Four to Score (Stephanie Plum, #4)

by Janet Evanovich

The problem with being a bounty hunter is it's all on-the-job training. And Stephanie Plum is still learning the ways to get yourself killed. Take the case of Maxine Norwicki....

When Maxine failed to turn up for her day in court, Stephanie was given the task of bringing her in. Simple. Except Maxine's boyfriend has now begun receiving mysterious, coded notes from the runaway that hint at buried treasure.

In fact the notes are so indecipherable that Stephanie has to call on the help of Sally Sweet, giant drag queen and code-breaker extraordinaire. And Steph's knight errant, cop Joe Morelli. is also proving useful - although he can't decide what he wants most: Maxine's bounty or Stephanie's body.

Meanwhile a friend loses a finger, a mother is scalped, an apartment is firebombed and a store clerk is murdered. And out in the street, the crazy treasure hunt game goes on....

'Stephanie Plum is ass-kicking form..... utterly delightful.' Cosmopolitan

'As smart and sassy as high-gloss wet paint.' Time Out

' Among the great joys of contemporary crime fiction.' GQ

'All the easy class and wit that you expect to find in the best American TV Comedy, but too rarely find in modern fiction.' GQ

• ISBN10: 0312966970
• ISBN13: 9780312966973
• Publish Date: 15 June 1999 (first published 15 June 1998)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

I have read all of the Stephanie Plum novels so far and I just love these books. They are a very easy read and are something to read when you just wanna relax after a long day. They are just so humorous and I love all the characters, especially Grandma Mazur. It has a little bit of everything thrown in, while still being lighthearted.

I would recommend these books to anybody.

[Leah]

Janet Evanovich, bestselling author of One for the Money, Two for the Dough, and Three to Get Deadly, scores big with Four to Score, her most thrilling Stephanie Plum adventure yet. Working for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, Stephanie is hot on the trail of revenge-seeking waitress Maxine Nowicki, whose crimes include bail jumping, theft, and extortion. Someone is terrifying Maxine's friends, and those who have seen her are turning up dead. Also on the hunt for Maxine is Joyce Barnhardt, Stephanie's archenemy and rival bounty hunter. Stephanie's attitude never wavers - even when aided by Grandma Mazur, ex-hooker and wannabe bounty hunter Lula, and transvestite rock musician Sally Sweet - and even when Stephanie makes an enemy whose deadly tactics escalate from threatening messages to firebombs. All of this pales in comparison, though, with an even greater danger Stephanie faces, when, homeless and broke, she and her hamster Rex move in with vice cop Joe Morelli.

Four to Score is book four in the Stephanie Plum series. I'm roaring through the series like nothing else, in 10 days I've read the first four novels which includes reading a Chick Lit book alongside, too. Seriously, if I didn't have prior novels to read it would take me 16 days to read the 16 books. Sure, the books all follow the same format where Stephanie gets an FTA, ends up face-to-face with said FTA at random points during the book, Stephanie usually has her life threatened and there'll also be a new face who wants to be a bounty hunter. We now have three prospective bounty hunters: Lula, Grandma Mazur and, the new face, Sally Sweet, a transvestite. I love the new faces we're getting to meet and Lula and Sally Sweet were both hilarious.


The book sees - finally! - Stephanie and Morelli's relationship moving to the next level. Stephanie ends up moving in with him when her apartment is firebombed and they end up in bed. I was so happy, these two crazy kids totally love each other. Well, I think. I hope. I pray. And really there's only SO many books when they can just get on each other's nerves. It eventually has to lead somewhere. I'm hoping it'll lead to a proper relationship, but I doubt that. It's Stephanie and Morelli for crying out loud I don't think they know the meaning of 'proper relationship'. Either way, I love them and they're weird love for each other and their interactions always make me laugh.


I thoroughly enjoyed Four to Score. I know, I know, Leah's beginning to sound like a broken record. This series is just so readable though. I mean I LOVE how Stephanie's mom is always making the sign of the cross and whinging about her daughter blowing things up and I love how Grandma Mazur is desperate to help Stephanie as well as Lula and (hopefully) Sally Sweet. I really hope Sally returns in book five, I love him. Ranger is as unattainable as ever, only popping up when needed otherwise he's like the wind. They're all books I'll read again, and I spent most of my time whilst reading Four to Score laughing out loud because it is genuinely funny. Sure the plots are seemingly predictable but it's the characters who make the novel. I mean, I want to be Stephanie Plum!

[ibeforem]

It’s about this time in the series that you start to lose track of just how many cars Stephanie’s lost, and how many times she’s almost slept with someone. Not to mention, how many times her gun and/or pepper spray are somewhere else.