Fortune and Glory Summary: A Hilarious Treasure Hunt Unveiled
Introduction
Two small safe keys, a brief marriage, and a dead mobster set off a hunt across Trenton, New Jersey.
In Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven by Janet Evanovich, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum finds herself chasing a fortune that several armed people also want.
The twenty-seventh Stephanie Plum novel moves between working-class neighborhood kitchens, a strip club with a hidden back room, and a network of forgotten tunnels beneath the city.
It follows a family caught in the middle of a mob dispute over money nobody has been able to spend for eighteen years.
TL;DR
- What it is: A comedic crime novel about a bounty hunter hunting a hidden mob fortune.
- Who starts it: Grandma Mazur marries mobster Jimmy Rosolli, who dies forty-five minutes later and leaves behind two unusual safe keys.
- What is at stake: A safe holding $30 million, plus the lives of everyone who touches the clues.
- Who else wants it: Torturer Lou Salgusta, hitman Charlie Shine, and international recovery operative Gabriela Rose.
- Key themes: Family loyalty, greed that outlives the greedy, and perseverance over skill.
Fortune and Glory Summary: What Happens in the Book
Spoilers ahead.
The novel opens with Stephanie Plum and her assistant Lula inside a tunnel beneath the Mole Hole strip club.
They are hunting mob torturer Lou Salgusta and barely escape a wall of fire and a flood of rats.
Outside, Stephanie meets a well-dressed woman named Gabriela who immediately climbs down into the same tunnel. Stephanie has no idea yet that Gabriela is chasing the same prize.
Back in the Burg, Grandma Mazur explains her situation.
She married mobster Jimmy Rosolli, who died of a heart attack forty-five minutes after the wedding, and she found two five-inch double-sided safe keys under his recliner cushion.
Jimmy was the “Keeper of the Keys” for six Trenton hitmen known as the La-Z-Boys. Eighteen years earlier, those men stole $30 million, and the keys are part of the only way to reach it.
Salgusta and Charlie Shine kidnap Stephanie and Grandma to get the keys. The two escape, but the hitmen keep coming, so Stephanie keeps working her day job for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds while chasing clues.
Her current fugitives include Rodney Trotter, who gives illegal silicone injections from a Volkswagen bus, and fry cook Arnold Rugalowski, who served his ex-wife fried roaches.
She also bails out George Potts, a nervous man arrested for streaking, who appoints himself her permanent bodyguard.
Ranger, the owner of Rangeman security, helps Stephanie break into the Mole Hole safe. Inside they find two papers: “ACE it” and “Philadelphia.” A consignment shop recliner later yields a third clue reading “50.”
Stephanie’s personal life runs alongside the hunt. She and detective Joe Morelli are on a break, and she spots him drinking wine with Gabriela, so she turns to Ranger for both backup and romance.
Chaos builds across the city. Salgusta sets fire to bales of weed next to explosives in the Hotel Margo basement and blows up the building. Charlie Shine rams Stephanie’s Honda at a drive-thru.
Stephanie, Grandma, and Potts explore the tunnels through a trapdoor at the Lucky Lucy CafĂ© and emerge through a manhole in Liberty Park. The last surviving La-Z-Boy, Benny “the Skootch,” gives them his clue, “pink.”
Charlie Shine’s Miami muscle kidnaps Potts and threatens to cut off his fingers. Ranger’s team raids the safe house, frees Potts from a car trunk, and sends the henchmen back to Florida.
At Carla Skootch’s cemetery procession, Salgusta attacks mourners with a flamethrower. Grandma commandeers Ranger’s Porsche and drives over gravestones to run him down, and Ranger tackles him for the police. Benny dies of a heart attack at the reception.
Shine’s men then kidnap Stephanie’s mother by mistake, thinking she is Grandma. Stephanie and Potts crack the full clue sequence, and with Gabriela’s help they cut her mother free from a ranch house in Egg Harbor before Ranger and local police arrest Shine.
The group opens storage unit #9 at Bowman Storage and finds no money, only comic books and a recliner. A note reading “RIP, Anthony” leads them to the Rosolli family chapel, where a booby-trapped crypt explodes and rains $30 million in diamonds across a field.
Gabriela reveals she was hired by the diamonds’ original owner. Stephanie ends the book back in Trenton with Morelli, sharing wine and cupcakes after Shine takes a plea bargain.
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Summary by Chapter
The book contains 31 chapters. Below is a brief summary of each chapter for readers who want to see what happens inside.
Spoilers ahead.
Chapter 1
Stephanie and Lula track Lou Salgusta through an underground tunnel beneath the Mole Hole. They escape fire and rats, then meet a woman in black named Gabriela who enters the tunnel herself.
Chapter 2
Stephanie visits her parents’ home, where Grandma Mazur explains her brief marriage to Jimmy Rosolli and the two safe keys she found under his chair. Grandma persuades Stephanie to help hunt for the La-Z-Boys’ fortune.
Chapter 3
Stephanie brings cannoli to mobster Benny “the Skootch,” who warns that the safe is booby-trapped without both keys and the clues. Connie hands her three new failure-to-appear files.
Chapter 4
Stephanie and Lula try to apprehend Rodney Trotter at his taxidermy-filled house. Trotter threatens them with a giant syringe of butt filler, and they retreat.
Chapter 5
At Cluck-in-a-Bucket, Lula argues with fry cook Arnold Rugalowski, who throws donuts and then fires a gun. Arnold shoots off Stephanie’s side mirror before they escape.
Chapter 6
Stephanie arrests nonviolent offender George Potts, who suffers from anxiety and PTSD. She posts his bail with her own credit card, and Connie reports that Gabriela has been asking about Charlie Shine.
Chapter 7
Ranger and safecracker Ramone open the Mole Hole safe through a basement tunnel. Stephanie photographs two clues, “ACE it” and “Philadelphia,” then spends the night with Ranger.
Chapter 8
Stephanie and Grandma cannot decode the clues. Connie reports Charlie Shine is in town, and Stephanie spots Gabriela at a cemetery near a murdered mobster’s grave.
Chapter 9
Stephanie and Lula scout the Hotel Margo and find Salgusta sharpening knives in the basement. He attacks with a flamethrower, igniting explosives that destroy the hotel as they jump from a window.
Chapter 10
Stephanie explains the explosion to Joe Morelli, who tells her to drop the case. She later finds George Potts waiting at her door as her self-appointed bodyguard.
Chapter 11
A tip leads Stephanie, Lula, and Potts to the apartment of a prostitute named Patches. They find her shot dead, and Stephanie calls Ranger for help.
Chapter 12
Connie circulates the license plate of Patches’s Range Rover. Stephanie and Lula spot Charlie Shine driving it at a drive-thru, and he rams her Honda to escape.
Chapter 13
Tank hauls away the wrecked car, and Stephanie borrows Grandma’s 1953 Buick. At Rodney Trotter’s house, Trotter jabs Potts with a syringe and triggers an anxiety attack.
Chapter 14
Connie reports that Shine has brought Miami muscle into Trenton. Stephanie spies on Morelli’s house and sees Gabriela inside with him, then takes Potts to her parents’ house for dinner.
Chapter 15
Ranger and Stephanie surveil a Ewing Township house holding Shine’s Miami men. They later arrest Trotter after he throws quick-hardening glop into Stephanie’s hair.
Chapter 16
Ranger rules out a cement-sealed tunnel exit as the treasure room. Stephanie has the hardened glop cut from her hair, collects her bounty check, and learns Carla Skootch is in hospice.
Chapter 17
Stephanie, Grandma, and Potts shop for a viewing dress and new clothes. Potts links the “ACE it” clue to the Lucky Lucy CafĂ©, and they open a cellar door into the tunnels.
Chapter 18
The group follows symbols through the dark tunnel and glimpses Gabriela ahead. Stephanie breaks through rotting planks, releasing bats and rats, and they escape through a manhole at Liberty Park.
Chapter 19
Carla Skootch dies, and Stephanie and Grandma bring Benny a baked ziti casserole. Benny shares his clue, “pink,” and offers to split the treasure with them.
Chapter 20
Connie orders lunch while Potts calls their group a posse. Shine’s men tail Stephanie in a black Escalade, and Ranger agrees to guard Grandma at the viewing.
Chapter 21
At the packed viewing, Morelli compliments Stephanie’s new look while Ranger and Gabriela watch from the crowd. Potts receives a photo of himself bound in a trunk with a threat attached.
Chapter 22
Ranger’s team raids the Ewing safe house and forces Shine’s Miami men onto a flight home. Potts is rescued from a car trunk, and Stephanie spends the night at Rangeman.
Chapter 23
At Carla’s cemetery procession, Salgusta attacks with a flamethrower. Grandma runs him down in Ranger’s Porsche, Ranger tackles him for police, and Benny dies of a heart attack at the reception.
Chapter 24
The Mole Hole recliners turn up at a consignment shop, where Ranger finds the “50” clue. Stephanie learns Gabriela is a Swiss bank operative, and Arnold Rugalowski escapes in his food truck.
Chapter 25
Connie finds Arnold’s address, and Ranger subdues him with a stun gun and an uppercut. Grandma then shows Stephanie the inscribed numbers inside her two wedding bands.
Chapter 26
Two of Shine’s thugs try to kidnap Stephanie at gunpoint in her parking lot. She fights them off, and Gabriela rams the men with her Mercedes before driving away.
Chapter 27
The Ewing safe house is empty, and the Mole Hole bartender reports the mobsters are out working. Morelli shows Stephanie two executed hitmen, and Connie’s mother places Shine near Atlantic City.
Chapter 28
Stephanie finds her parents’ house ransacked and her mother missing. She and Potts drive to Pleasantville, where they piece together the full clue sequence and confirm the pink storage facility.
Chapter 29
At Bowman Storage, Stephanie and Potts follow Shine’s convoy to an Egg Harbor ranch house. Gabriela helps cut Stephanie’s mother free, and Ranger’s team arrests Shine and his crew.
Chapter 30
The group opens storage unit #9 and finds only comic books and a recliner. A note reading “RIP, Anthony” leads Stephanie, Ranger, and Gabriela to the Rosolli chapel, where a booby trap explodes and scatters diamonds across the field.
Chapter 31
Morelli visits Stephanie with wine and cupcakes. He explains that Shine confessed to the eighteen-year-old diamond theft from a Manhattan vault, and the two rekindle their relationship.
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Characters in This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Stephanie Plum | Fugitive apprehension agent in Trenton who leads the hunt for the hidden fortune. |
| Edna Mazur (Grandma Mazur) | Stephanie’s grandmother, who briefly marries Jimmy Rosolli and inherits his safe keys. |
| Lula | Stephanie’s sidekick and assistant bounty hunter. |
| Carlos Manoso (Ranger) | Owner of Rangeman security who provides tactical support and becomes Stephanie’s romantic partner. |
| Joe Morelli | Trenton police detective and Stephanie’s on-and-off boyfriend. |
| Gabriela Rose | International recovery operative hired to retrieve the stolen diamonds. |
| Jimmy Rosolli | Mobster and “Keeper of the Keys” whose death starts the plot. |
| Lou Salgusta | Mob hitman who uses torches and flamethrowers. |
| Charlie Shine | Mob hitman who brings Miami muscle to Trenton to claim the treasure. |
| Benny “the Skootch” | Last living La-Z-Boy mobster in Trenton, who partners with Stephanie and dies of a heart attack. |
| George Potts (“The Pooper”) | Bailed-out offender who becomes Stephanie’s self-appointed bodyguard. |
| Connie Rosolli | Office manager at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. |
| Vincent “Vinnie” Plum | Stephanie’s cousin and owner of the bail bonds agency. |
| Mrs. Plum | Stephanie’s mother, who is kidnapped by mistake. |
| Mr. Plum | Stephanie’s father, a retired postal worker. |
| Rodney Trotter | Fugitive giving illegal silicone butt injections from a van. |
| Arnold Rugalowski | Fugitive fry cook who later runs a “bull balls” food truck. |
| Ed Gruman and Chick Rizer | Mob henchmen brought from Miami by Charlie Shine. |
| Kenny Farmer | Charlie Shine’s nephew and Miami accomplice. |
| Ramone | Rangeman technician and safecracker. |
| Andy | Desk manager at the Hotel Margo. |
| Alice Smuther (“Patches”) | Prostitute connected to Charlie Shine who is found murdered. |
| Rex | Stephanie’s pet hamster. |
Is Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven Right for You?
This book suits readers who follow long-running series and already know Stephanie Plum, Ranger, Morelli, and Lula.
It also works for readers who enjoy crime plots where the danger is constant but the tone stays light.
The pacing is fast and episodic, with car chases, explosions, and botched arrests in almost every chapter.
Readers who prefer slow, procedurally detailed mysteries may find the structure loose, since the treasure hunt advances through coincidence and comedic mishaps.
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Fortune and Glory: Tantalizing Twenty-Seven at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Genre & Subgenre | Crime Fiction / Humorous Mystery / Bounty Hunter Comedy |
| Core Narrative Tropes | Accidental treasure hunt, odd-couple dynamic, eccentric sidekicks, love triangle, legacy mob crime |
| Tone & Atmosphere | Comedic, slapstick, lighthearted, fast-paced, blue-collar |
| Primary Conflict | Stephanie and Grandma Mazur race to find the $30 million La-Z-Boy treasure before Lou Salgusta and Charlie Shine eliminate them |
| Pacing Style | Fast-paced, episodic plotting driven by action, car explosions, and comedic twists |
| ISBN | 978-1982154837 |
| Pages | 320 |
| Book Structure | 31 chapters in sequential numerical order |
| Author Background | Janet Evanovich is an American author best known for the Stephanie Plum series, which began with One for the Money in 1994 and blends crime fiction with comedy. |
