Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Stephanie Plum #26
Publication Date: 11/12/19
Number of Pages: 320

This is the perfect book for a dark, dreary winterish afternoon (or even a sunny happy afternoon). The zany antics of Stephanie along with her family, friends, and co-workers will keep you smiling. Yes, sometimes they are over-the-top and a bit annoying, but all-in-all, they are an enjoyable and entertaining read.

Grandma Mazur was married for all of forty-five minutes before the groom keeled over – dead. Who knew he had a bad heart? Now, his other octogenarian mob cohorts are after Grandma because they are sure that she has ‘the keys’. Everybody knows that there are ‘keys’, but nobody seems to know what they unlock – but they all believe that there is a treasure involved. It is up to Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger to keep Grandma safe. Of course, Grandma doesn’t help matters – she has to attend the funeral, the wake, bake sales, bingo – you name it.

Aside from trying to keep Grandma Mazur safe, Stephanie is having a pretty good week. Stephanie works for a bail bondsman and it is her job to bring in people who have skipped out on their bail. She’s had several skippers this week and has retrieved them all – including one who brought in a pretty good paycheck for her. So, her rent is paid and she has groceries in her cupboards. (Picture Dog the Bounty Hunter without the talent of skill).

Then, the first attempt at a kidnapping occurs. It was easy to tell they were amateurs, but that didn’t keep them from being scary. They enraged Stephanie’s mom so much that she took her iron to one of them, and the other one ran off. As the paramedics are there to see after the injured one – Lula asks:

“Is he dead?”
“Not yet,” Grandma said.
“Good thing,” Lula said. “If California found out a guy got killed with an iron, they’d ban them, and all those movie stars would be wrinkled all the time.”

Ranger has his security guys watching the house and trailing after Grandma and Morelli is investigating on the police side, but grandma and then Stephanie manage to get themselves kidnapped. They are in the hands of some really bad guys – can they save themselves? Will it be Ranger and/or Morelli to the rescue? Who knew Stephanie could drive a cement truck?

I was well entertained from the first page to the last. If there was a downside, it was that Stephanie is back to her dissatisfaction with her life. This seems to happen every three or four books and it gets a tad tiresome because she whines and complains, but is never willing to do anything about it.