Finger Lickin' Fifteen

By Janet Evanovich

Another in the Stephanie Plum series, this one finds her friend Lula on a killer's hit list when she witnesses a hit. A famous chef comes to Trenton to participate in a barbecue cook-off but he is beheaded by a giggling maniac and cohort right in front of Lula's eyes and naturally the killers want to kill the witness. Usually Stephanie is the one being chased but this time Lula is getting all the unwanted attention, including getting shot at, having her apartment broken into, and having her Firebird bombed. Of course, Stephanie being Stephanie, some of Lula's bad luck rubs off on her, including having one of Ranger's loaner cars burned up, having her apartment set on fire, and other fun things. Meanwhile, the barbecue contest sponsor is offering a million dollar reward for info leading to the arrest of the killers of their star chef and Lula has decided she wants that reward. Together she and Stephanie's Grandma Mazur enter the barbecue contest thinking it will lead them to the killers. They have to try to create a barbecue sauce for the contest that doesn't give its victim the runs, which they haven't managed to do so far. In the process they set the backyard on fire, give food poisoning to several people and explode a pressure cooker full of barbecue sauce in Stephanie's kitchen. No wonder Stephanie is spending a lot of time at Ranger's place.
Ranger is having problems too. Some of his security business clients have been robbed and it looks like it might have been by someone working for Ranger. So he asks Stephanie to help him figure out who the culprit may be. She gets to spend a lot of time at Ranger's, which is OK with her because, once again, she is on the outs with on again, off again boyfriend Joe Morelli.
Throw in the usual wacky bond skips that Stephanie and Lula go after and it makes for another grand and very enjoyable entry in the Stephanie Plum series.