The Family That Spies Together

Categories: Mystery & Suspense , Staff Picks , Fiction

What would you do if your parents ran a background check on every person you dated?  What would you do if your 14-year-old sister practiced "recreational surveillance"?  What would you do if your Uncle Ray had lost weekends?  By this point you'd probably be tired of your family and the family business.  Isabel "Izzy" Spellman certainly is.  She decides to quit the family business (a PI firm that she joined when she was 12 years old), but her parents won't let her until she solves a very cold case.  The ways that Izzy gets back at her parents (who else would enlist their sister to film a fake drug deal to get back at their parents?) and how the entire Spellman clan relates to each other are hysterical and ultimately (in their own weird way) demonstrate the powerful bond of family.  Trust me, the Spellmans are not your typical family! 

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz is the funniest and craziest book that I've read in a long, long time.  The book is author Lisa Lutz's debut, but you would never be able to tell that from the way she expertly weaves the story and keeps the momentum going.  From the first chapter to the last page, you will be laughing.  I highly reccomend this novel to anyone who likes to read.  Stephanie Plum fans will especially enjoy this one. This is the first in a planned series of novels featuring the Spellman family.

The book has been optioned by Paramount for the big screen.  As an interesting side note, Ms. Lutz wrote the screenplay for the movie Plan B, an experiece she writes she never wants to experience again!