by Lisa Lutz
Part of The Spellmans, book 2
First published 2009
Izzy Spellman sits across from her octogenarian lawyer Morty in a diner, explaining why she's been arrested for the fourth time in three months. The thirty-year-old private investigator has been obsessively watching her neighbor John Brown, certain he's hiding something. Her parents, who run Spellman Investigations, refuse to bail her out this time. Between sips of weak coffee, Izzy recounts her recent cases. She's been tracking a copycat vandal who targets Mrs. Chandler's holiday displays, matching crimes from 1991-92 when Izzy herself was at her most rebellious. Meanwhile, she tries to stop her sister Rae from stalking Inspector Henry Stone and continues filing Suspicious Behavior Reports on every family member. The Spellmans operate as a highly functional yet supremely dysfunctional clan of investigators where eavesdropping is mandatory, lock picking is routine, and blackmail serves as the family's preferred negotiation method. All of it stems from unconditional love, even when that love involves constant surveillance of each other.
Genres: humor, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Spellman Investigations
Period: 1991-1992
404 pages · Hardcover · AudioGO Limited