On attend l'intrigue, mais elle ne vient pas, l'intrigue, ce sont les personnages, un peu léger. ( )

I liked the second one better (Curse of the Spellman's). Maybe that's because I read it first for a book club. It seemed to have a lot more wit. Maybe Lutz is finding her stride. I enjoy the characters and the light banter. I'm still looking forward to reading the third in the series. ( )

Having stumbled across the most recent book in the Spellman series, I had to go back and start with the first in order to be properly introduced to our heroine, Isabel "Izzy" Spellman. The sadly imperfect middle child in a family of private investigators (except for older brother David, who has joined the "normals" as an attorney), Izzy struggles with her identity, her career choice, her boyfriend choices, and her family members.

Should be a sob story, but it's not. This book is original, outrageous, and hilarious. As Izzy careens from one adventure to another, she is rarely at a loss for a witty quip, often to her own detriment. And yet, among all the humor and craziness, a picture of a loving and caring family emerges. And that's what makes this book a winner. ( )

Isabel "Izzy" Spellman works for her parents in the family business. She is also at war with her family as the whole family spies, manipulates and does some very mean things to each other throughout the course of the book. There are reasons to not like this book, but the humor and the style not only make the book readable but in the end this odd girl and her equally odd family make for a good read.

Several years ago I stopped watching most Bruce Willis and Will Smith movies because the smirking, smart ass characeters grew tiresome to me. To read this book you have to have a pretty high tolerance for wise ass characters and Izzy in particular is one wise ass girl. In the beginning of the book it is a little too much and is wearisome to a degree. But this is also Lisa Lutz's first book and to some degree that seemed to be a part of the problem early on in the book. The style is not fluid; it feels like the author is trying to hard. But then the book begins to flow better and the style works better. Izzy is still a smart ass, even to her own detriment. She knows she is doing it but doesn't really know any way to stop and be something else. In fact, she is in some ways compelled to continue doing things she knows are self defeating.

The humor is the best part of the book though the mystery, which doesn't really start until the book is almost half over is pretty good as well. The book is really the history of the Spellman clan and how Izzy feels first her brother, then her parents and finally even her younger sister, impose themselves on her and make it difficult for her to have any a sembalance of personal identity that is separate from them. She has already used alcohol, drugs and men to try and escape from the overwhelmingness of her family. Now at 28 years of age she is willing to do to her next "future ex-boyfriend" what has been done to her all her life. She spies on him, disregards his privacy and manipulates him with outrageous lies. She is willing to do whatever it takes to be with him. She knows it is wrong but doesn't know how to be normal, so she does what she knows how to do, try and get him by using everything her family taught her to do. She is a tragic figure, she is her own worst enemy. Her family once was but now it is Izzy that hurts herself more than even they can. By the end of the book, as a result of the mystery she is given to solve, she doggedly sticks to the unsolvable case until she knows what happens. As a result, she begins to become Izzy, a person separate from her family.

Not a perfect book, but I liked Izzy. She will certainly make more mistakes and she probably does not have it in her to be normal, but she will hopefully continue to be a compelling figure to read about. ( )

Izzy Spellman is a private detective who works for her parents detective company.She has bad luck with men and the family is a little dysfunctional.
I was recommended this book because I enjoy Janet Evanovich.I guess I found some similarities but didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to.There were funny moments ( not as humorous as Stephanie Plum) .
Now that I've been introduced to the characters I may pick up the next one to see if its better and more of a mystery, there was so much else going on in this book that the case she was working on kind of got lost in the shuffle. ( )