Two for the Dough

Sassy, brassy Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter from Trenton, N.J., introduced to acclaim in last year's One for the Money, returns to track a bond jumper through her blue-collar neighborhood known as the ``burg.'' A local funeral home, a slimy undertaker and mutilated corpses figure large in the search for Kenny Mancuso, who, having shot an old high-school friend in the knee, posted bail with Stephanie's boss, her cousin, and then disappeared. When the old friend is shot again, fatally, Stephanie reluctantly joins forces with her sexy enemy and love interest, Trenton homicide cop Joe Morelli. While looking for Kenny, Stephanie also searches for 24 caskets stolen from Spiro Stiva, heir apparent of Stiva's Mortuary and also a high-school buddy of Kenny's. As body parts, cut from ``clients'' on view at Stiva's, are used to warn people off the case, Stephanie and Morelli spar in a lively if expected fashion and Stephanie's feisty gun-toting Grandma Mazur forsakes her usual routine of talk-show TV and attending wakes to join the fight against crime. Readers will likely stay a few steps ahead of the sleuths, but the sharp repartee and Stephanie's slightly cynical but still fond relationship with her family and the burg hold a treasury of urban-style charms. $100,000 ad/promo; Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate selection; author tour. (Jan.)