The Recovery Agent - Janet Evanovich

Gabriela Rose made a brief cameo in Janet Evanovich's last Stephanie Plum book. (Game On) I'd read that there was a new series in the works - the first book has just released - The Recovery Agent. 

Gabriela is a recovery agent, working for individuals, insurance companies etc. seeking, finding and recovering just about anything - for a good fee. This time she’s after something that is more personal, and might save the small town she grew up in. A map leading to the pirate Blackbeard's treasure. 

Gabriela is joined in the hunt by her ex-husband Rafer.  The search leads to jungles, small islands and unknown territory. Along the way they run into others  also looking for the treasure, including a death cult. That jungle setting and the derring-do scenes reminded me of Indiana Jones adventures.

I liked Gabriela. She reminded me of someone. ;0) The dynamic between her and Rafer is fun to read. He's much more laid back than she is. 

Readers of the Plum series are going to notice lots of similar and familiar elements in The Recovery Agent. Gramma Franny lives with Mariela's long suffering mother. There's lots of back and forth with Rafer in the romantic sense. Will they? Won't they? The dialogue is often short and snappy. (Although I found some of the 'jokes' fell a bit flat for me.) The sidekicks are a bit bumbling. And you know things are going to turn out just fine in the end. And honestly, that's what I'm looking for. An entertaining, easy, comfortable listen that won't tax my brain.

Lorelei King was the narrator for The Recovery Agent. She’s an excellent reader and I've enjoyed her work on other titles as well. King is an excellent narrator creating different voices for characters that make them easily identifiable. She has lots of movement and expression in her voice that brings the plot to life. Her voice is pleasant to listen to, easy to understand and well paced. She does narrate the Stephanie Plum series as well and this is where I initially had a bit of a struggle. The voices for The Recovery Agent are very similar to the ones provided in the Plum series. At the beginning, I kept picturing characters from the other series. But that lessened as I got further into the book. A good performance from King. Hear for yourself - listen to an audio excerpt of The Recovery Agent. 

A nice extra is tucked in at the end of the book - a fifteen minute excerpt of the forthcoming (Nov 2022) Stephanie Plum book. #29 is The Rogue.