Janet Evanovich (née Schneider; April 22, 1943) is an American writer. She began her career writing short contemporary romance novels under the pen name Steffie Hall, but gained fame authoring a series of contemporary mysteries featuring Stephanie Plum, a former lingerie buyer from Trenton, New Jersey, who becomes a bounty hunter to make ends meet after losing her job. The novels in this series have been on The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestseller lists. Evanovich has had her last seventeen Plums debut at #1 on the NY Times Best Sellers list and eleven of them have hit #1 on USA Today Best-Selling Books list. She has over two hundred million books in print worldwide, and her books have been translated into over 40 languages.

Early years

Evanovich is a second-generation American born in South River, New Jersey, to a machinist and a housewife. she became the first in her family to attend college when she enrolled at Douglass Residential College, part of Rutgers University, to study art. Still unable to find a publisher, Evanovich stopped writing and signed with a temporary employment agency. Several months after beginning work for them, she received an offer to buy her second romance manuscript for $2,000, which she considered an "astounding sum".

Romance novels

That novel, Hero at Large, was published in 1987 in the Second Chance Love category line under the pseudonym Steffie Hall.

Stephanie Plum Series

She quickly decided that she wanted to write romantic adventure novels. Unlike the style of romance novels, her books would be told in first person narrative.

Inspired by the Robert De Niro movie Midnight Run, Evanovich decided that her heroine would be a bounty hunter. To become acquainted with the demands of the career, Evanovich spent a great deal of time shadowing bond enforcement agents. She also researched more about the city of Trenton, where she wanted her books to be set.

Evanovich has continued to write romantic adventures starring Plum. The sixth book in the series, Hot Six, was the first of her novels to reach number one on the New York Times Best Seller List. All About Romance has described her as the "rare breed of romance author who has left the genre and yet not alienated her many romance fans".

Shortly before One for the Money was released, Evanovich sold the movie rights to Columbia TriStar for $1 million.

Knight & Moon Series

In 2016 Evanovich released the first book, Curious Minds, in her new Knight & Moon mystery series. Co-authored with Phoef Sutton, the book introduces two new characters, Emerson Knight and Riley Moon. Emerson Knight is a rich, eccentric introvert with little-to-no sense of social etiquette. He is also brilliant and handsome. Riley Moon is a recent Harvard Law and Harvard Business graduate. Her aggressive Texas spitfire attitude helped her land her dream job as a junior analyst at Blane-Grunwald where Emerson is a client. Together this unlikely duo finds themselves thrust into solving the most difficult of mysteries.

Dangerous Minds, the second book in the series, was written by Evanovich and released in June 2017.

Wicked Series

In 2010 Evanovich published Wicked Appetite, spinning off the character Diesel from the between the numbers Plum books. The heroine of Wicked Appetite is sweet cupcake baker Lizzy Tucker, who, unlike Stephanie Plum, can cook. The "Wicked" series is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In the series, Diesel & Lizzy search for the seven stones of power, each representing a different deadly sin. Lizzy & Diesel are "Unmentionables", humans with additional powers. Their rivals for the stones are Diesel's dark cousin, Gerwulf "Wulf" Grimoire, introduced in Plum Spooky and his medieval-esque minion Hatchet. Lizzy's animal companions are one-eyed Cat 7143 and Carl the Monkey, from Fearless Fourteen and Plum Spooky. Her friends include Glo, a "Questionable," and Clara Dazzle, an "Unmentionable" who lost her powers after congress with another "Unmentionable." In Wicked Appetite, the stone sought is that incarnating the sin of gluttony.

In 2012 Evanovich published Wicked Business, the second in the series. In Wicked Business, the stone embodies the sin of lust. A new villain is introduced, deranged candy heiress Deirdre Early, or Anarchy. Lizzy, through a selfless act and exchange of body fluids with Wulf, converts the lust stone into the "icky true love stone", implying that in the right circumstances, the stones of sin can be converted into stones of virtue.

In 2015 Evanovich teamed up with Phoef Sutton for the third novel in the series, Wicked Charms. The Stone of Avarice (Greed) is the focus of this installment.

Fox and O'Hare Series

In June 2013, Evanovich published the novella "Pros & Cons" and the novel The Heist, the first two works in a new series co-written with Lee Goldberg. Since then the series has grown to six novels (The Heist, The Chase, The Job, The Scam, The Pursuit, and The Big Kahuna), two novellas (Pros & Cons and The Shell Game) and one online short-story, The Caper.

The protagonist is FBI special agent Kate O’Hare who has devoted her career to taking down one of the FBI’s most wanted con men and master thieves, Nick Fox. That is until the FBI pairs Kate with the most unlikely person, Nick Fox, to take down criminals. Together they travel the globe skirting on the edge of what is legal and illegal. Kate’s father, Jake O’Hare, a retired Special Forces operative, often aids in their quest. In June 2016, the fifth novel in the series, The Pursuit, was released.

Other novels

Evanovich began a collaboration with Charlotte Hughes because she wanted to see some of her other ideas on paper but did not have the time to write them. This resulted in the "Full" series. Set in Beaumont, South Carolina, it features Jamie Swift and Maximillian Holt, who meet in the second "Full" book, Full Tilt.

In 2004, Evanovich launched the "Motor" series with Metro Girl. It debuted at Number 2 on the New York Times Best Seller List. Cannell died in 2010 of melanoma.

Awards and honors

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Work !! Year & Award!! Category !! Result !! Ref.

|-

|rowspan=6|One for the Money

|1995 Dilys Award

|

|

|

|-

|1995 Macavity Awards

|Best First Mystery Novel

|

|

|-

|1995 Crime Writers' Association

|New Blood Dagger

|

|

|-

|1995 Anthony Awards

|Novel

|

|

|-

|1994 Agatha Award

|rowspan=2|First Novel

|

|

|-

|1995 Edgar Allan Poe Award

|rowspan=2

|

|-

| Two for the Dough

|1997 Macavity Awards

|Mystery Novel

|

|-

|rowspan=2|Three to Get Deadly

|1998 Dilys Award

|

|rowspan=3

|

|-

|1998 Lefty Award

|rowspan=2|Most Humorous Mystery

|

|-

||Four to Score

|1999 Lefty Award

|

|-

|rowspan=2|High Five

|2000 Anthony Awards

|rowspan=2|Novel

|rowspan=3

|

|-

|2000 Barry Award

|

|-

|Hot Six

|2001 Dilys Award

|

|

|-

|Eleven on Top

|2005 Quill Award

|rowspan=2|Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

|rowspan=2

|

|-

|Twelve Sharp

|2006 Quill Award

|

|-

|Finger Lickin' Fifteen

|2010 Goodreads Choice Awards

|rowspan=2|Mystery & Thriller

|

|

|-

|rowspan=2|Smokin' Seventeen

|rowspan=2|2011 Goodreads Choice Awards

|

|

|-

|Favorite Goodreads Author

|rowspan=3

|

|-

| Wicked Business

|2012 Goodreads Choice Awards

|Paranormal Fantasy

|

|-

|rowspan=2|Top Secret Twenty-One

|2014 Goodreads Choice Awards

|Mystery & Thriller

|

|-

|2015 Killer Nashville Awards

|Silver Falchion Award (Romantic Suspense)

|

|

|-

|}

Personal life

During the week, Evanovich works eight or more hours per day. On weekends she generally works for an additional four hours each day.

Published Works

Single romance novels

Originally written under the name Steffie Hall

  • Hero at Large (1987)
  • Thanksgiving (1988)
  • The Grand Finale (1988)
  • Wife for Hire (1988) - with character Elsie Hawkins
  • Foul Play (1989)
  • Manhunt (1988)
  • Ivan Takes a Wife (1988), then republished as Love Overboard (2005)
  • Back to the Bedroom (1989) - with character Elsie Hawkins
  • Smitten (1990) - with character Elsie Hawkins
  • Rocky Road to Romance (1991) - with character Elsie Hawkins
  • Naughty Neighbor (1992)

Stephanie Plum Series

  1. One for the Money (1994)
  2. Two for the Dough (1996)
  3. Three to Get Deadly (1997)
  4. Four to Score (1998)
  5. High Five (1999)
  6. Hot Six (2000)
  7. Seven Up (2001)
  8. Hard Eight (2002)
  9. To the Nines (2003)
  10. Ten Big Ones (2004)
  11. Eleven on Top (2005)
  12. Twelve Sharp (2006)
  13. Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
  14. Fearless Fourteen (2008)
  15. Finger Lickin' Fifteen (2009)
  16. Sizzling Sixteen (2010)
  17. Smokin' Seventeen (2011)
  18. Explosive Eighteen (2011)
  19. Notorious Nineteen (2012)
  20. Takedown Twenty (2013)
  21. Top Secret Twenty-One (2014)
  22. Tricky Twenty-Two (2015)
  23. Turbo Twenty-Three (2016)
  24. Hardcore Twenty-Four (2017)
  25. Look Alive Twenty-Five (2018)
  26. Twisted Twenty-Six (2019)
  27. Fortune & Glory Tantalizing Twenty-Seven (2020)
  28. Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight (2021)
  29. Going Rogue: Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine (2022)
  30. Dirty Thirty (2023)
  31. Now or Never: Thirty-One On the Run (2024)
  32. Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo (2026)

Stephanie Plum and Diesel

:8.5 Visions of Sugar Plums (2002)

:12.5 Plum Lovin (2007)

:13.5 Plum Lucky (2008)

:14.5 Plum Spooky (2009)

Fox & O'Hare Series

:0.1 The Caper (2018) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:0.2 Pros and Cons (2013) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:1 The Heist (2013) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:1.1 The Shell Game (2015) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:2 The Chase (2014) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:3 The Job (2014) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:4 The Scam (2015) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:5 The Pursuit (2016) co-written with Lee Goldberg

:6 The Big Kahuna (2019) co-written with Peter Evanovich

:7 The Bounty (2021) co-written with Steve Hamilton

Wicked Series

  1. Wicked Appetite (2010)
  2. Wicked Business (2012)
  3. Wicked Charms (2015) co-written with Phoef Sutton

Knight and Moon Series

  1. Curious Minds (2016) co-written with Phoef Sutton
  2. Dangerous Minds (2017)

Barnaby and Hooker Series

  1. Metro Girl (2004)
  2. Motor Mouth (2006)
  3. Troublemaker (2007)
  4. Troublemaker 2 (2010)

Gabriella Rose series

  1. The Recovery Agent (2022)
  2. The King's Ransom (2025)

Full Series

Co-written with Charlotte Hughes

  1. Full House (2002)
  2. Full Tilt (2003)
  3. Full Speed (2003)
  4. Full Blast (2004)
  5. Full Bloom (2005)
  6. Full Scoop (2006)

Co-authored romance novels

  • Hot Stuff (2007) co-written with Leanne Banks
  • Love in a Nutshell (2012) co-written with Dorien Kelly
  • The Husband List (2013) co-written with Dorien Kelly

Anthologies

  • The Plot Thickens
  • The Last Peep

Non-fiction

  • How I Write (2006)

References

  • Janet Evanovich Homepage
  • Interview with Janet Evanovich at Veronika Asks

<!-- navboxes -->