Evanovich, Janet, and Charlotte Hughes. Full Speed. Full No. 3. Headline, 2003.
One Goodreads reviewer called Full Speed a “slapstick cozy mystery,” which seems just the right term. Max is investigating a corrupt preacher with mob ties. Jamie wants the story for her paper. So, they compete and cooperate while they pant at one another. Muffin, the car, AI is back. So is Jamie’s self-taught tech savant pal. And there is an old pickup truck that comes with a hound named Fleas. 3.5 stars. ( )

Synopsis: 'Journalist Jamie Swift and millionaire Max Holt drive each other crazy when they work together – but they just can’t stop. Especially when they both have their reasons for wanting to investigate a charismatic preacher with suspected ties to the Mob and a long history with his female church members. The trouble is, someone has got wind of Jamie and Max’s snooping around, and is pretty eager to introduce them to their Maker – a lot sooner than either Jamie or Max had planned…'
Review: Lots of twists and turns in this one. Really thought it was the preacher. ( )

I haven't read the previous two books in this series, but I have read Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series and the Between the Numbers books. This book seems to follow a similar pattern to most of her Plum books.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD (READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION)
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Jamie Swift takes the Stephanie Plum role--she's a newspaper owner who's after a story and trouble manages to find her. Along the way, she acquires an old truck and a dog named Fleas.

Max Holt takes the Ranger/Morelli roles from the Plum series. The plot arc of having them attracted to each other but not moving forward in their relationship is stale for me after 25 Plum books of the same thing.

Dave apparently takes the role of Lula, the sidekick--at least for this book. He's not quite as entertaining as Lula is in that role. I do like Dave though--at least he's consistent in his character, and I suspect he's loyal to Max.

The history between Max and Nick Santoni is not spelled out in this book. We're told something happened but I'm not sure what--only that Nick got the worst of the deal. (Well, I guess right near the end of the book we are told it had something to do with a TV station--the TV station was mentioned other places in the book, but I hadn't realized how it tied together until the end of the book.) Nick's apparently out for revenge--Nick's also apparently on thin ice with his family. ( )

Good story with just enough sense of knowing what is happening, in terms of characters and they're relating to one another, to not know what is going to happen next. ( )

This is the first book I have read by Janet Evanovich that wasn't Plum-related. I really enjoyed it, and I think I am going to have to read the rest of the series. I just love Max and Jamie! ( )