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Barnaby and Hooker

by Janet Evanovich

The Barnaby and Hooker series by Janet Evanovich has 2 books and is best read in publication order, starting with Metro Girl (2004).

Books
2 books
First published
2004
Status
completed
Last checked

Start here: Metro Girl (2004) — then read straight through in publication order.

Cover of Metro Girl, the first book in Barnaby and Hooker

Reading order

The order the books were released — the default way to read the series.

  1. Metro Girl

    Novel

    View book

  2. Motor Mouth

    Novel

    View book

About the Barnaby and Hooker series

Alexandra "Barney" Barnaby is a laid-off Miami auto mechanic turned amateur investigator who ropes hotshot NASCAR driver Sam Hooker into helping her track down her missing, possibly criminal uncle and a fortune in sunken Cuban treasure. Metro Girl and its sequel Motor Mouth are Evanovich's venture into NASCAR-flavored romantic suspense: fast cars, insurance-fraud schemes, and a slow-burn will-they-won't-they between Barney and Hooker that runs on the same comic chemistry as Stephanie Plum and Ranger, transplanted from Trenton bail bonds to the Daytona/Miami racing circuit. Hooker's celebrity-driver ego and Barney's blue-collar practicality generate the same fish-out-of-water banter Evanovich fans expect, wrapped around plots that lean more caper-thriller than straight mystery.

Published in 2004 and 2006, the two novels stand as a complete prose duology; Evanovich continued Barney and Hooker's story afterward in Troublemaker, a graphic novel published by Dark Horse Comics rather than prose fiction, which this site does not track as a book entry. No further prose novels featuring the characters have followed. Readers who enjoy Evanovich's Jersey wisecracking but want a change of setting -- speedway garages and sunbaked Florida instead of Trenton -- are the natural audience here.

How to read this series

Read in publication order: Metro Girl (2004), then Motor Mouth (2006). The sunken-treasure mystery from the first book resolves within it, but Barney and Hooker's relationship and the supporting cast carry over directly into the second, so reading in sequence matters more than it does in Evanovich's other series. The prose story continues afterward only in the graphic novel Troublemaker (Dark Horse Comics), which isn't tracked here since it's a different medium rather than a novel -- treat the two prose books as a complete, self-contained pair.

Frequently asked questions

How many Barnaby and Hooker books are there?

Two prose novels: Metro Girl (2004) and Motor Mouth (2006), also marketed as the Alexandra Barnaby series.

What order should I read them in?

Publication order: Metro Girl, then Motor Mouth.

Is there a third Barnaby and Hooker novel?

No further prose novel followed Motor Mouth; the story continued only in the graphic novel Troublemaker, published by Dark Horse Comics.

Is Barnaby and Hooker connected to Stephanie Plum?

No, separate characters and setting (NASCAR racing rather than Trenton bail bonds), though it shares Evanovich's comic, banter-driven style.

Who is Sam Hooker?

A NASCAR driver who partners with -- and squabbles and flirts with -- mechanic Alexandra Barnaby across both novels.

Reading order last verified .