Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum is one of the most successful mystery series in modern publishing — 31 books, over 200 million copies sold, a loyal readership that spans three decades. If you've landed here wondering where to start or how to read her books in order, you're in the right place. But because we run a cozy mystery site, we also want to answer the question a lot of cozy readers ask first: is Stephanie Plum actually a cozy mystery? Short answer: not quite. We'll explain why — and why that might not matter to you.
Who Is Stephanie Plum?
Stephanie Plum is a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey who loses her job and, in an act of mild desperation, takes work as a bounty hunter at her cousin Vinnie's bail bonds office. She is not particularly good at it. She loses her gun in the cookie jar. Her cars get blown up (more than thirty of them, by conservative count). She subsists largely on Tastykakes and her mother's pot roast. She is chased, kidnapped, shot at, and set on fire, and somehow always ends up solving the case — usually by accident.
The series is carried by its supporting cast as much as by Stephanie herself. There's Joe Morelli, the Trenton cop Stephanie has known since childhood and who serves as one half of an endless love triangle. There's Ranger, the mysterious, monosyllabic, unreasonably competent private-security operator who serves as the other half. There's Grandma Mazur, who carries a .45 in her pocketbook and insists on attending every viewing at Stiva's funeral home. There's Lula, a former sex worker turned file clerk turned unofficial bounty-hunting partner. And there's the city of Trenton itself, rendered with such specificity and affection that it becomes a character in its own right.
🔍 Is Stephanie Plum a Cozy Mystery?
Not by the strict definition. Traditional cozy mysteries avoid on-page violence, explicit sexuality, and graphic content — the murder happens off-page, the sleuth is an amateur embedded in a specific small community, and the tone is gentle even when the subject matter is dark. Stephanie Plum breaks several of these rules: there's real gunplay, cars literally explode on the page, the Morelli–Ranger love triangle gets genuinely steamy, and the violence, while usually played for comedy, is violence nonetheless.
What the series does share with cozies is considerable: the humor, the ensemble of eccentric recurring characters, the strong sense of place, the amateur-ish protagonist who solves mysteries more through persistence than skill, the absence of anything truly grim or nihilistic. It's why so many cozy readers love Stephanie Plum anyway — it scratches a similar itch with slightly more edge.
The honest classification is humorous mystery or comic crime fiction — cozy-adjacent rather than cozy proper. If you're reading the Plum series between true cozies, you're in good company.
Where to Start: The Essential Stephanie Plum Novels
If you've never read the series, start at the beginning. The early books are widely considered the strongest, and the central relationships pay off far more richly if you've watched them build from book one. Here are the best entry points.
One for the Money (1994)
Newly unemployed and desperate, Stephanie blackmails her cousin Vinnie into giving her a job as a bounty hunter. Her first target: Joe Morelli, a Trenton vice cop accused of murder — and the boy who took her virginity behind the éclair case at the Tasty Pastry bakery when she was sixteen. The foundation of everything that follows. Made into a 2012 film with Katherine Heigl, though the book is considerably better.
Find on Amazon →Three to Get Deadly (1997)
A beloved local candy-store owner jumps bail and Stephanie is sent to find him — only to discover everyone in the Burg is protecting him, and bodies are starting to turn up. This is the book where the voice, the rhythm, and the ensemble cast all finally click. Won the Dilys Award and remains many longtime fans' favorite.
Find on Amazon →Hot Six (2000)
Ranger is wanted for murder and has gone into hiding. Stephanie is assigned to bring him in — a prospect that is difficult for several reasons, most of them to do with Morelli. This was the book that vaulted Evanovich to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and it's easy to see why: tight plotting, laugh-out-loud set pieces, and real emotional stakes.
Find on Amazon →Finger Lickin' Fifteen (2009)
A celebrity chef is decapitated at a barbecue cook-off, Lula witnesses it, and Stephanie ends up competing in the contest herself to smoke out the killers. Every running gag the series has developed — Lula's cooking, the car destruction count, Grandma Mazur at funeral homes — lands perfectly. A great pick if you want to jump in later without starting at book one.
Find on Amazon →Complete Stephanie Plum Reading Order
All 31 published novels in order, plus the announced book 32. The series can technically be read out of order — each book is a standalone mystery — but the running storylines reward reading them sequentially.
- One for the Money (1994)
- Two for the Dough (1995)
- Three to Get Deadly (1997)
- Four to Score (1998)
- High Five (1999)
- Hot Six (2000)
- Seven Up (2001)
- Hard Eight (2002)
- To the Nines (2003)
- Ten Big Ones (2004)
- Eleven on Top (2005)
- Twelve Sharp (2006)
- Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
- Fearless Fourteen (2008)
- Finger Lickin' Fifteen (2009)
- Sizzling Sixteen (2010)
- Smokin' Seventeen (2011)
- Explosive Eighteen (2011)
- Notorious Nineteen (2012)
- Takedown Twenty (2013)
- Top Secret Twenty-One (2014)
- Tricky Twenty-Two (2015)
- Turbo Twenty-Three (2016)
- Hardcore Twenty-Four (2017)
- Look Alive Twenty-Five (2018)
- Twisted Twenty-Six (2019)
- Fortune and Glory (2020)
- Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight (2021)
- Going Rogue (2022)
- Dirty Thirty (2023)
- Now or Never (2024)
- Split Second (2026 — upcoming)
The Between-the-Numbers Novellas
In addition to the main series, Evanovich has published four shorter holiday and supernatural-tinged novellas that sit alongside the numbered books. They're optional — the main storyline doesn't depend on them — but they're fun one-sitting reads, and Diesel (a recurring paranormal character) fans will want to seek out Plum Spooky in particular.
Between-the-Numbers (in publication order)
- Visions of Sugar Plums (2002) — Christmas novella
- Plum Lovin' (2007) — Valentine's novella
- Plum Lucky (2008) — St. Patrick's novella
- Plum Spooky (2008) — Halloween novella
If You Like Stephanie Plum, Try These True Cozies
If Stephanie Plum's humor, strong female lead, and small-community setting are what you love — but you want to explore proper cozy mysteries with the same flavor — these series deliver similar pleasures in a more traditional cozy package. The humor is there. The bodies are offstage.
Miss Fortune Mysteries by Jana DeLeon
The closest cozy equivalent to Stephanie Plum you'll find. A former CIA assassin hides out in a small Louisiana bayou town and teams up with two meddling seniors to solve mysteries. The humor is laugh-out-loud, the ensemble is unforgettable, and Ida Belle and Gertie are essentially Grandma Mazur turned up to eleven. Over 30 books in the series and counting.
Find on Amazon →Meg Langslow Mysteries by Donna Andrews
A blacksmith with a sprawling eccentric Southern family stumbles into murders in small-town Virginia. Each title features a bird; each book features a new variety of family catastrophe. If you love Stephanie Plum for the family dynamics and comedic misadventures, this is your next series. Over 30 books, all funny, all genuinely cozy.
Find on Amazon →Paw Enforcement series by Diane Kelly
A Fort Worth beat cop gets partnered with a K-9 named Brigit after a little too much trigger finger. Action-forward, funny, and explicitly in the Stephanie Plum lineage — Kelly has cited Evanovich as a direct inspiration. Reads faster than most cozies, which will feel familiar to Plum fans.
Find on Amazon →Browse our full directory of cozy mystery authors
Explore Cozy Authors A–Z →Janet Evanovich's Other Series
Beyond Stephanie Plum, Evanovich has written several other mystery series in a similar humorous register. The Fox and O'Hare series (co-authored originally with Lee Goldberg) follows an FBI agent and a con man working cases together. The Lizzy & Diesel (Wicked) series blends mystery with light paranormal. Knight and Moon pairs a billionaire with an ex-Navy cryptologist. And the newer Recovery Agent series stars Gabriela Rose, a high-end recovery specialist — essentially a grown-up, more competent Stephanie. All lean more toward adventure-romance-mystery hybrids than cozies, but Plum readers tend to enjoy them.
Stephanie Plum on Screen
The only screen adaptation to date is One for the Money (2012), starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie, Jason O'Mara as Morelli, and Daniel Sunjata as Ranger. It was not well-received by fans or critics — Heigl's casting was polarizing, and the film failed at the box office, killing any franchise plans. Twenty-plus years of readers have been hoping for a prestige-TV adaptation ever since; as of 2026, none has been announced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Stephanie Plum a cozy mystery?
Not quite. The Stephanie Plum series is more accurately classified as humorous mystery or comic crime fiction. It shares some DNA with cozy mysteries — an amateur-ish protagonist, a distinctive small community, recurring side characters, and a comedic tone — but it includes elements that push it outside the traditional cozy definition: on-page violence including gunplay and car explosions, more explicit sexual content, and a morally complex love triangle. Cozy mystery purists will notice the difference, but readers who enjoy cozies often enjoy Stephanie Plum as a slightly edgier companion read.
Do I need to read the Stephanie Plum books in order?
Not strictly. Each book tells a complete, standalone mystery and Janet Evanovich has said the series can be read in any order. However, the ongoing love triangle between Stephanie, Joe Morelli and Ranger develops across books, and the recurring cast of characters becomes richer if you read in order. Starting with One for the Money is the most rewarding experience.
How many Stephanie Plum books are there?
There are 31 numbered Stephanie Plum novels published to date, with book 32, Split Second, scheduled for November 2026. Janet Evanovich has also written four "between the numbers" novellas that fit into the series timeline: Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, and Plum Spooky.
What is Janet Evanovich's newest book?
Now or Never (Stephanie Plum #31) was published in 2024. The next book in the series, Split Second (also titled Thirty-Two Switcheroo), is scheduled for release in November 2026.