One for the Money

Mystery and thriller · Comedy · Picaresque

First published: 1994
Print length: 334 pagesSt. Martin's Griffin, 2011

Description

After losing her department-store job, Stephanie Plum needs money badly enough to pressure her cousin Vinnie into hiring her as a bounty hunter. Her first target carries a ten-thousand-dollar reward: Joe Morelli, a vice cop accused of killing an unarmed man and a figure from Stephanie’s own past. Completely untrained, she is quickly humiliated by Morelli before experienced bounty hunter Ranger gives her a practical introduction to the work. Stephanie follows witnesses through Trenton’s rougher neighborhoods, but escalating violence suggests that the shooting hides more than a simple failure to appear in court. When Morelli proposes that she help prove his claim of self-defense before arresting him, the pursuit becomes a comic, dangerous contest between financial desperation and an increasingly serious investigation.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Dialogue-driven · Direct · Witty

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Humorous · Irreverent · Suspenseful · Tense

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Mystery · Plot

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

AmbitionCrime and punishmentJusticeLoveWork

About Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich is an American novelist who moved from short contemporary romances, published as Steffie Hall, to comic mysteries built around amateur bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. In the Plum novels, first-person narration keeps the action close to Stephanie’s practical worries, incomplete knowledge, and improvised decisions. The prose is direct, conversational, and driven by quick exchanges, while the plots accumulate bail jumpers, family intrusions, romantic complications, and criminal investigations until routine assignments become crowded farces. One for the Money establishes the method through an unemployed former lingerie buyer pursuing an accused vice cop she already knows, with her need for the reward competing with a more dangerous inquiry. Two for the Dough layers a fugitive hunt with missing coffins and stolen military weapons. Later books such as Hot Six retain the episodic chase structure while widening the trouble to organized crime and rival factions. Evanovich repeatedly uses Trenton and its surrounding social networks as investigative terrain and a source of interruptions, allowing neighborhood comedy and criminal threats to advance along the same brisk plot line.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Language: English
ISBN: 9780312600730

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