by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton (Compact Disc Evanovich)
This is a grudging recommendation for The Bounty. As a general action/adventure novel, it is fine, though perhaps a bit simplistic and predictable. However, as a “Fox & O’Hare” novel, it really misses the mark.
This is technically the seventh novel in the series. The series began in 2013 with The Heist — the first five were co-written by Lee Goldberg. Goldberg went on to focus on his own original works after that and Janet Evanovich co-wrote #6 (The Big Kahuna) in 2019 with her son, Peter — that entry was a train wreck. The Bounty teams Evanovich with best-selling thriller writer Steven Hamilton and almost feels like a rebooting of the whole series.
In the first book in the series, straight-laced no-nonsense FBI agent Kate O’Hare has finally caught Nick Fox, a professional con-man who she’s been chasing for years. But instead of him being locked away behind bars, Kate’s superiors decided to put Nick’s glib, larcenous skills to good use — having him set up “big fish” targets that might be outside the FBI’s grasp — Nick is going to con them into giving up their secrets and their fortunes. But he needs an FBI “handler” to watch over him and make sure he doesn’t break too many laws in the process of taking down the bigger bad guys — and Kate is assigned to be that handler, against her wishes.
The first five books were a brilliant mix of romantic comedy/romantic suspense (these are Janet Evanovich stories — and that’s what she excels at!), and an almost Mission: Impossible feel — Nick would put together the biggest con jobs imaginable, tapping into an extensive network of friends and fellows con artists when needed. The cons always seemed to have hiccups and the fun was in seeing the team of con artists (and the reluctant Kate O’Hare) pull off a seemingly impossible job.
The Bounty has a totally different feel — Kate and Nick are still working together, and their mutual attraction continues to smolder — but this time they are teamed up with their respective fathers — Jake O’Hare is an ex-marine who’s always ready to help Kate with a black ops mission, and Quentin Fox is an arts and antiquities dealer who (unknown to his son Nick) has a background in the intelligence field. Through a complicated series of events, the four of them end up on the run, with part of a treasure map that leads to 400,000 tons of hidden Nazi gold…and only one step ahead of the grandson of one of the original Nazis who hid it (and who wants to launch a new modern Fourth Reich).
This novel features no big scale con games — it is a global adventure race against cartoonish Nazi-like villains. Kate and Nick resemble the Kate and Nick from the earlier novels, but only in superficial ways. This is an entertaining romp, and Scott Brick is my favorite audiobook narrator, so he effectively brings the characters to life. But it is NOT like the marvelous first five books in the series. I recommend it for what it is. But wish it was more like what it had been. Nick and Kate (and Jake and Quentin) are passably competent action adventure heroes, but I’d much rather go back to the con game plots.
[If you haven’t already sampled the first five books in the Fox & O’Hare series co-authored by Lee Goldberg, you’ll want to go back and read those. Skip #6.]
[ official The Bounty page on the official Janet Evanovich web site | official Steve Hamilton web site ]
Recommended
by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services
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If you're a mystery fan, join us for the next Just Desserts meeting tonight, August 26th, where we'll be discussing the suspense novel The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian. The Just Desserts group has returned to
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