Stephanie Plum is a funny, plucky character who is in way over her head but sticks to her guns anyway, initially out of desperation but then out of her natural persistence. One for the Money is definitely an entertaining book it’s easy to see why the now very long series is so popular. Trying to prove that she can be equal to the task makes Stephanie get serious - that, and the threat of rape by a twisted prize fighter whom she meets while trying to track down Morelli. It continues that way when she runs into Joe Morelli several times in the course of trying to bring him in - and he manages to embarrass and tease her (and sometimes confuse her a little in the kissing department) all while slipping away from her grasp. Suddenly, the case is much more personal. It turns out that the suspect worth that ten grand is the sweet-talking neighbor from her childhood who deflowered her in the bakery where she worked as a teen.

It was expected she’d be a file clerk, but since that position has just been filled, Stephanie manages to finagle a job - on a week-long trial basis - as a “recovery agent.” The lure of $10,000 for bringing in a murder suspect is just too irresistible for Stephanie to pass up, even though she knows nothing about being a bounty hunter. When she finally breaks down and tells her parents that she’s trying to find work, her father points her toward a cousin who runs a bail-bond business. She’s been out of her job as a discount lingerie buyer for six months, she’s sold off most of her appliances to pay the rent, and her cute little Miata has just been repossessed.

One for the money series in order