Hardcore Twenty-Four (stephanie Plum, #24)

The twenty-fourth installment in the Stephanie Plum series follows Stephanie, a bond enforcement officer in Trenton, New Jersey, as she juggles fugitive captures, a missing boa constrictor, and a wave of decapitations linked to a dangerous new street drug.

Stephanie and her sidekick Lula find Simon Diggery, a professional grave robber who has skipped his court date, hiding in a tree with his pet boa constrictor, Ethel. Diggery insists he dug into a "zombie portal," a supposed supernatural opening at the Morley Street cemetery, and was chased home by zombies. Stephanie cuffs him and delivers him to the police, promising to look after Ethel. When she returns, the double-wide is overrun with raccoons and Ethel is gone. Stephanie's boyfriend, Trenton homicide detective Joe Morelli, helps search the area but finds no trace of the snake. Morelli mentions his latest case: a decapitated man found in an alley, the head unrecovered.

At the Vincent Plum Bail Bonds office, office manager Connie gives Stephanie two new fugitive files. Edward Koot is a fired security guard who shot up a coffeehouse after being shortchanged on his macchiato. Zero Slick is a twenty-nine-year-old who lists his gender as "questionable" and blew up an apartment building while cooking meth. Slick also works as a paid activist, holding signs at protests for fifty dollars. Stephanie and Lula apprehend Koot after Lula tackles him at his back door. During a family lunch, Stephanie's Grandma Mazur reports that two heads have been stolen from Stiva's funeral home, both belonging to people who were already dead. Grandma also reveals she has an internet boyfriend named Roger Murf whose photo resembles actor George Hamilton.

At her apartment, Stephanie finds Diesel, a tall, enigmatic man who periodically appears in her life uninvited, claiming to investigate "a disturbance in the force." Unable to dislodge him, Stephanie moves to Morelli's house. Morelli reports that more severed heads have surfaced and all recovered heads are missing their brains, suggesting someone is collecting brains from the recently deceased.

Stephanie hunts for Slick at two chaotic protests. At a demonstration outside a Korean grocery, she cuffs one of his wrists, but he hits her with his protest sign, giving her a black eye, and escapes in the ensuing brawl. Stephanie's car is stolen during the melee and dumped in the Delaware River. Ranger, a security professional who shares a complicated romantic history with Stephanie, provides a loaner Mercedes with a bet: If she keeps the car intact for a week, it is hers, but if it is destroyed, she owes him a night.

When Ethel is spotted near Diggery's woods, Stephanie stun-guns the snake and loads her into the Mercedes. Ethel revives mid-drive, Lula bails out of the moving car, and Stephanie crashes into an outhouse. Ranger helps lure Ethel back into Diggery's double-wide with hot dogs and offers a "double or nothing" deal. Connie reports two more heads stolen from another funeral home and mentions that Johnny Chucci, who robbed a jewelry store while wearing underpants on his head, may be back in town after skipping bond a year ago.

At the Molinowski viewing at Stiva's, where the reattached head is visibly crooked, Diesel appears briefly and leaves without explanation. A homeless man is found dead near Slick's destroyed building with a hole drilled in his skull and his brain removed. Stephanie follows Slick's mother to the cemetery, where she finds Slick camped by a gravestone, planning a zombie documentary. Against her better judgment, Stephanie lets him stay with cameras, hoping the footage might prove useful.

Stephanie and Lula spot Chucci and chase him through alleys, but he escapes. While driving through Diggery's woods to feed Ethel, they hear guttural moaning and see glowing red eyes. A large figure with rotting skin rushes the car before Stephanie speeds away. At the cemetery, Slick's campsite is abandoned. His GoPro shows infrared footage of red-eyed figures rushing at him before the video cuts out. A third, taller figure appears briefly; Stephanie suspects it is Diesel but says nothing.

Threatening messages appear: "brains" and "die" scratched into Stephanie's apartment door, and similar graffiti at Morelli's house alongside a deli container of calf brains doused with Tabasco. Stephanie relocates to Ranger's secure apartment with Rex, her hamster. A background check on Grandma's boyfriend reveals he is married, looks nothing like George Hamilton, and belongs to a swingers club. When Grandma flies to Florida to visit Murf, Stephanie intercepts her at a Miami connection and lures her home with the promise of a puppy. They adopt a nine-pound mixed-breed dog named Henry.

Morelli explains that a new street drug called Zombuzz is producing the zombie-like creatures. The synthetic mix causes stiff joints, red bleeding eyes, increased strength, and numbness to pain. Human brain cells are a required ingredient; after the first free dose, users must pay with harvested brain, creating a grotesque cycle of violence. The autopsy on the homeless man reveals he was knocked unconscious before his brain was removed, making him the first victim actively killed. Slick's fingerprints on the Tabasco container confirm he is the stalker. Grandma discovers Slick has become the "Zombie Blogger," posting videos and blogging about working with the "Supreme Ruler of the Zombies," his title for the mastermind behind the drug operation.

Stephanie explores Diggery's woods with Diesel and discovers underground caves containing a decomposed head. Three zombie creatures confront her. Stephanie barricades herself in Diggery's double-wide, where Ethel hisses and scares one away through a broken window. The zombie bleeds from the glass, confirming these creatures are human. Morelli's team finds multiple caves containing crude drug labs. Meanwhile, Chucci briefly reconciles with his ex-wife Judy, but the relationship collapses over her obsession with her plaster gnomes. He smashes the gnomes; Judy chases him with a knife. Stephanie turns him in, and he chooses to remain in jail.

Diesel identifies his target: Daryl Meadum, a thirty-two-year-old Canadian neuroscience savant who looks fourteen. Daryl is brilliant but emotionally equivalent to a nine-year-old, a sociopath incapable of remorse who escaped from his government guardian four months ago. He created Zombuzz as a form of play, building a real-life zombie army the way a child would play a video game. Slick texts Stephanie, inviting her to the cemetery for a filming session. Ranger wires Stephanie and positions his men and a drone while Diesel hunts for Daryl on the ground.

At the cemetery, Lula arrives uninvited. Slick leads them to a freshly dug grave and tells them to jump in. An army of zombie drug users surrounds them with shovels and hatchets. Slick pushes Lula into the grave, and others throw Stephanie in. He announces the Supreme Ruler will harvest their brains. Stephanie discovers her wire has fallen off, but Ranger's team, guided by the drone, moves in with police. The zombies are arrested, and Ranger pulls Stephanie and Lula from the grave. Diesel captures Slick, but Daryl is not present.

Stephanie returns to her apartment and finds Daryl waiting with a gun. He explains he needs a healthy brain culture to take to Austin and plans to kill her and remove her brain with a power saw. Diesel appears behind Daryl. Daryl shoots Diesel in the leg, but Stephanie grabs a bedside lamp and smashes Daryl in the face, knocking him unconscious. Diesel takes custody of Daryl to deliver him to the appropriate agency and promises Stephanie he will return.