Seven Up

I selected this book for the Clock Reading Challenge. The Challenge Rules require a number from 1 through 12 in the title. The book is 7th out of 31 in the author's Stephanie Plum series. It was published in 2002. 

The publisher's summary:

Semiretired mob guy Eddie DeCooch is caught trafficking contraband cigarettes through Trenton, New Jersey. When DeCooch fails to show for a court appearance, bond enforcement agent Stephanie Plum is assigned the task of finding him and dragging his decrepit ass back to jail. Not such an easy job, it turns out, since DeCooch has learned a lot of tricks over the years and isn't afraid to use his gun. He's already shot Loretta Ricci, an innocent old lady, and left her for worm food in his shed. He wouldn't mind shooting Stephanie next.

Likeable losers (and Steph's former high school classmates) Walter "MoonMan" Dunphy and Dougie "The Dealer" Kruper have inadvertently become involved with DeCooch. They've gotten sucked into an operation that is much more than simple cigarette smuggling and holds risks far greater than anyone could have imagined.

When Dougie disappears, Steph goes into search mode. When Mooner disappears, she calls in the heavy artillery and asks master bounty hunter Ranger for help. Ranger's price for the job? One night with Stephanie, dusk to dawn. Not information she wants to share with her sometime live-in roommate, vice cop Joe Morelli,

A typical dilemma in the world of Plum.

And on the homefront, Stephanie's "perfect" sister, Valerie, has decided to move back to Trenton, bringing her two kids from hell with her. Grandma Mazur is asking questions about being a lesbian, and Bob, the bulimic dog, is eating everything in sight--including the furniture.

What struck me the most about the book was all of the slang terms that the author used that I have not heard since the 1960s. The author uses "rat fink" and "fatso" in several places. I remember saying to friends mockingly "you're a dirty rat fink." It was a phrase used by comedians of the 1960s and kids were frequently saying this on the playground. The author, Janet Evanovich, must be the same age as I am. People from other eras would not know these words.  The plot itself was light on action but heavy on the comedy. I found it difficult to maintain interest in the story because there were so many funny statements. The resolution of the mystery of the death of Loretta Ricci and the disappearance of DeCooch took a long time to solve. Our protagonist Stephanie Plum spent more time saying her zingers than doing her job.

While it has been many years since I read one of Evanovich's books, I don't remember them being funny. Reviews that I have read of her works all state that she writes funny cozy mysteries. Perhaps this is why I stopped reading her series. I am rating the. book 3 stars out of 5.