Series: Stephanie Plum (Book 26)
Stephanie Plum's career has taken more wrong turns than a
student driver on the Jersey Turnpike, and her love life is a hopeless tangle.
In order to save someone dear to her, she'll have to straighten things out.
Grandma Mazur is a widow...again. This time her marriage
lasted a whole 45 minutes. The unlucky groom was one Jimmy Rosolli, local
gangster, Lothario (senior division) and heart attack waiting to happen...well,
the waiting's over.
It's a sad day, but if she can't have Jimmy at least
Grandma can have all the attention she wants as the dutiful widow. But some
kinds of attention are not welcomed, particularly when Jimmy's former
"business partners" are convinced that his widow is keeping the keys to
their financial success for herself.
As someone who has spent an entire career finding bad
guys, a set of missing keys should be no challenge for Stephanie Plum. Problem
is, the facts are as twisted as a boardwalk pretzel with mustard.
Good book, though these later books don't have the
intensity, in either danger or humor, that the earlier books had. Be that as it
may, it was still a fun read. At the end of the previous book, Grandma Mazur eloped
with one of her senior citizen boyfriends. Unfortunately for her, the marriage
lasted all of 45 minutes before her groom, Jimmy Rosolli, a local gangster, dropped
dead of a heart attack.
Grandma finds herself the target of some unwanted
attention. Jimmy's former business partners, an aging gang known as The
La-Z-Boys, believe that Jimmy entrusted her with the secret of The Keys, and
they want them back. Jimmy's sisters are convinced that Grandma is a
gold-digger, and make their displeasure known in various ways. And one of
Jimmy's ex-wives believes that she has more right to Jimmy's estate than
Grandma does. How far are any of them willing to go to get what they want?
Now, on top of her bounty hunter duties, Stephanie has
become Grandma's bodyguard. The best thing she can do is find the keys and end
the threat. But this is Stephanie Plum, and nothing ever goes smoothly for her.
There is plenty of fun with the usual zaniness that surrounds her. She has a
relatively successful run of catching bail-jumpers, though not without
challenges. Lula is always ready to aid and abet, and her antics contribute to
some laugh-out-loud moments. She loses a car to a self-inflicted car bombing. Her
love life is still complicated, though Morelli seems to have the inside track
in this book. Ranger has his moments, and his simple "Babe" can
convey so many different things. It was interesting to see Morelli and Ranger
work together to keep Stephanie and Grandma safe - a somewhat uneasy
partnership, but an effective one.
The central theme of Grandma and The Keys was pretty well
done. It was fun to see more of Grandma in this book as she always livens
things up. Stephanie's attempts to find out more about the keys led her down
some twisted paths. The La-Z-Boys were occasionally amusing, more frequently
creepy, and at the end, downright scary. The final confrontation was intense. I
liked that both Stephanie and Grandma had no intention of giving in to panic.
Stephanie's actions were great and reminded me somewhat of the first book. The
story of the keys isn't entirely resolved, as a final twist in the story looks
like a lead-in for the next book.
One thing I found unusual about this book is the depth of
Stephanie's dissatisfaction with her life and work. She's had moments in
previous stories, but she seems more serious about it here. It will be
interesting to see if she takes it further in the future.
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