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November 2, 2007 6:32 AM

BOOK REVIEW: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

I loved the premise of Lisa Lutz's debut novel, The Spellman files: a family of private investigators who just can't resist investigating each other.

Isabel Spellman has been working for the family business since the age of 14, but lately she's started to realise that having your parents tailing you and undertaking surveillance in order to find out who you're dating is, well, not normal.

Isabel's older brother, David, got out while the going was good, but her younger sister, Rae, is not only obsessed with the business, she's got even less sense of personal privacy than their parents.

When Isabel meets Daniel and decides she's going to leave the business, her parents give her one last job - a ancient missing person case that was closed years ago. Her parents see it as a wild goose chase to keep Isabel busy long enough that she decides not to leave after all. But Isabel finds plenty of clues that had been overlooked in the original investigation and the case begins to take over her life. Until, that is, her sister goes missing...

I was hooked by this book from the first page. Isabel's voice is distinctive, dry and very funny. The idea is original and inventive and so are the secondary characters - Rae is great: infuriating and impressive; Isabel's parents are calmly demented and her uncle Ray is believably tragic. The only character that didn't work for me was Daniel, who I never felt I really got to know.

Before writing this novel, Lisa Lutz wrote a screenplay and The Spellman Files is very filmic. I was mentally casting it all the way through and I would love it to be turned into a movie. I do know there's going to be a sequel and, frankly, I can't wait.

Rating: 4/5

Like this? Try One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

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Posted by Keris on November 2, 2007 in American Authors, Crime / Mystery, Debut Novels, Rating: 4/5, Series | Permalink

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