Three to Get Deadly (Stephanie Plum #3) (1997)
by Janet Evanovich When Uncle Mo, owner of an ice cream shop and a beloved member of the community, fails to appear in court for a concealed carry charge, Stephanie Plum is tasked to track him down. It’s supposed to be an easy assignment for the fledgling bounty hunter, but it makes her unpopular in the community and takes a dark turn when dead bodies start popping up. This outing isn’t a mere repeat of the previous two adventures, in which Stephanie chased down quirky bail jumpers. Although this one dips a toe (but only a toe) into the vigilante men’s adventure pool, my understanding is that subsequent entries pull back from this direction. So it’s a little darker, but the formula is also beginning to gel (or congeal, depending on your view of it). Reliable cast members such as Morelli, Ranger, and Grandma Mazur are present, but there is no development to their characters, and it’s starting to look like their unchanging nature may just be part of the formu...