Revenge of the Spellmans-Lisa Lutz

Revenge of the Spellmans
Lisa Lutz
Simon and Schuster, Mar 10 2009, $25.00
ISBN: 9781416593386

In San Francisco the court orders out of control private investigator Isabel "Izzy" Spellman to attend therapy sessions; she spends her meetings tap dancing around the psychologist. Meanwhile her parents plead with their middle daughter to return to the family private investigative firm; they warn her that without her they will probably have to sell their company. Izzy considers their blackmail while hiding from them and others in her older brother David’s apartment at a time he has simply vanished form the planet. Although she has found recently sleuthing to have been very depressing (see THE SPELLMAN FILES and CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS – to see why), she considers searching for sibling.

Meanwhile she loses her bartending job because of moonlighting as a detective looking into the easy case of client Ernie Black to prove his wife is cheating or not; of course this being Izzy easy means dangerous. She also helps her octogenarian friend relocate to Florida and elude her teenage sister Rae the alleged PSAT cheater who wants her sibling back with Henry.

The third Spellman dysfunctional investigative family thriller is another out of control zany San Francisco treat as Izzy dodges her parents, her sister and her shrink to work a couple of fog-bound cases. The story line is overwhelmed with sidebars and no plot takes full control; but fans of the series will not care as the eccentric cast especially Izzy’s family and friends make for a wild time by the bay.

Harriet Klausner