Evanovich’s ‘Eleven on Top’ prime Plum

In Janet Evanovich’s first Stephanie Plum book, readers learned that Stephanie once tried to kill (if only half-heartedly) Joe Morelli, her lifelong neighbor, Trenton, N.J., police officer, and inveterate lech.

By “Eleven on Top” — appropriately, the 11th book in the series — Morelli, aka Officer Hottie, has gotten used to the perils of Stephanie and she to his overactive libido, and she’s mulling his marriage proposal.

Of course, Stephanie still has feelings (even if they’re most lust than love) for Ranger, the mysterious Cuban-American former fellow bounty hunter who has established his own security empire. Ranger’s not only a former fellow bounty hunter but also a fellow former bounty hunter because Stephanie, weary of being shot at on a regular basis, has decided to give up the biz, but is stymied somewhat by Trenton’s lack of desirable jobs and her own involvement in serial explosions, all of them beyond her control.

Is the rodentlike Spiro Stiva — whose nursing home Stephanie helped incinerate in the second Plum book — stalking her in an attempt to get revenge? Will she marry Morelli? Can she resist Ranger?

You’ll have to read “Eleven on Top” to find out. But here’s one sure thing: that the book continues the rollicking, irreverent tone established in the other Plum books — and will remind you of people you have known and loved. And loathed.