Stephanie Plum
Created by Janet Evanovich

"That shooting gave me an appetite, somebody pass me the potatoes."
-- Grandma Mazur in One for the Money

Working-class Jersey girl and former lingerie buyer STEPHANIE PLUM is a bond bailsma-er-bailsperson, working out of the blue collar "burg" in Trenton, New Jersey, where "houses and minds are proud to be narrow". And family ties tend to strangle. Rather than move in with her parents (and Grandma), she goes to work for her cousin Vinnie, the bail bondsman. And let's get it straight--Stephanie isn't exactly the toughest thing on earth, or even New Jersey. As she puts it, "I don't look at all like George Foreman. I'm more like Wonder Woman with a B-cup."

Poor Stephanie has a bad case of the hots for handsome vice cop Joe Morelli. As Stephanie puts it, "There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me--not forever, but periodically." And somehow, Morelli always seems to be involved in Stephanie's cases. He may be all wrong for her, but what's a girl to do? As she puts it, she hasn't had "a good social orgasm since Reagan was in the White House."

Aiding and abetting Stephanie in her quest to track down and bring back those who have jumped the bond so generously put up by her cousin Vinnie are Ranger, the know-it-all, done-it-all hardcore, hardcase Cuban-American bounty hunter, and trigger-happy, thrill-seeking Gramma Mazur, Stephanie's grandmother.

But despite all the humour in the series, Stephanie regularly goes up against some pretty nasty types, and violence is as much a part of her life as any hardboiled anti-hero around. Margaret Cannon praises the series for its "smart and witty dialogue and dead-on characterization" and most readers will be similarly enchanted. A worthy addition to the Hardboiled Hall of Humour.

One of the most purely entertaining P.I.'s of the nineties. Recommended! Damn skippy!

By the way, at one point, rumors (or perhaps just wishful thinking) abounded about a possible movie adaptation of One For the Money, starring Sandra Bullock as our gal Steph, while Estelle Getty (from TV's The Golden Girls) seemed to be the people's choice to play Grandma. It never came to pass.

But there actually was a pilot done for the 2002 TV season, starring Lynn Collins as Stephanie, but it wasn't picked up. According to a reliable source who saw it when the network she worked for tested it, it was "abysmal."

But the books just keep on selling, and in 2011, One for the Money, a big Hollywood feature film based on the first novel, produced by and starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie, was released. It also stars John Leguizamo, Daniel Sunjata and Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur.

Although it was no huge hit, it did capture much of the charm and cleverness of the novel, as notable for its easy going vibe and for its commendable restraint -- it never descended into the abyss of cheap shots and slack-jawed overkill so many rom com/action flicks sink into.

UNDER OATH

  • "It's Get Shorty meets Cathy."
     -- Amazon Fishbowl's Bill Maher tries to summarize Stephanie's appeal (2006)
  • "Listen, if you are one of the last six people on the planet who don't read the Stephanie Plum novels, read (One for the Money). Evanovich is really that good. Really."
    -- Robert Crais

NOVELS

............

"BETWEEN THE NUMBERS"NOVELLAS*

SHORT STORIES

  • "The Last Peep" (1997, The Plot Thickens; also 1999, First Cases 3)

TELEVISION

  • ONE FOR THE MONEY
    (2002, Columbia TriStar)
    Unaired pilot
    Based on the novel by Janet Evanovich
    Screenplay by
    Directed by     David Grossman
    Starring     Lynn Collins as Stephanie Plum
    Also starring Kristi Angus, Tyler Christopher, Tim Burd

FILM

  • ONE FOR THE MONEY... Buy on DVD ..Buy on Blu-Ray
    (20    11, Lakeshore Entertainment/Sidney Kimmel Entertainment/Lionsgate)
    Based on the novel by Janet Evanovich
    Screenplay by Liz Brixius, Karen McCullah Lutz, Kirsten Smith
    Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
    Starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum
    Also starring John Leguizamo, Daniel Sunjata, Debbie Reynolds, Jason O'Mara, Patrick Fischler, Sherri Shepherd, Leonardo Nam, Nate Mooney, Gavin-Keith Umeh, Ana Reeder, Brenna Roth, Adam Paul, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Lisa Ann Goldsmith
    Nobody will mistake it for Chinatown, but in it's own way, a solid piece of work, unapologetically satisfying., and tthe rare screwball action flick that never overplays its hand or resorts to cheap shots to entertain fourteen year olds. It's one of the few films I've seen lately that makes me hope there will be a sequel.

ALSO WORTH INVESTIGATING

  • Wilson, Leah, editor,
    Perfectly Plum: Unauthorized Essays On the Life, Loves And Other Disasters of Stephanie Plum, Trenton Bounty Hunter... Buy this book
    (Smart Pop series, 2007
    Now woefully out-of-date, but still a fun read for those who take their Plums seriously, this "completely unauthorized" collection of essays by various fans sifts through the cultural metaphors that abound in the first eleven novels, including such headspinners as "Bounty Hunting as a Metaphor for Dating," "Why Stephanie Should Quit Her Job . . . but Never Will," "Nothing Better than a Bad Boy Gone Good." and "Luck of the Italian? Skill Versus Chance."

RELATED LINKS

  • The Janet Evanovich Page
    If you're plum crazy about Stephanie, and want to keep up to date on her and her creator, check out this page, created by Janet's daughter, Alex. You can also subscribe to Janet's newsletter, Plum News.

  • Get Yer Motor Runnin'...
    Some hot and not-so-hot wheels of some hot eyes.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Eryn R. who proudly boasts that "Stephanie is my hero," for some of the info included on this page, and to Nathalie, for the scoop.

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