Book ~ "Explosive Eighteen" (2011) Janet Evanovich

From Amazon ~ Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Like Smokin' Seventeen, I borrowed this book from the library ... I won't buy them anymore. They have become a quick mindless read but not worth spending $30.

The main plot was silly, though I did enjoy the subplot with Joyce a bit.

As I said with the last one, the author continues to follow with her tired formula. Stephanie is lusting after Morelli and Ranger ... check. Grandma Masur needs a drive to the funeral home and tries to look at the bodies when the casket is closed ... check. Stephanie's mom's nerves are shot so she irons and cooks, though she seems to be drinking all the time now too ... check. Stephanie's dad is surly and rude ... check. Lulu is eating all the time and gets violent when someone calls her fat ... check. The people Stephanie has to track down because they skipped bail are colourful characters ... check.

I loved the series in the beginning ... the writing was good, the characters actually had personalities and spunk (not going through the motions are they are now over and over) and the books had substance (now there's a lot of white space and large font to make the book bigger). Ranger and Morelli don't seem to care that she is bouncing between them ... basically they are looking for a booty call and getting one. After all the emotion she had for these two, it's sleazy.

Looking back, the last one I raved about was Lean Mean Thirteen back in June 2007. That's sad :(

Yes, I'll read the next one but because I hope this series gets back on track or is the finale.