hard eight by janet evanovich

Another adventure in the life of Stephanie Plum. This time around she is low on FTA's at the time and is recruited in order to help track down Evelyn and Annie soder. they are the daughter and granddaughter of her parents next door neighbor, Mabel. The only current bail jumper is a reoccurring domestic violence. The guy is a constant drunk and know for beating his wife but was released after his last attempted. It took them several tries to arrest him. The first time he tried to shot them through the door with a shotgun so her and her sometimes partner in crime Lula took off. The second time she only got one cuff on before he broke loose from them and drove off in his car. The final time she thought she had him shelf had attached a pair of cuffs to the tow kit with a metal chain to the back of her car. She got him attached but he managed to get away and drove off in her car since the chain was long enough to reach the drivers due. He ultimately died of a high strain flu so she did not need to bring him in. Cant bring in a dead guy now can we. She was now helping Mable find Evelyn and Annie because they had a child bond placed on Annie during a custody battle and Mable's house was used as collateral. she tries to find Evelyn and is finally able to track her down though a child hood friend of hers but that doesn't last long. The friend the goes MIA with Evelyn. They are all running from Eddie Abruzzi who isn't someone you want to tangle with. Both Ranger and her on again off again fiance Joe Morelli suggest steering clear of him. Turns out Abruzzi now owns the bar the girls father owned due to money he borrowed from a friend during a card game. The friend was owned by Abruzzi and Mr soder couldn't pay it back so the bar became his. It turns out Abruzzi was looking for Evelyn due to war medal that was supposedly napoleon's and worth a lot of money. It was his good luck charm when he played his war games. Annie took it off his desk during a party and Evelyn fled with her thinking this was their way out. Abruzzi was constantly harassing Stephanie thinking she knew where the Medal was. He left snakes on her door in a bag and huge spiders in her car. He had one of his goons torch her car as well. In the ended they kidnapped her sister Valerie as leverage. She knew Evelyn had fled to Florida but she didn't know where. Abruzzi burned her through torture thinking she would confess if she had the right motivation but she didn't know any more than he did. Valerie saved her crashing through the window of the house she was begin held hostage. When they got back she went home with Joe and took Valerie Home. the next day Eddie Abruzzi was found dead in a car with a suicide note...

Did he really commit suicide?