Stephanie Plum,
Bounty Hunter Extraordinaire
The main character in Janet Evanovich’s novel , One For The Money is Stephanie Plum, who lives in a blue-collar chunk of Trenton called “The Burg.” She’s a vulnerable person and is very desperate at the moment, because her rent is due and she just lost her job. During the course of this story, she searches for a job so she can pay the rent and continue living in her apartment. Her mother is always on her case about her lifestyle and compares her to her gorgeous sister, Valerie, who is successful.
While at dinner one night at her parent’s house, her father happens to mention that her cousin Vinnie, who is a bail bondsman, is looking for someone to do some filing at his office. Vinnie was her least favorite relative. She considers him a worm, a cheater, and nothing better than a dog turd. She makes up her mind to put her smart-mouthed attitude aside about Vinnie and struts herself into his office with confidence in being hired for the job. After all, she is family.
It turns out the position is filled before she gets to talk to Vinnie. Connie, Vinnie’s secretary, talks Stephanie into asking Vinnie to help him bring in skips; people who don’t show up for their court dates. With her sassy attitude and jersey girl look, she convinces Vinnie to give her a week at the job. Although Stephanie knows zippo about bond enforcement, she does understand that if she captures a skip she will get 10% of the bond. She knows the money is tempting, but capturing fugitives sounded scary, and she is a total coward despite her sassy attitude. None the less, because the money is so appealing she decides to do it.
She eventually meets with Ranger, a professional bond enforcement officer who is assigned to help Stephanie capture her first skip. Ranger, better known as a “bounty hunter” is a health freak, and has a don’t-mess-with-me-body. He’s drop-dead gorgeous, and Stephanie is immediately attracted to him. While...