Twelve Sharp

Kaliqah Mims
Professor Christine Specht
LIT/GNS 5107
30 July 2008

Twelve Sharp

This novel was not like the other books we read which dealt with self esteem issues, death, and abandonment. This novel was witty and suspenseful, when I started reading the book and discovered it was about the streets of Trenton, New Jersey, I had to laugh because I lived in Trenton, New Jersey as a child. Stephanie in the novel definitely lived an exciting life as a bounty hunter. She and her sidekick Lula seemed to pickup the strangest characters. Stephanie also was a woman torn between the two men in her life, Ranger and Morelli.

Morelli seemed laid back and to me not very romantic, but he had a streak of jealousy in him that a woman would have to watch out for.

The novel got interesting when the character Carmen Manoso entered the picture and accused Stephanie of sleeping with her husband, the mysterious Ranger. I think this threw Stephanie off, as she did not think that Ranger was married. She also did not look at Ranger as being a guy who would dump his wife and clean out the bank account. She felt despite his flirtatious nature he was a very honorable man. Ranger in my opinion seems like a man that appeared secretive and private, but charming and seductive. The scene when Ranger was in Stephanie's apartment, and her and Ranger were in bed and some one was trying to open the door, was a close call for Stephanie. Stephanie is like the average woman who has a man in her life, but is not certain that is what she reallys wants. I think that if Ranger would have pushed a little harder, Stephanie would have fallen victim to an emotional rollercoaster.

I thought that Lula and Sally was hilarious, especially the outfits they wore when performing. Evanovich did an excellent job of portraying these two characters as over sexually stimulated individuals. When Stephanie finds out that Ranger is missing and his daughter kidnapped, Stephanie launches a search of her own. In her search she discovers that a wonabee Ranger by the name of Scrog who dresses like a woman to keep from being identified, has all the skills deception of Ranger, is the culrpit behind this cat and mouse game of who can outwit who. In the process Stephanie becomes a victim of Scrog in his fantasy of Stephanie and Julie becoming his family. Her escape was helped inadvertly by Joyce Barnhardt, one of the off the street bounty hunters hired by Connie and the other office staff. Joyce is on a big catch for Lonnie Johnson a bail jumper, who has a $5000 bonus fee for catching him. She ends up shooting Scrog in a entanglement of the two trying to capture Lonnie for the bonus money. Although Stephanie absolutely dislikes Joyce I bet she was glad she was at the house of Lonnie, which helped her to escape this psycopath and lead the police to where Julie, was being held.

In the end, Stephanie is once again caught between wanting Ranger and Joe Morelli, it isn't until one of them gets hurt that she decides she is in love. I think this novel had strong but gentle sense of humor, the motive of the antagonist is jealousy, which we could see is a deadly motive that leads one to do almost anything to get what they want. I have never read any of Evanovich's book before, but I understand this is one of her many series of books. I forgot to mention the character of Melvin Pickle who I found quite comical. It was relief that although he was a pervert who masturbated in public he did not hurt children or anyone else. I enjoyed this book.