High Five by Janet Evanovich
Read by CJ Critt
Recorded Books
1999
Length: 9.75 hours
From the back of the audio case: Find out why Stephanie Plum’s racy, in-your-face New Jersey adventures are attracting a growing number of fans. Join America’s favorite bounty hunter as she scrambles to make an honest living, keep her family happy, and find true love.
Desperate for money, Stephanie is trying to apprehend a surly “little person” when a call from her mother pulls her back to the Burg. Seventy-two-year-old Uncle Fred is missing, and the family is counting on Stephanie to track him down. Fred is known as a cheapskate and a womanizer, but why would he have photos of body parts in his desk? As Stephanie investigates, men keep turning up in her locked apartment – but none of them is vice cop Joe Morelli, the captain of her heart.
New York Times best-selling author Janet Evanovich delivers the tough, funny characters and New Jersey ambiance that her fans have grown to love. Narrator CJ Critt achieves the perfect tone as Stephanie juggles high-powered scams, lust, and fun.
My thoughts: I have to say this might be the funniest series I’ve ever read/listened to. And after listening to the last three books, I’ve decided that I am going to listen to the audio of the rest of the series. I know that the narrator changes soon, but unless I really don’t like the new one, it’s audio til the end.
In High Five, Stephanie manages to get another car blown up and also manages to get shot at again. Since there aren’t any big cases, she takes on her family’s request to find Uncle Fred who seems to have disappeared. Since that isn’t going to pay her rent, she also starts doing some moonlighting with Ranger. This leads to some interesting cases, including being a chauffeur to a fifteen-year-old Sheik who seems to think he’s all that. The one FTA that Stephanie does get involves her bringing in a little person and that just leads to many hysterical scenes.
Once again, it’s Grandma Mazur that steals the show. Any scenes involving her usually lead to something crazy happening. From her wanting to go to funerals to check out how the deceased is laid out and who comes to visit to her getting her hands on Stephanie’s stun gun and using it on Stephanie’s father, the laughter just doesn’t stop.
One interesting development in this book is the new love interest in Stephanie’s life. It seems that sparks were flying not only between Stephanie and Joe Morelli, but suddenly they start flying between Stephanie and Ranger. In fact, we are left with a cliff-hanger at the very end of the book – does Stephanie call Joe or Ranger to come over? Even listening to the book didn’t give me any hints and now I can’t wait to get my hands on the audio for the next book, Hot Six.
Audio Thoughts: Once again CJ Critt does a phenomenal job voicing all the characters in this book. She gives each character their own unique personality – so much so that it’s quite easy to determine who’s talking without an introduction.
Have you found a series or an author that you’ve decided the audio versions of the books are better?
(I borrowed this audio book from the library.)
1. One for the Money 12. Twelve Sharp
2. Two for the Dough 12.5 Plum Lovin’
3. Three to Get Deadly 13. Lean Mean Thirteen
4. Four to Score 13.5 Plum Lucky
5. High Five 14. Fearless Fourteen
6. Hot Six 14.5 Plum Spooky
7. Seven Up 15. Finger Lickin’ Fifteen
8. Hard Eight 16. Sizzling Sixteen
8.5 Visions of Sugar Plums 17. Smokin’ Seventeen
9. To the Nines 18. Explosive Eighteen
10. Ten Big Ones 19. Notorious Nineteen
11. Eleven on Top
I have read a lot of Evanovich's books, but I have a few on audio, it sounds like I need to give them a listen sometime soon.
You've convinced me! I gotta give this series in audio a try.
Good review! I've only read the first 2 Plum novels so far…I wasn't completely hooked, but so many people have encouraged me to give more of them a try. This sounds like a good one. I do love Grandma Mazur!