Below is the complete list of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books in order. For this series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Stephanie Plum Books
- One for the Money (1994)
One for the Money was published in 1994 and is listed as book #1 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Two for the Dough (1996)
Published in 1996, Two for the Dough is listed as book #2 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Three to Get Deadly (1997)
Three to Get Deadly is a 1997 release and appears as book #3 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Four to Score (1998)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Four to Score is book #4 and was published in 1998. - High Five (1999)
High Five was first published in 1999; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #5. - Hot Six (2000)
Hot Six was published in 2000 and is listed as book #6 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Seven Up (2001)
Published in 2001, Seven Up is listed as book #7 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Hard Eight (2002)
Hard Eight is a 2002 release and appears as book #8 in the Stephanie Plum series. - To the Nines (2003)
In the Stephanie Plum series, To the Nines is book #9 and was published in 2003. - Ten Big Ones (2004)
Ten Big Ones was first published in 2004; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #10. - Eleven on Top (2005)
Eleven on Top was published in 2005 and is listed as book #11 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Twelve Sharp (2006)
Published in 2006, Twelve Sharp is listed as book #12 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
Lean Mean Thirteen is a 2007 release and appears as book #13 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Fearless Fourteen (2008)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Fearless Fourteen is book #14 and was published in 2008. - Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (2009)
Finger Lickin' Fifteen was first published in 2009; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #15. - Sizzling Sixteen (2009)
Sizzling Sixteen was published in 2009 and is listed as book #16 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Smokin’ Seventeen (2011)
Published in 2011, Smokin' Seventeen is listed as book #17 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Explosive Eighteen (2011)
Explosive Eighteen is a 2011 release and appears as book #18 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Notorious Nineteen (2012)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Notorious Nineteen is book #19 and was published in 2012. - Takedown Twenty (2013)
Takedown Twenty was first published in 2013; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #20. - Top Secret Twenty-One (2014)
Top Secret Twenty-One was published in 2014 and is listed as book #21 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Tricky Twenty-Two (2015)
Published in 2015, Tricky Twenty-Two is listed as book #22 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Turbo Twenty-Three (2016)
Turbo Twenty-Three is a 2016 release and appears as book #23 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Hardcore Twenty-Four (2017)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Hardcore Twenty-Four is book #24 and was published in 2017. - Look Alive Twenty-Five (2018)
Look Alive Twenty-Five was first published in 2018; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #25. - Twisted Twenty-Six (2019)
Twisted Twenty-Six was published in 2019 and is listed as book #26 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Fortune and Glory (2020)
Published in 2020, Fortune and Glory is listed as book #27 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Game On (2021)
Game On is a 2021 release and appears as book #28 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Going Rogue (2022)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Going Rogue is book #29 and was published in 2022. - Dirty Thirty (2023)
Dirty Thirty was first published in 2023; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #30. - Now or Never (2024)
Now or Never was published in 2024 and is listed as book #31 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo (2026)
Published in 2026, Split Second: Thirty-Two Switcheroo is listed as book #32 in the Stephanie Plum series.
Publication Order of Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers/Holiday Novels Books
- Visions of Sugar Plums (2002)
Visions of Sugar Plums is a 2002 release and appears as book #33 in the Stephanie Plum series. - Plum Lovin’ (2007)
In the Stephanie Plum series, Plum Lovin' is book #34 and was published in 2007. - Plum Lucky (2008)
Plum Lucky was first published in 2008; within the Stephanie Plum series, it is listed as book #35. - Plum Spooky (2009)
Plum Spooky was published in 2009 and is listed as book #36 in the Stephanie Plum series.
About Stephanie Plum
Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series works because it takes the structure of a crime novel and runs it through chaos, comic timing, and sheer personality. On paper, Stephanie is a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey, tracking fugitives for her cousin’s bail-bond business. In practice, she is one of the most gloriously underqualified long-running protagonists in commercial fiction. That mismatch is the whole point. Stephanie is not a polished detective or hardened professional. She is improvising constantly, and the series gets its energy from watching her survive jobs she is never entirely prepared to handle.
What keeps the books going is voice. These novels are not driven mainly by intricate mystery plotting, though they do have crimes, chases, suspects, and escalating danger. They are driven by Stephanie’s perspective: self-deprecating, impulsive, stubborn, and endlessly capable of turning a bad situation into a worse one. Evanovich understands that readers return as much for tone as for plot. The pleasure is not simply in whether Stephanie catches the fugitive. It is in how much mayhem happens before she does.
The recurring cast is just as important as Stephanie herself. Lula, Grandma Mazur, Joe Morelli, and Ranger are not side decorations around a single heroine. They are the machinery of the series. Lula brings outrageous confidence and comic unpredictability, Grandma Mazur adds a fearless appetite for trouble, Morelli gives the books one kind of romantic and emotional gravity, and Ranger provides another. That balance is one of the reasons publication order matters. The plots may stand alone, but the relationships deepen, shift, and gather years of momentum. A reader can pick up almost any entry and understand the basics, but the long-running jokes, loyalties, and tensions are much richer in sequence.
That is especially true of the romantic structure. The Morelli-Ranger dynamic is not a minor subplot tacked onto a mystery line. It is one of the defining engines of the series. Stephanie’s emotional indecision, attraction, loyalty, and repeated inability to settle her life cleanly become part of the books’ rhythm. Evanovich uses romance not to soften the crime elements, but to complicate them. Stephanie’s work life is messy, and her personal life is often messier.
Publication order also matters because the series depends on accumulation rather than reinvention. Evanovich is not trying to transform Stephanie into a dramatically different person every few books. The appeal lies in familiarity with variation. Stephanie remains recognizably herself: accident-prone, game but nervous, more resilient than she looks, and forever one bad decision away from disaster. But the world around her grows more lived-in over time. The series becomes its own comic ecosystem, where returning characters and recurring problems create a sense of home even when everything is exploding.
The Trenton setting matters too. These books are not generic capers that could happen anywhere. The family texture, neighborhood energy, food, funeral-home atmosphere, and blue-collar New Jersey edge all help define the series. Stephanie’s world feels specific, and that specificity is a big part of why the comedy lands. The books know exactly where they are.
For readers who already have the list above, the best way to think about Stephanie Plum is as a long-running comfort mystery series powered by comic disaster. The crimes matter, but the deeper reward is spending time in a world where incompetence, loyalty, flirtation, danger, and family absurdity are all permanently entangled. Read in publication order, the books become more than a shelf of funny bounty-hunter novels. They become the long record of a heroine who never fully gets her life together and remains irresistible partly because of that.