The adventure quickly turns into a riot. Even though I was expecting – and anticipating – a log of the zingers and one-liners, I still found myself laughing outloud. There’s no way a Stephanie Plum adventure comes close to being in the real world, but if it did this is exactly the way it would play out.

Things quickly go from bad to worse when Stephanie finds her grandma. Short of kidnapping Grandma Mazur, there’s no way she can bring her home. Until Snuggy shows up again and explains that he only stole the money to pay for an operation on Doug, the ex-racehorse he’s befriended. The problem is, the mobster Snuggy took the money from is holding Doug hostage and threatens to kill him if the money isn’t returned. Grandma Mazur buys into the attempt to save Doug, but things get worse when the mobster kidnaps her as well.

To make matters even worse, the mobster is Delvina, a guy who’s crossed Stephanie’s path before and has plenty of reason to hate her. Things are going to get even worse – and more hilarious – as this adventure winds out. You know that when you go into the final battle with Lula packing a rocket launcher that things have seriously exceeded rational limits.

I had a great time with Plum Lucky. The between-the-numbers books are intended as fun romps to tide fans over during the holidays before they get the beach read book in the summer. But now my appetite has been whetted for Fearless Fourteen.