Quick Take
- Narration: Lorelei King is Stephanie Plum, her performance has become so identified with these books over two decades that listening to any other narrator would feel genuinely strange, and her comedic timing remains impeccable.
- Themes: The pleasures of repetition, love triangles that never resolve, the comedy of professional incompetence elevated to art form
- Mood: Fizzy, warm, and built for anyone who has ever needed a book that asks nothing of them
- Verdict: Volume twenty-three is exactly what it needs to be for fans, and those fans will not be surprised to learn that it is not for everyone.
I have a complicated relationship with long-running series fiction. On one hand, I believe deeply in the capacity of serialized storytelling to build something that no single volume can, the accumulated weight of character, the slow revelation of who people are across decades of choices. On the other hand, there are series that operate on a different logic entirely, one where accumulation is not the point and where each installment is designed not to develop but to return. Stephanie Plum is the purest example I know of the second category, and Turbo Twenty-Three, the twenty-third book in Janet Evanovich’s series, is exactly what it is, no more and no less.
The plot, as always, is a delivery mechanism. A bounty hunter’s fleeing target leaves behind a refrigerated truck of ice cream and a body frozen solid and coated in chocolate and pecans. This is not a metaphor or a symbol; it is a setup for sixty miles of comic investigation involving the ice cream factory, its employees, an undercover assignment, and the eternal triangle of Stephanie, Ranger, and Joe Morelli. If you have read any of the previous twenty-two books, you know what those proper nouns mean. If you haven’t, the book will tell you enough to follow the plot but nothing approaching the full texture of the joke.
Our Take on Turbo Twenty-Three
What Evanovich has built over twenty-plus volumes is something genuinely unusual in popular fiction: a comic world so thoroughly established that its very repetitiveness is part of the pleasure. The recurring cast, Stephanie’s mother, Grandma Mazur, Lula, Connie at the bond office, are so deeply inhabited that their appearances are small reunions rather than introductions. One reviewer described starting the series during a hospital stay and still collecting the books years later in hardcover, getting her mother and grandmother addicted to them along the way. That loyalty has nothing to do with plot progression and everything to do with the particular warmth Evanovich creates in her fictional Trenton.
The ice cream factory setting is well-chosen for exactly the obvious reason: it is inherently comedic, and it keeps Stephanie in proximity to both physical comedy and genuine access to ice cream, which she relates to with the kind of passion that functions as one of the series’ most reliable running jokes. The undercover assignment structure gives the thriller plot more coherence than some of the earlier books, and the Ranger-Morelli tension is managed with the usual deft unwillingness to resolve it.
Why Listen to Turbo Twenty-Three
Lorelei King. Full stop. She has narrated these books since the beginning, and her performance as Stephanie, the slight exasperation, the genuine warmth, the perfect beat on the comedy, has become inseparable from the character. King’s timing with Grandma Mazur is particularly good in this volume, and her ability to differentiate the voices of Trenton’s extended fictional community without making any of them cartoonish is part of what makes these audiobooks work better than the text alone.
At six hours and thirteen minutes, this is brisk even for the series, which tends to run light. The length is appropriate. Evanovich knows how much story this kind of book can carry, and she doesn’t overstay. For regular listeners, the pacing is part of the familiar pleasure; for newcomers, it should be seen as a feature rather than as evidence of thinness.
What to Watch For in Turbo Twenty-Three
One of the most honest reviews this book received came from someone who gave it three stars and described it plainly: “the same story being told for the 23rd time.” That is accurate, and whether it is a problem or a pleasure depends entirely on why you’re listening. Long-running series of this type are not broken because they repeat themselves; they repeat themselves because repetition is the entire deal. The question for a prospective listener is not whether the book breaks new ground, it does not, and it makes no pretense of doing so, but whether you want to spend six hours in this company.
The series’ most persistent criticism, that Evanovich should resolve the love triangle, that the characters should grow in ways that would end the series’ fundamental premise, reflects a category error about what the books are for. Turbo Twenty-Three is comfort fiction refined to its essence. It does not have a third act problem because it is not a book with a third act; it is a book with a very good ongoing middle.
Who Should Listen to Turbo Twenty-Three
If you have read the previous twenty-two books: yes, obviously, you already know what this is and whether you want more of it. If you are considering starting the series: do not start here. Start with One for the Money, which establishes Stephanie, the setting, and the comic mechanics before the franchise logic locks in. If you are specifically a fan of Lorelei King’s narration performance or of Janet Evanovich’s comic writing style: this is good value for six hours. If you need your fiction to go somewhere, to build and change and arrive at conclusions, give this a miss and find it its own peace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I start the Stephanie Plum series with Turbo Twenty-Three, or do I need to read from the beginning?
You can follow the plot, but you should start at the beginning to get the real experience. One for the Money is the place to start, it establishes Stephanie, her relationships with Ranger and Morelli, the Trenton setting, and the comedy mechanics that all twenty-three books depend on. Starting at book twenty-three means arriving at a party that’s been going for decades and not knowing any of the guests.
Is Lorelei King’s narration as central to these books as fans suggest?
Yes, genuinely. She has performed these books since the beginning, and her comedic timing has become definitional for how Stephanie reads. Her handling of the extended cast, Grandma Mazur in particular, is one of the genuine pleasures of the audio format for this series. Reading the text version is a different and somewhat lesser experience by this point in the series.
Does the Ranger-Morelli love triangle ever get resolved, and does Turbo Twenty-Three move it forward?
It does not get resolved, and book twenty-three does not move it forward in any meaningful way. This is by design. Evanovich has maintained the triangle across the entire series as part of the format’s structural logic, and listeners who need resolution should know in advance that none is coming. For readers who have made peace with the triangle’s permanent ambiguity, it provides its usual mild pleasures here.
What makes the ice cream factory setting work better than some of the series’ earlier setups?
It gives the undercover assignment more coherence than the series sometimes achieves, and the physical comedy potential of a working ice cream factory is reliably exploitable. The body-in-the-truck setup is among the series’ better inciting incidents in terms of visual absurdity, and the factory environment keeps Stephanie in proximity to food-related comedy that fits her established character.
