string of successes and laugh-out-loud hilarity reigns supreme from first page to last.

Did you like Grandma Mazur in the first two books of the series? Then you'll die for Lula, former juiced hooker, newly minted office assistant and bounty hunter in training under Stephanie's dubious tutelage. She's "f"-ing amazing - funny, frolicsome, free-wheeling, full-figured, feisty, fired-up, frantic, in your face and fabulous! She's got a salty mouth and an attitude that any self-respecting trucker would be might proud of! What a piece of work.

Highly recommended.