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Foul Play is Janet Evanovich's 1989 contemporary romance under her Steffie Hall pen name. Amy Klasse is a small-town New Jersey newspaper editor who has been editing the family paper since her father's death. Jacob Elliott is the local landscaper who keeps interrupting her workdays. The plot is standard 1980s comic romance: chemistry, complication, third-act misunderstanding, resolution.
The pre-Plum Evanovich voice is recognizable on every page. The Trenton-suburb texture, the small-paper editorial-meeting comedy, the family-business inheritance plot all foreshadow the Plum-era register without the bounty-hunter mechanics. The romance arc lands cleanly. The supporting cast is thinner than the Plum books would later be.
Recommended for Evanovich completists, for fans of late-1980s comic romance, and for readers looking for books like Foul Play in the small-paper-editor-meets-local-guy subgenre. Three solid stars and a useful look at Evanovich learning her voice.
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