HARD EIGHT

The Stephanie Plum novels feel as if the world of Patricia Cornwell has been invaded by Bridget Jones, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. Here bail bondswoman (read bounty hunter) Stephanie Plum is trying in her usual inept way to track down the normal (read dislikable going on poisonous) bail jumpers with her irresistible sidekick, Lula, a large black former hooker. When Plum undertakes, as a favor, to try to find a missing child, she gets crosswise with an ugly character called Eddie Abruzzi. Lorelei King excels at a cross- section of working-class New Jersey eccentrics as broad as the trunk of a redwood. Thoroughly entertaining. B.G. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 02/ JAN 03]