“You’re going to love The Spellmans. Izzy reminds me of you and some of your dating stories.”
Oh great. There’s no way that I’m not going to pick up a book with an endorsement like that. The last few times that I’ve been back in Oregon for a Diamond Girl dinner, Nicole has been enthusiastically telling me which books I need to read. (Nicole is a brilliant writer, horse lover, and book reviewer. You should probably check her out.)
When I sent out an emergency I’m going to the library and need book recommendations tweet a few weeks ago, Nicole was swift to remind me of the Spellmans.
I ended up picking up The Curse of The Spellmans by Lisa Lutz.
Izzy Spellman is as normal as any 30 year-old woman who was raised by PIs could be. Which means she’s neurotic. Obsessively paranoid. About life, anything that has to do with her family, and her love life. Oh boy, her love life. If you’ve ever googled your dates, you’ve got nothing on Izzy. She’s been known to rifle through wallets, dig through trash, and break into their houses while they are gone. All in the name of figuring out if they are as trustworthy as they seem.
This installment starts out innocently enough. Izzy’s younger sister accidentally runs over her 40-something best friend while learning how to drive. Yes. Weird. Borderline creepy weird. It follows the law-bending activities that start when Izzy meets the man of her dreams – the hot new neighbor, John Brown. But there’s something weird about John Brown. For starters, his name. Who has a name that obviously generic and fake? He has to be hiding something. And his landscaping business? A cover, of course! So John Brown soon becomes “The Suspect.” (And as a disclaimer, that’s the common thread between Izzy and me. We nickname our dates. That’s all.)
Izzy’s obsession with proving the Suspect to be a criminal becomes her comical undoing. The narrative jumps around from her third arrest to the day she met “The Suspect.” When some of the women that Suspect has been seen with disappear, Izzy is convinced he’s a homicidal maniac. The only problem is no one believes her. Especially not after the Suspect issues a restraining order.
Poor Izzy.
Her borderline criminal behavior adds laughs to the book. The only problem with the book is the amount of subplots woven throughout. But the books are about the Spellmans and each family member is a character in their own right. If you don’t mind some swearing and adult situations, it’s a fantastic book for a lazy afternoon.
