A review by mareich
The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich

3.0

As a long-time Evanovich fan, I picked up this book with a bit of eagerness. Sad to say, "The Recovery Agent" is decent, but Gabriella Rose is no Stephanie Plum. Gabriella is (somehow) making a living recovering things for clients, and is on the trail of a mysterious ring, "The Seal of Solomon," which is part of a lost Conquistador treasure. Along the way, she tangles with a lunatic proponent of a mystical death cult god who also wants to ring in order to activate an army of zombie warriors to bring the death god to power. Sounds looney, and it is looney, and along the way, we meet a number of Gabriella's friends and associates, including an ex-husband, grandmother, and some drug-lord henchmen who are helping her in her quest. Don't get me wrong, some of the plots in Stephanie Plum books were quite looney as well, so looniness alone isn't a disqualifier. It's not fair to draw too many comparisons to the world of Stephanie Plum, because over the course of dozens of books, we've come to know her friends, family, and associates very well, but we really don't learn much about Ms. Rose's compatriots. The book doesn't have the plot development or humor of the Plum novels, even the least of the latter. So, it was a good enough book, which moved along fairly quickly, but didn't measure up to what I hoped for. Maybe subsequent stories will elevate Ms. Rose's exploits.