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36 of 42 found the following review helpful:
 Lost, One Stephanie Plum.Jul 22, 2002
By Marc Ruby™
"The Noh Hare™"
When Evelyn Soder disappears with her daughter, it means big trouble for her mother, Mabel Markowitz. The judge in Evelyn's divorce insisted on a child custody bond and Evelyn's ex-husband is intent on collecting it. Mabel co-signed for the bond, and now she may lose her home. Stephanie Plum, unlucky in love and fugitive apprehension, becomes involved because Mabel is her parents' neighbor. Mabel bakes when she is upset, and the Plums are drowning in bread loaves and coffee cakes.And so, begins yet another comic adventure in the strange world of 'The Burg,' Trenton's own twilight zone. Soon she finds herself in conflict with Eddie Abruzzi, who is a sociopathic crime lord when he isn't being a sociopathic war gamer. Eddie wants Stephanie out of the Soder investigation, and is perfectly willing to make her crazy before he finally kills her. In addition, Stephanie must deal with Andy Bender, a bond-skipping drunk with a talent for getting Plum to trip over her own feed. Nor should I fail to mention a lawyer whose name is not spelled c-l-o-w-n, a female apprehension agent who is almost as good as Ranger (and who doesn't keep losing cars, purses and handcuffs), and that usual mad gang of crooks, cohorts and lovers. Yes, Stephanie's love life becomes even more complicated while everything else is going on. Without TastyCakes and pizza, Plum would be well on the way to a nervous breakdown. This all is typical Evanovich. In fact, it is a bit too typical. Very few writers are able to avoid formula writing when a series begins to stretch out into extra innings, and 'Hard Eight' has started to show the inevitable signs of strain. As a plot, it is very reminiscent of 'High Five.' But while that was fun and original, this time the sight gags and sarcasm are beginning to wear thin. Evanovich's solution seems to be to have the same things happen, but even more often. This time Stephanie loses enough cars and handcuffs to stock a small police department. The single thing that bother's me most is the degeneration of Stephanie's character. Not all that long ago, she was a feisty woman who was down on her luck but determined to make things come out right. The humor was clever and she often gave as good as she got. Now she is a near incompetent who spends to much time being a victim of her own poor choices. The humor has shifted to slapstick and too often Stephanie is the joke. And she has started to rely on anyone but herself when problems occur. Often this is funny, but I keep finding myself wincing rather than laughing. I want the old Stephanie back.
28 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Still Laughing Out Loud!!May 13, 2003
Hard Eight is a great addition to the Stephanie Plum series. It gives you everything the other seven books have. Hillarious scenes with the classic characters of wacky Grandma Mazur, Lula, and the rest of the Plum family plus unexpected new twists that break away from the romantic plot line. New involvement with Ranger and Joe, he is still in the running. This installment is about the search for a missing woman named Evelyn and daughter Annie. Evelyn's grandmother Mabel is a neighbor of the Plum family and she asked Stephanie for her help. Evelyn's ex-husband is about to get a child custody bond funded by Mabel as she put her house up for this. Mabel fears she'll lose her home if Evelyn isn't found and she fears for her great-granddaughter. So, Stephanie, our bounty hunter and her good friend Lula start snooping around and before long they have a run in with Evelyn's landlord, Eddie Abruzzi. Abruzzi, is a nasty man who adds a much needed dark edge to this story. The humor you expect in a Stephanie Plum book is still there. Stephanie is still between Joe and Ranger. Stephanie still is blowing up cars and the drama from her friend Lula is still a riot. I liked this book the least out of the series but it is still well worth the read and I still found myself laughing out loud several times. If you enjoy this series and who couldn't, this is a must read!
12 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Better than #7, but fumbling stumbling Plum gets old !Aug 04, 2002
By Gerald M. Bull
"Jerry Bull"
We thoroughly enjoyed Janet Evanovich's first six Stephanie Plum series about a bounty hunter who has trouble getting out of her own way. With a crazy supporting cast family, especially Grandma Mazur; and two male romantic interests -- Ranger, a fellow mysterious bounty hunter; and Morelli, a cop who deflowered Plum in high school, and who seems to be the best bet for her long term -- the humor and enjoyment seemed to come as a natural byproduct of the stories and the author's writing style. However, book #7 seemed so forced out it was a huge disappointment to almost all but the die-hard fans. Thankfully, Hard Eight is more of a return to the earlier work. Our only quibble is that now the ineptitude of Plum, and her tendency to burn up cars and find dead bodies all over the place, is getting a bit stale. It may be the set has little remaining life expectancy as is.
But this one continues to entertain with a light story about Plum's inability to capture one of her assignments; about a lawyer named Kloughn, the [brunt] of innumerable "clown" jokes, who follows Plum around like a puppy; and Steph's inability to resolve her own conflicts about the two men in her life and what to do about them. She finally "gets lucky" about halfway through the book, at which point we were almost relieved for her. But the book ends on some of the same querulous notes about her and Morelli as we've heard before.
A plot about a missing neighbor and her daughter was a slight shift from earlier books, but pretty much continued to pose as the excuse for the Plum goings-on throughout. In sum, Hard Eight represents a pretty typical entry in the Evanovich Plum series, but for those that have read all eight, the title may have some subtle ulterior meanings. Before we get "Nine Ball" (or whatever), perhaps somebody can figure out how to give Plum's life a facelift, as she does not seem to be growing older on us gracefully.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Needs more character development.Jun 01, 2003
By Jami Riley
"jnshank"
I've recently discovered this series and have read books 1-8 in a matter of days. First off, the series itself is EXCELLENT. Fresh and inventive, and outrageously funny. However, Hard Eight was a bit of a disappointment. Mrs. Evanovich, some things for you to consider:
Enough with the cars blowing up. We get it. Let's not go overboard and beat a dead horse. Characters need to grow. Grandma needs a steady boyfriend. Lula needs to start working full time as a bond enforcer ON HER OWN, not just as Steph's wacky sidekick. Morelli needs to find a new girlfriend, if only to realize it's Steph that he truly loves. Steph needs space to become independent. Ranger needs more than a 2 paragraph resolution on the sex issue. We need to see the BatCave. Put a blindfold on Steph to get here there if you have to, but we need to know more about Ranger! And as for our heroine. First, she needs to practice with the gun more. For someone who is very smart, she occasionally acts very stupidly when she forgets to bring or won't use her gun. Plus, she needs to take some damn self defense courses. It wouldn't hurt to see Steph kicking some butt once in a while.
11 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Okay, but Evanovich can do (and has done) better...Jun 23, 2002
In many ways, "Hard Eight" is a typical Stephanie Plum novel. You've got your love triangle, you've got your bad car-ma, you've got your tag-along bounty hunter wannabe's. There are some fun moments, but overall, the book reads like a rough draft rushed to the press. "Hard Eight" hits the ground running as neighbor Mabel Markowitz makes a tearful plea to Steph - find her granddaughter and great-granddaughter or she'll lose her house. Nothing makes a Burg woman more uncomfortable than an outright display of emotion, and Steph reluctantly agrees to help. In the course of her search, she crosses the wrong kind of folks, and, as usual, finds herself up to her neck in very bad guys. Unfortunately, a story with so much promise fizzles out in the midst of tepid new characters - such as lawyer Albert Kloughn, whose big recurring joke is that people call him "clown" and he's forced to repeatedly spell his name - and storylines which wrap up a bit too hastily for all the time and emotion invested. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is in how the Ranger/Morelli love triangle is handled, with swift, forced, and out-of-character pronouncements stuffed in between dead bodies and exploding vehicles. One of the series' most endearing qualities has been the emotional tango Steph has been dancing with these two sexy guys. In "Hard Eight" the tango turns into an awkward clomp through muddy terrain, with no one staying true to character. While I don't begrudge Evanovich her well-earned success, I wish it didn't come at the cost of the quality of the work. The more visible an author is, the higher the pressure to turn out the next money-maker, and sadly that's how "Hard Eight" felt to me as I read it. Another draft would have done wonders for the book... here's hoping Evanovich has the time to do the series justice with "Nine."
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