Two for the Dough
ISBN: 9780140255553
Description
Kenny Mancuso shot his childhood buddy Moogey Bues and then jumped bail. Now bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is on the case to track Kenny down.
Then someone finished Moogey off, Kenny can't be found, twenty-four coffins are missing, and there's some ex-army heavy artillery roaming the streets. And Joe Morelli - the cop with more than a professional interest in her every move - is tailing Stephanie.
With a healthy disregard for the law, and an unhealthy dependence on marshmallow hot chocolate, Stephanie's a match for anyone - even Morelli. That is, until her eccentric grandmother goes AWOL and little pieces of corpses start to disappear.
Reviewed on 28th October 2013
The second novel in the Stephanie Plum series sees the bounty hunter in her second case - trying to catch an elusive bail skipper. The story feels instantly forgettable (I can't recall what happened in the first book either), and seemed to be missing an opening chapter that would have reintroduced the characters and set up the plot.
The story took a while to get going and a long time for me to get into it. The chapters seemed too long and were, particularly at the beginning of the book, very repetitive, which didn't help grip me. The plot really felt that it wasn't going anywhere, and at the end I was left feeling cheated out of anything much happening, and that the characters hadn't been on any sort of journey.
The main character is quite annoying, and the rest of the cast are equally frustrating to read about. The comedic elements felt very forced and slapstick and the male characters are entirely one-dimensional.
Looking back, I enjoyed the first book in the series, and commented on how well-constructed the characters and plot were. This sequel then was a terrible disappointment. I hope it's just a blip and that the remainder of the series will turn out stronger when I read them.
