Two for the Dough (Janet Evanovich)

Two for the Dough is the second book in Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series.  (The first book being One for the Money, which I talked about last month and has a Hollywood film.)

In this novel, Stephanie Plum continues her work as a (terrible) bounty hunter.  She's put on the "easy" case of finding Kenny Mancuso, who didn't appear for his court date.  As with most Stephanie Plum cases, the chase for Kenny turns out to be more difficult and complicated than anyone anticipated.  The hunt for Kenny uncovers other mysterious events, such as stolen goods, missing caskets, missing body parts (yes...) and sudden murders. 

By the wood stove... It's fall!

I enjoyed Two for the Dough.  It was written similarly to the first One for the Money book - that is, it was easy to read, funny, and entertaining.  There is a lot of humour in the conversations Stephanie has with her co-workers and family and in the situations that she finds herself in, yet she is in such desperate need of the job and the money that she continues on her search. Nobody thinks that she can do the job, but she may be smarter than people believe. 

"The truth is, I'm not the heroic type.  I'm afraid of spiders and extraterrestrials and sometimes feel the need to check under my bed for drooly guys with claws.  If I ever found one I'd run screaming out of my apartment and never come back."  (Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich)

My favourite character in this book, by far, was Stephanie Plum's grandmother, Grandma Mazur.  Grandma Mazur, who can be remembered from the first book after she shot a cooked chicken at the dinner table, wants to be involved in the hunt for Kenny.  She goes on outings with Stephanie and her comments always made me laugh. You just kind of have to shake your head at what the grandmother does and wish that you are as cool of an older lady as she is someday. 

Again, I will mention that Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series has eighteen novels, this one being the second.  I think this book stands on its own and you could read it without having read the first book.  Two for the Dough is a completely different case than the one in One for the Money, but the main characters are all the same.  The advantage to reading this series in order is to see how the interactions between the main characters evolve.  I think I would want to read the books in order, if only to see how all of Stephanie Plum's personal affairs turn out... 

After reading (and enjoying) the first two books in the series, I would say that there is a good chance I will continue with this list and read Three to get Deadly.  If you want a funny little mystery, this series of Stephanie Plum books could be the one for you. 

Devil's Waltz (Jonathan Kellerman)

This book had been sitting on my shelf for quite some time.  About a year ago, my mom put this book in my room and said, "I read this a long time ago and it was good."  Of course, I judged the cover and thought the book looked weird and old. 

So my lesson of the week: Don't judge a book based on the fact that it was written a long time ago.  And just because a book looks a little torn up doesn't mean it's bad - it probably just means that lots of people read it, therefore likely making it a good book (right?  I'll believe that logic).

Enjoying one of the last few
warm days of fall...

Jonathan Kellerman's book Devil's Waltz was written in 1993 - at least I was alive when it was written, unlike some of the other published books by Kellerman.  Despite the fact that the book was written nearly 20 years ago, I found it was still dealing with a topic that would be interesting to today's audience.  I was a young child when the book was published, and now, as a 20-something-year-old, I found the book exciting. 

The book is about a case that is going on at a hospital.  A two-year-old girl, Cassie Jones, is brought to the emergency room frequently with different symptoms.  By the time they get to the hospital and run tests each time, the doctors can't find anything wrong with her.  The doctor on the case, Stephanie, begins to suspect that this could be a case of Munchausen by proxy, which is basically when a parent does something to the child to cause them to be sick.  Alex Delaware, the main character in the story, is introduced to the case as a psychologist and is trying to figure out the mystery behind Cassie's illness.  Is the child actually sick or is someone purposely trying to harm this young child?

Throughout the book, I think I suspected just about every character at one time or another.  Is it Cassie's mother, Cindy, who is doing something to her own daughter, or could it be the father, Chip, who always seems very cooperative at the hospital.  Maybe it's the lead physician or the nurse dealing with Cassie, trying to advance their careers by bringing attention to her case.  Or possibly, it's Cassie's grandfather, who is actually the head of the hospital. 

It deals with such a complicated topic and analyzes the characters in so much depth.  There is so much more to the story than what it looks like on the outside and you really find yourself trying to figure out the mystery.  I would read a chapter and say, "It's definitely Cassie's mom, she's been acting a little weird lately."  Then, twenty minutes and a couple chapters later, I'd say, "No, scrap that, it's actually got to be the doctor.  She's hiding something, I can feel it."  It was a continuous guessing game and you keep finding out new information that keeps the story exciting. 

I loved the book and would recommend it to everyone.  It's very much a mystery book, but not a scary mystery - no one dies (well, almost no one) and it's not the type of novel that will keep you up at night.  (Well, it might keep you up at night since you won't want to put it down, but it won't keep you up with scary thoughts.)