Thursday, March 8, 2012

If you like wacky mysteries, try Lisa Lutz and her series about the Spellmans.  The whole family runs a detective agency but the only one who seems to be really detecting is oldest daughter Isabel. Older brother David has left the agency to become a lawyer; younger sister Rae is now off to college and has lost the taste of late night stakeouts. Isabel has a significant other, Henry, who is a police detective but in the latest in the series (#5), "Trail of the Spellmans" there are conflicts with he and Izzy --  mostly of her making. There are usually many small mysterie to solve, not least of them what are the other members of the family doing.  So Izzy follows them, too.  Humorous footnotes keep the story going while quirky characters (so unreal sometimes to be wholly believable) carry the plot along in earnest.

In this latest caper, Izzy discovers that Rae and her dad have nicknames for all the family members.  Izzy is the Gopher.  This is not pleasing to her.

When Henry's mother comes to visit, Izzy finds her more compatible than Henry. Until Gerty hooks up with Izzy's old nemesis Bernie.  This is totally unacceptable!

Izzy finds that the detective agency is not only following a husband (from his wife's directive) but following the wife (from her brother's order).  Just what is going on here? Izzy thinks she knows so she starts counter stakeouts to ferret out the truth.

The author Lisa Lutz uses the humor and outlandish situations to make a memorable mystery series fun, as well as fascinating.  Give these books a try.  The first in the series is "The Spellman Files", followed by "Curse of the Spellmans", "Revenge of the Spellmans" and "The Spellmans Strike Again."

No comments:

Post a Comment