The Spellman Files: Lisa Lutz

Isabel “Izzy” Spellman: 28 years old, Get Smart addict, and licensed PI with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. She’s very good at her job, with a knack for invading people’s privacy…and it doesn’t matter if it’s an assigned case, or one of her own family. The entire crew of Spellmans isn’t above spying on their own family, especially to dig up dirt for blackmail purposes. A family that spies together stays together.

However, Izzy is not at all happy. She wants a normal life, with a normal job, and a normal boyfriend. Enough is enough and she wants out of the family business…and they’re not willing to let her go so easily. As a bribe, she has to take on one last case: a fifteen year old, cold-as-ice missing person. It looks to be unsolvable, but Izzy is a cross between Nancy Drew and a rottweiler and won’t put it down until it comes to a conclusion – one way or another. But a disappearance close to home has her rethinking her plans and becomes the most important case she’s ever taken on. And promises to change her life…

The author takes the PI genre and runs amok in this entertaining debut. The Spellmans are a whacked-out brood and every member has their own unique brand of quirky behavior. Older brother David is perpetually perfect, and youngest daughter Rae has an addiction to “recreational surveillance.” Mom and Dad have no qualms in hiring Rae to follow Izzy in hopes of ascertaining the ID of Izzy’s new beau (who has no clue as to Izzy’s real identity.)

As for Izzy herself, I love the way the author portrays the main character, including the unusual use of footnotes throughout the book (the “lists” are a scream too.) It is easy to relate to Izzy’s desire to break free from their idiosyncratic ways and stand on her own two feet to lead a normal life. But as she comes to realize, “normal” isn’t really her thing at all and it takes a serious jolt for her to come to her senses. That jolt keeps this story from being too lighthearted, with a plot interspersed with very serious, unpredictable moments.

If you can navigate the maze of surveillance, counter surveillance, general spying, and the blackmail target du jour, this is truly a fabulous romp into the genre. It’s a wonderful start to a new series, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel!
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Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 13, 2007)
ISBN-10: 1416532390
ISBN-13: 978-1416532392
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