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A review by meghan111
Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz
3.0
Izzy Spellman is a 30 year old private investigator who works for her family’s detective agency. She has just been arrested for the fourth time in three months, and her family is losing patience with her. Her recent love interest has secured a restraining order against her, after she broke into his house. As she explains it to her 80-year old lawyer, in his office slash garage, Izzy is sure if she just keeps investigating, she’ll learn the truth about what everyone is hiding. As a member of the Spellman family detective agency, she has no other choice. She and her16 year old sister Rae have grown up in a family where each member has always investigated the others just as tenaciously as they go after real suspects.
As this mystery develops, Izzy learns more about the suspicious behavior of the mysterious man she has just begun dating. She also attempts to track down the answers to several other of her ongoing concerns about the quirks of her family–for example, why is Izzy’s mom secretly leaving the house in the middle of the night to slash the tires of a motorcycle parked in a distant neighborhood? And what’s going on with Izzy’s dad – has his mid-life crisis really evolved into what she deems a ‘retirement-age freak out’? And, no less importantly, why would her sister Rae’s math teacher save his used Kleenex in a desk drawer for weeks at a time? Izzy is sure she can find out the answer to these questions, but it might involve being arrested again.
As Izzy’s story unfolds in short chapters and transcripts of conversations she has recorded, fans of other humorous mystery writers will find themselves laughing. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz is a funny, quick read that focuses on the idiosyncrasies of the main characters just as much as solving crimes.
As this mystery develops, Izzy learns more about the suspicious behavior of the mysterious man she has just begun dating. She also attempts to track down the answers to several other of her ongoing concerns about the quirks of her family–for example, why is Izzy’s mom secretly leaving the house in the middle of the night to slash the tires of a motorcycle parked in a distant neighborhood? And what’s going on with Izzy’s dad – has his mid-life crisis really evolved into what she deems a ‘retirement-age freak out’? And, no less importantly, why would her sister Rae’s math teacher save his used Kleenex in a desk drawer for weeks at a time? Izzy is sure she can find out the answer to these questions, but it might involve being arrested again.
As Izzy’s story unfolds in short chapters and transcripts of conversations she has recorded, fans of other humorous mystery writers will find themselves laughing. Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz is a funny, quick read that focuses on the idiosyncrasies of the main characters just as much as solving crimes.