I wasnt sure what to expect with Hot Six, the first of Janet Evanovichs Stephanie Plum novels that Ive read  although it is not the first book in the series. Im still not sure what the significance of the title is but I do know that all the Stephanie Plum novels have titles with numbers in them; the next book after Hot Six is Seven Up.  
 
In any event, Hot Six is a delightful laugh-out-loud story of bumbling bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, who plies her trade among the common crooks in Trenton, N.J. Even as she finds and attempts to apprehend bail jumpers, she deals with a variety of personal problems that include a spunky grandmother, a policeman/boyfriend, a mysterious man who pushes all the right buttons on Stephanie, and a large zit on her chin. She also has very bad luck with cars.  
 
Ms. Plum is around 30 years old and doesnt give much of a description of her looks, but she must be among the better lookers to justify the attention she gets.  
 
The book starts with Stephanie talking an old female acquaintance down from jumping off a bridge, telling the would-be jumper that her body just wont look good in a dress when its found wearing slacks is the right way to dress for this particular form of suicide. Her first bounty-hunter case is to track down the Mooner, a drugged-out modern-day hippie who manages to avoid work even as he takes lifes ups and downs in stride. Mooner simply forgot to show up for his court appointment  as if he could ever remember  and peacefully goes to the police station with Stephanie. While there, he manages to torch Stephanies car but cheerfully offers to find her another car.  
 
The next case is Morris Munson, who failed to appear on homicide charges. He proves easy enough to find but much more difficult to snag, and there is much comedy as Stephanie and friend try to corner Munson. But the most intriguing case is that of Carlos Ranger Manoso, who taught Stephanie her trade as a bounty hunter and who is now wanted for questioning in regard to the murder of a local mobsters son. There is something going on that doesnt smell right with this, and both Stephanie and Ranger work to gather information on the case.  
 
Meanwhile, Grandmother Mazur moves in with Stephanie, turning Stephs sex life upside down and banishing her to the couch. Various people, from Ranger to Munson, break into Stephanies apartment as she attempts to sleep on the couch, keeping her tired and grumpy through the day. Grandma Mazur wakes up only at the end of the activities, complaining that Stephanie is running a nuthouse with all these late-night visitors.  
 
Then there is her boyfriend, Joe Morelli, a vice cop with the Trenton Police Department. Even as he gets increasingly frustrated that there is never a quiet moment to spend with Stephanie, she becomes an important conduit for information between the police and Ranger. Stephanie is feeling the frustration too, but youre never quite sure if its Morelli or Ranger she lusts after. I had the feeling that either would make Steph happy, if only Grandma Mazur wouldnt stick her nose into the wrong place at the wrong time.  
 
Finally  as if she didnt have enough going on  Stephanie is saddled with a large omnivorous dog named Bob, who becomes the um, butt of many of the books jokes. And this book has LOTS of jokes, many of which are laugh-out-loud funny.  
 
There is a fine  and mostly unexpected twist  at the end and the book came to a satisfying conclusion, leaving many smiles in its wake. This is a very fun story that should be enjoyed by any fans of Sue Grafton or Sarah Paretsky novels. In fact, Hot Six is considerably wittier than those other fine novels and Stephanie Plum is a more sexually straightforward character than V. I. Warshawsky or Kinsey Milhone. Stephanie is never far  in spirit, anyway  from a tumble with one of her chosen guys and she gets more eager as the possibility keeps eluding her.  
 
And a tumble with Stephanie sounds terrific to this red-blooded guy, as she is smart, funny, human and sexy. Since my wife and I listened to Hot Six as an unabridged book on tape, I looked at my wife from time to time and saw that she was enjoying the story every bit as much as I was, proving to me that Stephanie Plums humanity and wit transcends the sexes and appeals to any lover of action/detective novels.  
 
There is a lot of talk of sex in this book and there is a fair amount of rough language between the various characters, many of whom are criminals who probably seldom consult a dictionary. And there is a grope or two but no actual sex. This book would be appropriate for anyone from a mature 16-year-old on up, although many of Stephanies problems are rooted in human nature with which a teen has little experience.  
 
I probably should have started this series of books with an earlier title but I felt that I havent missed anything by starting in the middle. As it is, there are lots of memorable scenes in Hot Six that I still recall with a smile, including Bob (the dog) er, unloading in a car with two hitmen and Stephanie tackling a naked Morris Munson after she flushes him out of the shower.  
 
Hot Six is a very fun book that will have you smiling at the antics of Stephanie Plum, one of the most smartly written and human characters that Ive seen in casual fiction. If the other books in this series are as good as this, Im in for a fun ride.  
 
Im giving this book 4.5 stars, rounded off to four in this case. After all, it takes a truly exceptional book to make it to five stars.  
 
Since I listened to this book as a book on tape, please forgive me if I misspell a name. The story was exceptionally well read by C.J. Critt, and her dramatic reading brought another dimension of enjoyment to this novel.  
