Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum)
InHard Eight, Stephanie Plum picks up a case a little nastier  than anything the wisecracking bounty hunter's seen before. Evelyn Soder and her  young daughter have gone on the run, leaving an angry ex-husband who's planning  to collect on a child custody bond that will leave Evelyn's grandmother  homeless. Stephanie's first clue that there's more to it than that comes in the  form of Eddie Abruzzi, a shady local businessman who warns her to butt out of  the case. Stephanie doesn't scare easily, but when Abruzzi's henchmen leave a  bag of snakes on her doorknob and tarantulas in her car, she has no choice but  to call Ranger, the hunky man of mystery whom she already owes too many favors.  Steph knows that Ranger will soon be calling in his marker, but with her ex- fiancé Joe Morelli out of the picture, that should be OK--shouldn't it? In the  meantime, she's got other fugitives to catch, aided by the usual band of  misfits, plus a bumbling correspondence-school lawyer who's developed the hots  for Stephanie's sister, Valerie. And Steph's in for a surprise from her mother,  who proves she's not above wielding a dangerous weapon to save her daughter's  life.Author Janet Evanovich has made a bold move in using a soupçon of child jeopardy  to pullthis seriesout of  the comfortable but formulaic pattern it was threatening to fall into. It's  still funny, and yes, some cars are destroyed, but now there's a real edge of  darkness under the humor. Fans needn't fear, though: Jersey girl Stephanie is  still full of sass and Tastykakes.--Barrie Trinkle