Four to Score discussion

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/3...

I`ve read three of them. They get tiresome after a while. After so many adventures, you would have thought the heroine would`ve learned to keep her cellular charged overnight, and secured her apartment better. I`ve gotten to the point if she appears in another book and gets offed, she deserved it. She`s a lousy professional who should have been retired from the business. And if that should happen, get the granny to take over the role.

Gregory, I second everything you said. I just finished 'Four To Score' and posted pretty much an identical review. However you were more generous than I was. I only gave it 1 star.
This was my last Stephanie Plum novel unless someone can give me a compelling reason to read more.

You've only read FOUR! Lucky you. I read the first 12 back to back to back and I can assure you that they only get worse. I still read them (have read up to 16) for the fluff that they are but I find that the characters are getting more and more bumbling and stupid that it is hard to take. I just can't believe that a grown woman such as Stephanie Plum can even function in the real world AND get the attention of two somewhat normal men. Blows me away. Even more shocking is that Lula survives in life!

So how in God's name does such a lame series continue to get published?

Maybe Stephanie Plum's bumbling ineptitude is the draw, that she's so incompetent yet continues to succeed.

Dave wrote: "So how in God's name does such a lame series continue to get published?

Maybe Stephanie Plum's bumbling ineptitude is the draw, that she's so incompetent yet continues to succeed."

I think because it is not serious at all but mostly humorous. I always wondered how the show 'Friends' survived with such idiotic characters too but there was something about them that people watched. Same with Seinfeld! That show was hilarious but there was no way George or Kramer would have been able to function in the real world. I think we are just drawn to these characters because they are like a train wreck, we can't look away!

I actually think that the Stephanie Plum books do not belong in the 'mystery' section in any bookstore because there is nothing mystery about them!

Stacy, maybe it's my sense of humor, but I didn't find them humorous. I can think of only two places in 4 books where I cracked a smile. Not a chuckle, a smile and a weak one at that.

As I said in my review, the first one was cute--a woman who knows nothing about bounty hunting becomes a bounty hunter out of necessity and her attendant blunders made for a light read. But after that, her bumbling became irritating.

Never saw Friends but I tried to watch Seinfeld once. Half way through, I turned it off because all the characters had annoyed me beyond tolerance.

I agree these books don't belong in the mystery section.

Wow, can't believe how much people hated these books. Guess I'm weird, but I really enjoyed them. I read about twelve of them and number 4 was my favorite because that's when the action heated up between my favorite bounty hunter, her on again/of again tango with Joe and the mysterious Ranger! What can I say? I enjoy love triangles.

I didn't hate them, Jennifer. I was more disappointed in them.

I never expected Stephanie to become Super Bounty Hunter overnight but I did expect her to grow in some aspect of her job over the course of the books, but she was the same bumbling tyro in book four she was in book one. She never learned anything, is still on page 1 of the bounty hunter's training manual, and that's what made me give up on them.

And I wouldn't call you weird because you like them. It's just that we have different tastes. I'm sure you would dislike some of the series I like. That's why there are 12,548 mysteries published each year.

Ha ha, so true! I'm a bit of a bumbling tyro myself at some things (love that phrase!) and I think that's what I relate to in Stephanie Plum. I also enjoy the light touch the author has. I feel as though her tongue is in her cheek as she writes and her offbeat humor appeals to me.

I don't read a lot of mysteries. I am addicted to historical fiction and sagas. As an author who writes "emotional" stories, I find I have a need to counter all the drama with lighter fare and mysteries fit the bill. Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky have pulled me out of some awfully dark places!

Actually, I think the saying is "fill the bill," right? My husband teases me endlessly about never getting my clichés straight. See what I mean about being a bumbling tyro....

Fit the bill or fill the bill. Either one works for me.

I did like Evanovich's humor; it was the fact that Stephanie never seemed to learn from her past mistakes (even in a humorous way) that got to me. And that someone blew up her car in every book.

I like Grafton but never got into Paretsky. You might want to check out Cleo Coyle's Claire Cosi series if you'd like something not as light as Evanovich but lighter than what you normally read.

I will! Thanks for the tip. I am reading "The Bell Jar" (again) right now because Plath's prose is nothing short of magical and apparently I enjoy torturing myself with words and ideas "poised on the edge of chaos."

Plath in January in upstate New York with no distractions but the stark, frigid landscape outside my window...yeah, Cleo Coyle's Claire Cosi series might be just what I need come week's end!

I know Janet Evanovich's writing is somewhat formulaic, but I find them fun to read and the stories are interesting enough to compel me and funny enough to make me laugh. I am a big fan of the Plum novels and I've read all of them so far up to Takedown Twenty (including the "Between the numbers" ones).
Sue Grafton's books are also quite good, though I've only just started them - I'm currently reading "D is for Deadbeat".