"What I really write is adventure stories--Indiana Jones in Trenton," mystery writer Janet Evanovich told Booklist's GraceAnne A. DeCandido in an interview. The author of a successful series of humorous detective novels set in Trenton, New Jersey, Evanovich has created what may be "the single hottest character in crime fiction at the moment," wrote Bill Ott in a Booklist review of 2001's Hot Six. The character Ott refers to is Evanovich's protagonist, Stephanie Plum, a feisty Jersey woman of Hungarian and Italian descent who turns to bounty hunting when she loses her job as a lingerie buyer. Characterized by a flamboyant wardrobe, big hair, and an impertinent manner, Plum tracks bail jumpers for her cousin Vinnie, a bail bondsman. Among the cast of oddball characters Plum gathers around her are retired blonde-haired, African-American hooker Lula, mace-toting Grandma Mazur, and Plum's hamster, Rex. The bounty-hunter's squeeze of the moment, Joe Morelli, is also often on hand to receive the bail-skippers Plum chases down.
