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Title details for The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz - Available

The Spellman Files

A Novel

#1 in series

by Lisa Lutz
Ari Graynor
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
From the award-winning author of The Accomplice and The Passenger comes the first novel in the hilarious Spellman Files mystery series featuring Isabel "Izzy" Spellman (part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry) and her highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators.
Meet Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she's good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people's privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.

Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who's become addicted to "recreational surveillance"); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed "Lost Weekends"). But when Izzy's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy's new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there's a hitch: she must take one last job before they'll let her go—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Izzy Spellman

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    March 13, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780743564359
      • File size: 163863 KB
      • Duration: 05:41:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Ari Graynor narrates this debut novel, telling the story of 28-year-old Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, who is struggling to stay sane while working for her family's private detective agency. It's difficult to imagine a better fit than Graynor for recounting Izzy's madcap adventures, romantic disasters, and attempts to locate her missing sister, whose unhealthy habit of "recreational surveillance" has gotten her in trouble more than once with the police. With "normal" behavior in her family including going through other people's trash, snooping outside hotel rooms, trailing men in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, and doing background checks on all of her "future ex-boyfriends," Izzy's story is one funny adventure after another. Graynor's aplomb, dynamism, and sassiness help make this first novel a laugh-out-loud treat. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 26, 2007
      In a family of private investigators, privacy is nonexistent. The Spellman parents spy on the kids just as much as the kids spy on the parents. But after 28 years of this, middle child Isabelle wants out of the family business. Her parents agree, but only if she solves the 10-year-old cold case of a missing teenage. Amusing and entertaining, Lutzs tale of investigation, family and love is given an additional bemusing touch by Ari Graynor. She grasps the material and Isabelles resigned disposition of both loving and loathing her family. She captures Isabelles more emotional responses and the youthful tone of her younger sister, Rae. However, she is occasionally too breathy, literally blowing into the microphone. While these come off as sighs, they still seem to cross that line between narration and interpretation. The abridgment of some of the books various subplots increases the speed of this already fast paced comedy-mystery. Simultaneous release with the S& S hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 1). (Mar.) .

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 1, 2007
      Cracking the case can get complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved, but Lutz has a blast doing it in her delicious debut. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, a San Francisco PI who began working for Spellman Investigations at age 12, could easily pass as Buffy or Veronica Mars's wiser but funnier older sister. Izzy digs TV, too, especially Get Smart
      (an ex-boyfriend's ownership of the complete bootlegged DVD set is his major selling point). Now 28, Izzy thinks she wants out, but elects to take on a cold case while dealing with 14-year-old sister Rae, a nightmarish Nancy Drew, and parents who have no qualms about bugging their children's bedrooms. At times the dialogue-heavy text reads like a script and the action flags, but these are quibbles. When Rae suddenly disappears, Izzy and her family must learn some serious lessons in order to find her. Can the family that snoops together stay together? Stay tuned as a dynamic new series unfolds. 150,000 first printing.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 30, 2007
      In a family of private investigators, privacy is nonexistent. The Spellman parents spy on the kids just as much as the kids spy on the parents. But after 28 years of this, middle child Isabelle wants out of the family business. Her parents agree, but only if she solves the 10-year-old cold case of a missing teenage. Amusing and entertaining, Lutz’s tale of investigation, family and love is given an additional bemusing touch by Ari Graynor. She grasps the material and Isabelle’s resigned disposition of both loving and loathing her family. She captures Isabelle’s more emotional responses and the youthful tone of her younger sister, Rae. However, she is occasionally too breathy, literally blowing into the microphone. While these come off as sighs, they still seem to cross that line between narration and interpretation. The abridgment of some of the book’s various subplots increases the speed of this already fast paced comedy-mystery. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 1).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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