Explosive Eighteen: A Stephanie Plum Novel

Lorelei King continues to shine as the narrator of Evanovich’s long-running series about feisty New Jersey bail bondswoman Stephanie Plum. The wry humor of the book is evident from King’s rendition of the opening lines: “New Jersey was 40,000 feet below me, obscured by cloud cover. Heaven was above me, obscured by the thin skin of the plane. And hell was sitting four rows back.” Plum’s flight home from Hawaii is typically atypical; instead of a relaxing trip, a neighboring passenger vanishes while the aircraft stops in Los Angeles, and a mysterious photograph he was carrying becomes the subject of an intense clash between the bad guys and the FBI—with Plum caught in the middle. King—who enhances the text with her spot-on narration—has no equal when it comes to voicing characters of the opposite sex, and her pacing perfectly matches the book’s breezy tone. Listeners new to the series will want to seek out the previous 17 installments. A Bantam hardcover. (Nov.)