Three to Get Deadly
First edition
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| Author | Janet Evanovich |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Stephanie Plum |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
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Publication date
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February 14, 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 304 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 35280874 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3555.V2126 T48 1997 |
| Preceded by | Two for the Dough |
| Followed by | Four to Score |
Three to Get Deadly is the third novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and was first published in 1997. It won the 1998 Dilys Award.
When a kind old candy store owner (Uncle Mo) goes FTA (failure to appear) after being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is sent out to haul him back to jail.
The title comes from the saying "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to GO!"
Stephanie is on the trail of beloved Moses Bedemier, a mild-mannered man who runs an ice-cream parlor/candy store in the Burg. Mo is an upstanding citizen with ties to almost every family in Jersey. Unfortunately, he gets ticketed by an overly-excited, fresh-out-of-the-academy cop for carrying a concealed weapon, and then fails to appear for his court date. No one wants to help Stephanie haul "Uncle Mo" (as he is widely known) to jail, so her detective work is frustratingly slow. "Mo would never do anything wrong," is the standard refrain from all the Burg's residents when Stephanie questions them.
Since her neighbors and family refuse to help her, she calls on her mentor Ranger, her sidekick (and aspiring bounty hunter) Lula, and Joe Morelli, vice cop and former lover. As she investigates, Stephanie confides to Morelli that something feels wrong about Mo - everyone loves him for his profession, but no one seems to know anything about his private life, and a concealed weapons charge is not serious enough for him to go on the run.
Lula's friend Jackie, still working as a prostitute on Stark Street, asks Stephanie to help her find her worthless boyfriend, who disappeared with Jackie's almost-new car. A short while later, they find the man's body under the car, shot dead. Even more strange, while snooping through the basement of Mo's ice cream shop, Stephanie finds four dead bodies buried in the dirt, all drug dealers. Stephanie suspects that mild-mannered Mo has become a vigilante.
This suspicion soon circulates around the Burg, and, far from being upset, most of the residents decide Mo is a hero and still refuse to help Stephanie find him. Worse, men in masks are following her around, threatening to kill her if she keeps looking for Mo.
It is Stephanie's slimy cousin Vinnie who provides the final clue. Vinnie had already told her that Mo was secretly homosexual, but she has a theory about his connection with the drug dealers, and Vinnie's investigation confirms it: Mo, under an alias, is actually a renowned director and producer of underground BDSM films. He owns a small rural house outside Trenton under that alias, where he shoots most of his movies.
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