A look at Janet Evanovich's website, especially her biography, indicates that she does not take herself too seriously. She quit writing romance novels because she had "run out of sexual positions..." She "spent two years retooling - drinking beer with law enforcement types, learning to shoot, practicing cussing." So, she created Stephanie Plum, and she (Stephanie) has helped turn her (Janet) into a major business. Her husband oversees the business, her son is the financial guru, and her daughter created and manages the website (4.5 million hits per month!). Take a gander at the web site and click on Motor Mouth for some pictures at a NASCAR race and some of the equipment used.
Promos billed Motor Mouth as "the" NASCAR novel. That's the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, the sport where cars turn left for 200 - 600 miles at speeds up to 170 miles per hour. It is a conventional murder mystery with a single race and one driver as one of the two protagonists. "The NASCAR novel" remains St Dale by Sharyn McCrumb, which captures the milieu perfectly and is great literature to boot. That said, the average NASCAR fan would probably choose Evanovich's version: good story, memorable characters, big print, lots of white space, lots of drinking, lots of sexual innuendo. And, it is written at such a low reading level, about grade 5 based on a sampling of a number of passages, that those who do not normally read books can be drawn by the racing connections and completely enjoy the novel.
Sam Hooker is one of the top drivers on the circuit. He lives in North Carolina, the center of the racing world. His spotter (the person who sits atop the grandstand and lets the driver know what is ahead of him on the track) is Alexandra Barnaby, also known as Barney or Motor Mouth, because she just can't quit talking. Hooker loses a close year-ending race at the Homestead Motor Speedway (Miami) and Barney, who has a degree in engineering and can take a car apart and put it back together, believes the winner was cheating. That leads to the first of many improbable actions worthy of the Three Stooges or Lucy. You know the situation; the viewer/reader sees what is going to happen, but can do nothing to help the characters avoid the trouble they are creating for themselves.
Gobbles, an archetypal good ol' boy and spotter for the winning team, gets trapped in his team's hauler. He calls Hooker and Barney for help. They steal the hauler and take it to a friend in Little Havana where they rescue Gobbles. Trying to discover the cheating (Note: Every team pushes the envelope; NASCAR always takes the winner's car apart to try and ensure no rules infractions have occurred.) they take the cars more completely apart and discover a body (the owner of the winning team) in the process! There is every opportunity to involve the police but that would ruin the suspense.
I like more than a soupçon of reality in my novels. That level is barely approached here. This is not a novel to be taken seriously. It must have been written with Harold Lloyd, Charles Chaplin, the Three Stooges, and Lucy in mind. That said, it will sell very well and contribute mightily to the Evanovich Incorporated bottom line. After all, it is the second novel in the series, Metro Girl being the first. There is a demand for Hooker and Barnaby. This novel is what it is, and that is probably plenty good for a vast section of the reading public. It was a fun read.
I like more than a soupçon of reality in my novels. That level is barely approached here. This is not a novel to be taken seriously. It must have been written with Harold Lloyd, Charles Chaplin, the Three Stooges, and Lucy in mind. That said, it will sell very well and contribute mightily to the Evanovich Incorporated bottom line. After all, it is the second novel in the series, Metro Girl being the first. There is a demand for Hooker and Barnaby. This novel is what it is, and that is probably plenty good for a vast section of the reading public. It was a fun read.
