Revenge of the Spellmans- Lisa Lutz

Revenge of the Spellmans- Lisa Lutz

From the publisher- As the book opens, Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a "friend" looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. She assures herself that the case -- a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed -- will be short and sweet, and will involve nothing more than the most boring of PI rituals: surveillance. But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence.

Meanwhile, Spellmania continues. Izzy's brother, David, the family's most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkempt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy. And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication. The only unsurprising behavior comes from her parents, whose visits to Milo's bar amount to thinly veiled surveillance and artful attempts (read: blackmail) at getting Izzy to return to the Spellman Inc. fold.

As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy's personal life -- and mental health -- seem to be disintegrating. Facing a housing crisis, she can't sleep, she can't remember where she parked her car, and, despite her shrinks' persistence, she can't seem to break through in her appointments. She certainly can't explain why she forgets dates with her lawyer's grandson, or fails to interpret the come-ons issued in an Irish brogue by Milo's new bartender. Nor can she explain exactly how she feels about Detective Henry Stone and his plans to move in with his new Assistant DA girlfriend...

After reading a Spellman book I always think 'What did I just read'. I laugh a lot, but I never quite get the plot. Yes, there is always some mystery Isabel is trying to figure out , but it's always secondary to the fun, and craziness of the Spellman family. I think of these books being like Seinfeld, hilarious but a book about nothing. We get all these crazy, funny situations, with a case here and there, and to be truthful I never find the cases to be all that good, or interesting. The reason I love these books is for the simple reason of the characters.

As always in a Spellman book, there's a lot of footnotes, but they don't bother me. The same characters are back in this 3rd book of the Spellman series, with some added few, like Milo's Irish cousin, that has a huge accent, and Morty's skater shop owner grandson.

Just like I love Seinfeld, I love reading about the Spellmans. Revenge of the Spellmans is a fun, quick read about nothing.

Rating: 4/5