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Author Janet Evanovich may be best known for her quirky Stephanie Plum crime thrillers. But there’s more to this best-selling author than just a bounty-hunting Jersey girl. And in The Bounty, the seventh Fox and O’Hare adventure, co-written with Steve Hamilton, she once again tones down the wackiness to take readers on a death-defying, globe-traveling adventure.
The story goes on a secret mission with FBI agent Kate O’Hare and con-man turned associate Nick Fox. When a break-in at the Vatican leads them to information about the location of billions of dollars in long-hidden gold that was stolen by the Nazis, Kate and Nick team up with their fathers, Quentin Fox and former special forces operative Jack O’Hare to follow the clues. But in order to recover the gold, they’ll have to battle a shadowy organization known as The Brotherhood, which seems to know their every move even before they do.
This high-stakes scavenger hunt leads the quartet from one famous monument to another—whether they’re scaling the Eiffel Tower or trying to avoid waking sleeping polar bears. At each stop, they end up battling the Brotherhood’s goons and the local authorities before racing off in search of the next clue. That means that they never have a lot of time to settle into any location—to give readers a real feel for the settings—but their constant movement means that the pace never really slows.
The Fox and O’Hare series doesn’t have the same over-the-top comedy of the Stephanie Plum mysteries, but that’s not to say that it’s a super-serious serious. It’s still written with a healthy sense of humor, though it’s not nearly as silly and light-hearted. The focus is less on laughs (and, in this installment, less on the characters’ complicated romance, too) and more on action as the characters follow one clue after another in their quest to find this fabled treasure.
The result isn’t an especially memorable novel. Though the characters are likable, their personalities don’t get as much of a chance to shine through this time around. And, in the end, that makes it an entertaining but somewhat generic crime thriller.
With its mix of action, history, and hidden riches, The Bounty feels a lot like a National Treasure adventure. It doesn’t have the same strong personality as some of Evanovich’s other novels, but it’s still a fun and fast-paced read.
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