"excellently entertaining crime caper"

Trenton, New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is still sleeping with the man she loves, Joe Morelli while lusting after security specialist Ranger rarely known by his real name of Ricardo Carlos Manoso. She gets a little breathing room from her conflicted emotions when Ranger tells her that he is going to Miami on an important case.

Not long afterward someone claiming to be Carmen Manoso enters Stephanie's office insisting she is Ranger's wife and that he walked out on her after six months of marriage. This is followed with the news that Ranger kidnapped his daughter who legally belongs to her mother and her second husband. Ranger returns to Trenton seeking Stephanie's help in rescuing his daughter from a person who looks like him. Though skeptical about a doppelganger, Stephanie believes Ranger and becomes the bait to draw the kidnapper out into the open though she knows the danger she faces as the culprit has already killed Carmen.

Readers get to see a different vulnerable Ranger whose confidence is somewhat battered with the abduction of his child, but he has no time to wallow. As the audience learns more about his past, he obsesses on the rescue. Stephanie jumps from one dangerous escapade to another while also trying to balance her love life. The support cast adds either humor or tension as the clock winds down towards a TWELVE SHARP literal deadline in this action- packed thriller. Janet Evanovich will please her myriad of fans with this excellently entertaining crime caper.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 18, 2006

Welcome to Trenton, New Jersey, where bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's life is about to implode in Janet Evanovich's wildest, hottest novel yet!

Summary

FIRST A STRANGER APPEARS
While chasing down the usual cast of miscreants and weirdos Stephanie discovers that a crazed woman is stalking her.

THEN THE STRANGER REVEALS HER SECRETS
The woman dresses in black, carries a 9mm Glock, and has a bad attitude and a mysterious connection to dark and dangerous Carlos Manoso ...street name, Ranger.

NEXT, SOMEBODY DIES
The action turns deadly serious, and Stephanie goes from hunting skips to hunting a murderer.

SOON, THE CHASE IS ON
Ranger needs Stephanie for more reasons than he can say. And now, the two are working together to find a killer, rescue a missing child, and stop a lunatic from raising the body count. When Stephanie Plum and Ranger get too close for comfort, vice cop Joe Morelli (her on-again, off-again boyfriend) steps in.

Will the ticking clock stop at the stroke of twelve, or will a stranger in the wind find a way to stop Stephanie Plum...forever? Filled with Janet Evanovich's trademark action, nonstop adventure, and sharp humor, Twelve Sharp shows why her novels have been called "hot stuff" (The New York Times), and Evanovich herself "the master" (San Francisco Examiner).