The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Meet the Spellmans. Twenty-eight-year-old Isabel “Izzy” Spellman works for her parents as a private investigator. The Spellmans are a dysfunctional family of detectives that include Izzy’s mother, Olivia, and father, Albert, her younger sister, Rae, and her uncle, Ray. The only Spellman who refused to join the family business is older brother, David. As Izzy says, “The truth was, the job didn’t interest David. He thought people had a right to privacy. The rest of us did not.”

Told from Izzy’s perspective, as well as excerpts from interviews and other documents, this book is Harriet the Spy meets The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s laugh out loud comedy as Izzy realizes she is being followed, at her parents’ direction, by her sister. Izzy decides she wants to be “normal” and the way to make that happen is to leave the business. Her parents will only let her out if she takes one last job.

While there are investigations and mysteries to be had, this book is much more about the characters. It’s a hilarious ride and, if you enjoy it as much as I did, you will be glad to know it is only “Document #1” in the series. There are six “Documents” in the series and I laughed my way through all of them!

Check out The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz at the Library (https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx…).