One for the money

Patricia is guest-blogging

Last weekend the latest Katherine Heigl movie opened in American cinemas. 'One for the money' is based on the first book focusing on the misadventures of Stephanie Plum a female bounty hunter by Janet Evanovich. Eighteen books have been published in this popular series so far.In 'One for the money' Stephanie has divorced her cheating husband and has been laid off from her job as a lingerie buyer. She has no income and when faced with the prospect of moving back in with her parents she takes a job with her cousin Vinnie who owns a bail bond office. She applies for a post as a clerk but when she finds that the position has already been filled she becomes an 'apprehension agent'. Her first job is to find Joe Morelli, a vice cop suspected of murder, with whom she has a 'history' and is the local bad boy. Stephanie has no clue how to find and apprehend him and stumbles from one hilarious situation to another but through sheer luck and determination she 'gets her man'. She is surrounded by a series of colourful characters which include her matchmaking mother, gun crazy grandmother, a fellow bounty hunter named Ranger.

The books are written in the first person and Stephanie's view on life, her family and friends are very honest and often laugh out funny :

'There are some men who enter a woman's life and screw it up forever. Joseph Morelli did this to me – not forever, but periodically'.

'Two years ago, when Grandpa Mazar's fat-clogged arteries sent him to the big pork roast in the sky, Grandma Mazur had moved in with my parents and had never moved out. My father accepted this with a combination of Old-World stoicism and tactless mutterings.'

I have to admit that I read the first three books of the series in a row : 'One for the money', 'Two for the dough' and 'Three to get deadly' but by the third book I was tired of the uniformity of the books. This does not often happen to me since when I find an author or series of books I like, I tend to devour every single book I can get my hands on. I am not saying that the books are bad or not well written, I just found that they have to be read in dollops and I intend to go back to this series every once in while.

Now to get back to the movie. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the movie since a number of people have said that Katherine Heigl was not who they imagined playing Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli has been changed from an Italian American to an Irish American as he is being played by Jason O'Mara (from the US version of Life on Mars and Terra Nova). Daniel Sunjata has been cast as Ranger and viewers of Grey's Anatomy will recognise him as the good looking nurse who catches a certain doctor's eye and I predict that he will be 'one to watch'. I have seen the trailer of the movie and despite the controversies mentioned above it seems to be quite faithful to the book. The reviews of the movie have not been flattering but I will definitely be watching it to see how it compares to the book and to see the great Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazar.