cover image TEN BIG ONES: A Stephanie Plum Novel

TEN BIG ONES: A Stephanie Plum Novel

Janet Evanovich, , read by Lorelei King. . Audio Renaissance, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-1-55927-783-9

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Fiction TEN BIG ONES: A Stephanie Plum Novel Janet Evanovich , read by Lorelei King. Audio Renaissance , unabridged, five cassettes, 8.5 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 1-55927-783-1

"I think of myself more as an entertainer than as a writer," Evanovich says in a bonus interview at the end of this audiobook, and indeed, her latest offering (following To The Nines ) will leave listeners with little doubt that she is a master of screwball comedy. At the start of this adventure, bumbling New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and her sassy sidekick, Lula, witness a gang member known as the Red Devil rob a convenience store and attempt to bomb it with a Molotov cocktail, which hits Stephanie's car instead. Stephanie gets a good look at the Red Devil, making her a key witness and a target for a nasty gang called the Slayers. Her sometime boyfriend, vice cop Joe Morelli, insists she stay home and out of danger, but Stephanie would rather be bringing in two-bit criminals than lying low. Narrator King steps neatly into Stephanie's shoes, her agile voice conveying not only Stephanie's fear and frustration, but her plaintive, why-does-this-always-happen-to-me attitude. King also nails the manly, mysterious voice of gorgeous bounty hunter Ranger, Stephanie's sometime superhero. Although the high-pitched voice King gives Stephanie's adventure-loving grandmother may grate on some listeners nerves, her vocal stylings are generally as superb as Evanovich's zany characterizations. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Forecasts, June 7). (June)