Book ~ "Look Alive Twenty-Five" (2018) Janet Evanovich

From Goodreads ~ There's nothing like a good deli and the Red River Deli in Trenton is one of the best. World famous for its pastrami, cole slaw and for its disappearing managers. Over the last month, three have vanished from the face of the earth, the only clue in each case is one shoe that's been left behind. 

The police are baffled. Lula is convinced that it's a case of alien abduction. Whatever it is, they'd better figure out what's going on before they lose their new manager, Ms. Stephanie Plum. 

Stephanie works for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, and Lulu is a former 'ho who works with her.  As usual, they have a couple people they have to track down who didn't show up for their court date.  In the meantime, Vinnie's boss has ended up with a deli when someone defaulted and Vinnie convinces Stephanie and Lula to run it.  Unfortunately the last three managers have disappeared while taking out the garbage ... all that's left behind is a shoe.  Lula suspects it's aliens that are taking them.

Wulf, a magical character, is somehow involved.  He is a cousin of Diesel, another mystical man who keeps popping in and out of Stephanie's life (I find the Diesel and Wulf storylines dumb).  The Wulf character could have been deleted and the story would have ended the same way.

Stephanie and Joe, the police officer, are still together and seem to be in a committed relationship.  Ranger, her former colleague, is still hot and lusting after Stephanie and she doesn't act very committed to Joe around him, which is tiring.  By now, Stephanie should have picked one or the other ... but why should she when all both seem to want to do is get her into bed (neither takes her out on dates)?  And why does Joe trust Ranger around Stephanie when she can't trust herself?!

This is the 25th in the Stephanie Plum series and I've read them all.  I liked this one better than the last few.  As in previous books, Evanovich continues to follow her formula:

• Stephanie is lusting after Morelli and Ranger ... check
• Lulu talks about food all the time and gets offended when someone refers to her weight ... check
• Stephanie goes home to mooch meals from her parents ... check 
• Morelli just wants to have sex with Stephanie ... check 
• Ranger calls Stephanie "Babe" and just wants to have sex with her with no commitment  ... check 
• Ranger has one of his employees tail Stephanie to keep her out of trouble ... check

Having Stephanie and Lula work in the deli was amusing.  There wasn't a lot of Grandma Mazur or Stephanie's parents in this one which was a nice change.  It's written in first person perspective from Stephanie's point of view.  I thought the ending was pretty convoluted.  There is some swearing and adult situations.

Since it's basically the same story over and over, I stopped buying these books a long time ago and now borrow them from the library.  It's a mindless familiar read.