Three to Get Deadly

infobox Book |
name = Three to Get Deadly
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 1997 Paperback cover
author = Janet Evanovich
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Stephanie Plum
subject =
genre = Crime novel
publisher = St. Martin's Press
release_date = February 14, 1997
media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
pages = 304 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-684-82265-2
preceded_by = Two for the Dough
followed_by = Four to Score

"Three to Get Deadly" is the third novel by Janet Evanovich featuring the bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and was first published in 1997. It won the 1998 Dilys Award.

Plot introduction

When a kind old candy store owner goes FTA (failure to appear) after being arrested for carrying concealed, Stephanie Plum is sent out to haul him back to prison.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title comes from the saying "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to GO!"

Plot Summary

Stephanie is on the trail of beloved Moses Bedemier, a mild-mannered, predictable man who runs an ice-cream parlor/candy store in the Burg. Mo is an upstanding citizen with ties to almost every family in Jersey. Unfortunately, he gets ticketed by an overly-excited cop for carrying a concealed weapon, and then doesn't show up for his court date. No one wants to help Stephanie haul "Uncle Mo" (as he is widely know) to jail, so her detective work is frustratingly slow. "Mo would never do anything wrong," Stephanie is told by the Burg residents.

Since her neighbors and family refuse to help her, she calls on her mentor Ranger, her sidekick (and aspiring bounty hunter) Lula, and Joe Morelli, vice cop and former lover. As Stephanie attempts to resume her relationship with Morelli, they are constantly interrupted - first by criminals, then by Stephanie's accidental dye job that makes her look like Ronald McDonald.

When Stephanie begins stumbling across the bodies of dead drug dealers, including four buried in the candy store basement, she suspects that mild-mannered Mo has become a vigilante. Was that why Mo carried a concealed weapon?

Stephanie must figure out if Mo has begun cleaning up the streets in a one-man killing spree.

Car Death

#Baby Nissan Pickup, shot by a rocket launcher

Awards and nominations

"Three to Get Deadly" won the 1998 Dilys Award presented by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.cite web |url=http://www.mysterybooksellers.com/dilys.html |title=The Dilys Award |author= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |format= |work= |publisher= |pages= |language= |archiveurl= http://www.webcitation.org/5aMnQELWH|archivedate= 2008-08-26|quote= |accessdate=2008-08-26]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.evanovich.com/3ex.html Excerpt from Janet Evanovich's official site]