Top Secret Twenty One

I know Janet Evanovich solicits titles from her readers for the Stephanie Plum number series, but I do not know if the titles come first --stimulating plot ideas--or she writes the book first and then picks the title that best matches the plot line. In any case, there are some new elements and some of the more familiar plot devices in this latest installment. Ranger and Stephanie are still dancing around each other, although Stephanie remains sexually faithful--in behavior if not in fantasy--to Joe Morelli. Another car gets destroyed, although not burned up--this time while Lula is sleeping in the front seat. One of Stephanie's old contacts, height-challenged Randy Briggs, is being targeted by his boss, Jimmy Poletti, one of Stephanie's FTA's. She plans to use Briggs as bait. Polletti and Randy are persons of interest because they are key players in a drugs and sex slaves ring operating between Mexico and New Jersey. Someone has sent a missile into Briggs' apartment, leaving him homeless and now he is camped out with Stephanie--a highly undesirable situation for all kinds of reasons. Meanwhile, someone is also targeting Ranger with intent to harm and with deadly nuclear materials, so now the FBI is involved. Worse yet, the material, designed to be placed into the ventilation system at Rangeman headquarters, may just be a trial run for a larger target. Stephanie gets enlisted to help Ranger smoke out the would-be assassin and, in the process, becomes #2 on the hit list.  Last but not least, Grandma Mazur is at war with Morelli's Grandma Bella. But wait, I forgot the pack of feral chihuahuas guarding another one of Stephanie's FTA's. Yikes! A bit more complex and a little less formulaic than recent entries in the series, and still lots of fun.