Sometimes fugitive apprehension agent Stephanie Plum doesn’t have to hunt down cases, sometimes the find her. Family neighbor Mabel Markowitz is worried about her missing granddaughter. Evelyn and he daughter Annie disappeared abruptly despite a child custody bond with her ex-husband.
Mabel stands to lose her house, which has been put up for the bond, but she’s more concerned about Evelyn’s safety. Stephanie agrees to look into the case as a favor to Mabel.
Hard Eight follows Stephanie Plum on her first child-custody-bond case. Anyone who is familiar with Janet Evanovich’s first seven novels in the series knows nothing is easy when Stephanie is on the case. Evelyn proves hard to find and her angry ex-husband exacerbates the situation.
Evanovich evokes plenty of humor in Hard Eight. Men in animal costumes and bunny masks terrorize Stephanie. Grandma Mazur has a few jokes. Sister Valerie plays a bigger role in this installment.
Besides the hunt for Evelyn, there are two side plots in Hard Eight. The two men in Stephanie’s life (Ranger and Morelli) wreak havoc on her mind and offer a surprising development for readers. A second bond case provides humor and diversion from Evelyn’s case but ends in unnecessary disappointment.
Hard Eight isn’t the best of the series, but it is an adequate installment. The jury is still out on the bang-up conclusion, but readers will definitely want to grab To The Nines and see what happens.
