
In Death
mystery
Series · mystery
The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich has 36 books and is best read in publication order, starting with One for the Money (1994). The next book, Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo, is due 10 November 2026.
Start here: One for the Money (1994) — then read straight through in publication order.
The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.
Stephanie Plum is a laid-off lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who talks her way into a job as a bail bondsman's apprentice and turns out to be a chaotic, gun-averse, car-destroying natural at bounty hunting. Janet Evanovich built the series as comic crime fiction rather than a straight procedural: every book sends Stephanie after a new low-level skip (a bail jumper who's failed to show for court), and the actual mystery plot is really a frame for Jersey-flavoured slapstick, a rotating love triangle between brooding cop Joe Morelli and mercenary security expert Ranger, and a supporting cast — Stephanie's gun-toting Grandma Mazur, her foul-mouthed former-prostitute-turned-partner Lula, and her exploding cars — that has kept readers coming back for three decades.
The appeal is pure comfort-read comedy with just enough crime plot to keep the pages turning: bumbling capers, running gags, and a bounty hunter who solves cases mostly by accident and stubbornness. It's for readers who want a light, funny mystery series rather than a dark one, and who don't mind that not much changes for Stephanie book to book — the love triangle in particular has stayed famously unresolved for over 25 entries. With more than a book a year since 1994, it's one of the longest-running character mystery series still actively publishing new instalments.
There are 32 numbered novels counting the upcoming Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo (10 November 2026), plus four "between the numbers" holiday novellas (Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, and Plum Spooky).
Numbered/publication order, starting with One for the Money. The between-the-numbers novellas can be read at the point they fall in the sequence, or skipped entirely.
The love triangle between cop Joe Morelli and security specialist Ranger has been a running thread since early in the series and remains deliberately unresolved across 31+ books — going in expecting a decisive answer will lead to disappointment.
No, it's ongoing. Janet Evanovich has published roughly a book a year since 1994, and book 32, Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo, is scheduled for 10 November 2026.
No. Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, and Plum Spooky are fun but inessential side stories; skipping them and reading only the numbered novels loses nothing important.
Reading order last verified .