One For The Money

Stephanie Plum, the narrator of Janet Evanovich’s 1994 mystery, One For The Money, is fresh out of a marriage, out of a job, and out of luck. Desperate to find employment before she is out of furniture to hawk, too, Stefanie resorts to working for her dodgy cousin Vinnie. He runs a bail bond operation that caters to the criminal elements of Trenton, New Jersey, and he is short a bounty hunter. Stephanie most recently worked as a lingerie buyer; she has never shot a gun, but the big bucks a bounty hunter makes are too enticing. She takes the job. What could go wrong?

Stephanie’s first big assignment as an “apprehension agent” is to catch Trenton police officer Joe Morelli, who, charged with murder, skipped his court date. If Stephanie can snag Morelli within one week, she will receive $10,000. She is not just out for the money; she is also out for revenge.

Stephanie and Joe grew up in the same neighborhood, and handsome, bad boy Joe had a reputation as a heartbreaker. When Stephanie was sixteen, he seduced her, penned some commentary about it on a public restroom wall, and then moved on. When Stephanie was nineteen, she saw him on a sidewalk and jumped the curb in her father’s Buick to run him down. Now in her thirties, Stephanie is still looking to settle the score.



In her first of many failed attempts to seize Joe Morelli, Stephanie tails his cousin to the fugitive’s hiding place. When she confronts Morelli, demanding he surrender, even though she has no way to compel his cooperation, he simply laughs at her. Defeated, Stephanie returns to Vinnie’s office, and his secretary arranges for Vinnie’s superstar bounty hunter, “Ranger,” to school her in the job’s basic skills.

Ricardo Carlos “Ranger” Manoso runs his own security company but does high-risk apprehensions for Vinnie. He dresses in black and, like Morelli, has an irresistible smile. After he outfits Stephanie with a revolver and shows her the ropes of bond enforcement, he briefs her on Morelli’s case. While there is no question that Morelli shot a man named Ziggy Kuleska, Morelli claims Kuleska was armed and he, Morelli, acted in self-defense. However, no weapon beyond Morelli’s was found in the apartment of Carmen Sanchez, where the shooting occurred. Sanchez, a prostitute who associated with Kuleska, has not been seen since he died, but Morelli insists there was another witness in the apartment.

Stephanie’s parents and grandmother live just a few blocks from her apartment, and she joins them for weekly dinners. Eccentric, feisty, and partial to wearing spandex bike shorts, Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur thinks her granddaughter’s new job is exciting and glamorous. When Stephanie arrives for Sunday dinner with a new gun, Grandma Mazur is so thrilled to hold it, she inadvertently shoots the chicken dinner on the table. Stephanie’s mother, on the other hand, despairs over Stephanie’s bounty-hunting career and wishes she would settle down and have kids.



Assuming that Morelli is furtively meeting with Kuleska’s associates to find the witness to the shooting and clear his name, Stephanie takes the same approach. Kuleska had known ties to heavyweight boxing champ Benito Ramirez and his manager, Jimmy Alpha, so Stephanie heads to their run-down gym on Stark Street in Trenton’s most disreputable neighborhood. In short order, Ramirez, a sexual predator, is pressing his attentions on Stephanie. When she rebuffs him, he becomes unhinged and tries to rape her. Morelli suddenly appears and stops Ramirez by firing his gun, then vanishes again.

In their game of cat and mouse, Stephanie, the ex-lingerie buyer, is outmatched by the experienced cop, Morelli. Again and again she crosses paths with him, only to have him give her the slip, and sometimes a kiss, as there is still a strong attraction between them. In one clumsy attempt to draw him out of hiding, Stephanie “commanders” Morelli’s Jeep as bait. She removes the distributer cap to prevent him from recovering the vehicle, but Morelli has the last laugh when he enters her apartment while she’s showering, handcuffs her to the curtain rod, and tosses the keys in a dumpster.

Meanwhile, Ramirez aggressively stalks Stephanie, proving himself dangerous and deranged. Hoping to get a lead on the whereabouts of the prostitute Carmen Sanchez, Stephanie talks with Carmen’s fellow Stark Street-walkers, Lula and Jackie. When Stephanie continues to shun Ramirez, he cuts and rapes Lula, then ties her to Stephanie’s fire escape. Stephanie rescues Lula, who is hospitalized in time to save her life. Stephanie then confronts Alpha, Ramirez’s manager, about the boxer’s demented behavior, and he admits Ramirez “goes a little crazy with women.”



Morelli makes an offer Stephanie can’t refuse: if she helps him prove his innocence, he’ll let her “apprehend” him and collect the $10,000 reward. She agrees, and he shares his side of the story. Just before the shooting, Carmen called Morelli for help. When he arrived at her apartment, he was met not by Carmen, but by Kuleska wielding a gun, and another man with a flat nose. Kuleska fired, and Morelli returned fire, killing Kuleska. To corroborate his story, Morelli must find the flat-nosed witness.

Stephanie visits Sal’s butcher shop, which Kuleska frequented, and sees the flat-nosed man – Louis – behind the counter. After Stephanie leaves, Louis drives to the harbor, followed by Stephanie and Morelli. Later, they return to the harbor and find Sal’s van, apparently abandoned. Inside, they uncover the dead bodies of Carmen, Sal, and Louis. They argue about calling the authorities, and after impulsively locking Morelli up with the bodies, Stephanie delivers him into police custody.

When Stephanie returns to her apartment, Jimmy Alpha is there to kill her. He confesses that Ramirez, his money-maker, was getting too lawless with women. Looking for a career change, Alpha hooked up with Sal and Kuleska, who worked for a Jamaican cartel smuggling drugs through the harbor. They sold them out of Carmen’s apartment. Then Carmen became uncooperative, so Kuleska killed her, but not before she called Morelli. Now Alpha wants out of the cartel, so he is dispatching everyone who ties him to it, planning to set up Ramirez as the fall guy.



Alpha tries to finish off Stephanie, but only shoots her rear end. Stephanie fires at Alpha, killing him. Because Morelli miked Stephanie, the recording of her exchange with Alpha exonerates him, and they share a pizza.

One For The Money is the first of more than twenty novels in Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum mystery series. A film adaptation of it was released in 2012.