Janet Evanovich's numbered mysteries featuring New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum have reached 14. "Plum Spooky" is a "between the numbers novel" and it's not only spooky, it's over the top.

For incurable Plum fans this book should be a feast. For the rest of us, it may seem that the best-selling author has gone a step or two too far.

Stephanie's latest target is a 24-year-old genius named Martin Munch, accused of breaking his project manager's nose with a Dunkin' Donuts coffee mug and caught on tape stealing a contraption called a magnetometer.

		"PLUM SPOOKY" By Janet Evanovich St. Martin's Press ($27.95)

A friend has left her pet monkey Carl at Stephanie's door. Carl isn't any ordinary monkey. He's house-trained, understands English and likes to play computer games.

Stephanie brings the monkey with her on her escapades, and it's inevitable that at some point the monkey will save Stephanie's life. Carl is actually the hero of this novel, hardly less improbable than the human characters

There are now three handsome men in Stephanie's life:

A relatively normal Trenton cop, Joe Morelli, who is currently occupied with tending to a psychotic brother; a benevolent state cop known as Ranger; and a hard-muscled mystery man she calls Diesel, who has just reappeared in her bedroom, not necessarily for sex. Diesel has quasi-superhuman powers to appear and disappear, start cars with his fingernail and unlock supposedly impenetrable locks.

The villain of this improbable tale is Diesel's arch enemy, Wulf, who has similarly improbable powers and has Munch in his control. And there's a guy who lives in the New Jersey forest who starts fires when he passes wind. He's called Elmer the Firefarter, and his antics are integral to the plot.

Also among the recurring characters are a slew of improbable Italian-American relatives and an African-American prostitute-turned bondsman's aide named Lulu.

The result is a comic book escapade in which nothing is impossible or the slightest bit believable.