Interesting,” she said. “A tunnel under a strip club. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll investigate.” Recently, Salgusta and one of his La-Z-Boy pals, Charlie Shine, decided my grandmother had the key to a treasure. They kidnapped Grandma and me, and while we endured some terrifying moments, we were able to escape with minimum damage. Problem is, Shine and Salgusta still want the key to the treasure, and we saw them murder a man in cold blood while we were captive. So, there’s incentive for Salgusta and Shine to capture us again, persuade Grandma to give them the key, and then kill us.

Okay, truth is, I was every bit as creeped out as Lula. I didn’t like being underground. It was claustrophobic. The air was heavy with dirt and damp, and I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t suffocating. Even worse was the thought that Lou Salgusta might be waiting at the other end. I wanted to capture him, but I wasn’t confident that I could do it under these circumstances.Written and illustrated by Bendis and colored by Matthew Wilson, Fortune and Glory invites readers to gaze in wonder at the dizzying varieties of stupidity displayed by studio executives, and to share in the enthralling mood swings and ego nosedives of a small-time comic book creator as he rides the emotional roller coaster of freelance film production. I didn't find this one as good as others in the series; I found the middle slow without enough madcap excitement and I even missed the descriptions of Lula's flamboyant outfits and suggested food detours. There were some, but it seemed like an awfully long stretch where I wasn't reading about Lula's questionable fashion choices or her curious cravings.

I think we must be coming to the end because I smell something different,” Lula said. “It doesn’t smell like just dirt anymore. It smells like kerosene or gasoline or something.” Scott Hill sat down to give a brief overview of their pulp adventure game, Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game. But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts—and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.

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Stephanie may be in over her head, but she's got two things that Gabriela doesn't: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.

I wasn’t going to waste bullets on rats. I was saving them for whatever more horrible, more ferocious creatures might be lurking in the dark. Alligators or a slimy mud monster or Lou Salgusta. Yeah. I didn’t want anyone to know we were down here. I didn’t count on it being so hard to get open again.” But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli's treasure, they discover that they're not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way, along with a new adversary who's even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She's also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts and someone who's about to give Stephanie a real run for her money. Stephanie may be in over her head, but she’s got two things that Gabriela doesn’t: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.Grandma and Lula are enthusiastic participants with Stephanie in this adventure, and that's enough in itself to keep the rating at four stars with lots of hearty laughter from this reader. Stephanie's mission once again is to protect her maternal grandmother, now named Edna Rosolli thanks to a marriage that lasted 45 minutes before widowhood and that quest for her late husband's hidden treasure. They have no idea what it is, just that it's terribly valuable. The 27th entry in Janet Evanovich's number one New York Times best-selling series isn't just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum's career. It's the adventure of a lifetime.

I don’t like ‘guess what.’ And I don’t like the way this place smells,” Lula said, following me to the end of the concrete. We meet two new characters who should be fun in future books: (1) Potts, a middle-aged hypochondriac who becomes a devoted mascot to Stephanie and actually manages to help, but mostly gets in the way; and (2) Gabriela, depicted as a sort of female version of Ranger, whom Stephanie sees as a rival but we don't know till the end if she's a good guy or a bad guy. She is definitely independent if mysterious, and she fills a vacuum for readers who haven't felt Stephanie is enough of a bad-ass heroine. And it looks like she's getting her own series! With this book, #27 of the Stephanie Plum series, the alliterative titles that have signaled fun ahead are now demoted to subtitles (see cover). We know in our heart of hearts, though, that this is really Tantalizing Twenty-Seven, even if it's all about good guys (Stephanie and Grandma) and bad guys (Shine and Salgosta) in pursuit of, yes, fortune and glory. When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.She disappeared from view, her boots echoing on the concrete for a short time, and then there was silence. She does have help from some well-connected friends in law enforcement, who save her skin multiple times. The antics during the bounty hunting are part of what makes this book so much fun to read. Add in the family dynamics and the drama that follows Stephanie everywhere, and it is great at keeping you curious as to what is going to happen next! From “the most popular mystery writer alive” ( The New York Times), the twenty-seventh entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime. We can get a burger on the way to the office,” I said. I looked at the bartender. “Thanks for the help. We appreciate it.” We reached the intersection, made the turn, and the fire roared past us. We were bent over, catching our breath and I thought I heard footsteps, far off in one of the tunnels.