It’s hard to believe Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has been with us for thirteen books now. Have no idea who that is? I didn’t either, until I read a Today excerpt from author Janet Evanovich’s latest book, Lean Mean Thirteen. We find series heroine Plum reunited with her lousy lawyer husband, Dickie Orr, albeit briefly, though, as Orr disappears not fifty pages in, leaving only bloodstains and bullet holes. At the logical top of the list of people who might want Orr dead, Plum sets out to clear her name, and with the aid of super hunky, on-again off-again boyfriend officer Joe Morelli, she discovers just how deep Orr’s lousiness goes.

Need a better reason to read Thirteen? This is a description of Lula, a woman who works in Plum’s cousin’s bail bonds office.

Lula is a black woman with a Rubenesque body and a Vegas wardrobe that’s four sizes too small. She is a former ‘ho, currently working as a file clerk for the office and a wheelman for me … when the mood strikes. Today, she was wearing big fake-fur Sasquatch boots, and her ass was packed into poison-green spandex pants. Her pink sweatshirt had Love Goddess spelled out in sequins across her boobs.

Today calls the novel “daring”, and who am I to disagree?