The Spellmans Strike Again

I love this series. This is the fourth book and I waited not-so-patiently to get this from the library (now that I can't get new ebooks for $9.99 anymore). This was worth the wait and I can't believe I discovered this great series in the bargain section at B&N.

Izzy Spellman is now 32 but still treated like a child by her parents. They are a dysfunctional family of PI's who spy on each other instead of having conversations. Izzie is part owner of the family agency but doesn't get to spend as much time on real cases as she would like. Her mother, Olivia, has blackmailed her into investigating David, the eldest Spellman sibling, to find out if he is cheating on his new girlfriend. Olivia also does not like Izzie's new bartender boyfriend show more and has used the same blackmail to get Izzie to go out on I date a week with a lawyer or other professional.
Rae, the youngest Spellman is obsessed with working a pro bono case for David's lawyer girlfriend Maggie and is blackmailing the school drug dealer to give her rides whenever she needs them. Rounding out the cast is Henry Stone, a 45 year old cop who reluctantly got sucked into this family 3 books ago and is Rae's best friend. Again, reluctantly.
Oops, almost forgot Morty, Izzie's 85 year old best friend who lives in Miami but calls weekly to ask about her love life.

my review: Again, I just love this series. Lutz is a very smart, funny, and sharp writer who has created beloved but crazy characters and several intertwined, hilarious mysteries.
The only downfall is this may be the last book. I think there are endless stories to be made with this wacky family and I hope that was just a viscous rumor I heard.
These books are better read in order, so if you are love humor and fun and great writing, I suggest you go out and buy The Spellman Files, Curse of the Spellmans, and, Revenge of the Spellmans asap. What a fantastic reading weekend you could have! But only if you like to enjoy things. Otherwise read one of the last 2 or 3 books I have reviewed

my rating 5/5 show less

This is book number four in the Spellman Files series, featuring Izzy Spellman and her family of private detectives, all of whom seem to spend as much time practicing their skills on each other as they do on behalf of their clients. This time, Izzy is investigating a corrupt fellow PI, getting caught up in her sister's crusade to free the wrongfully imprisoned, setting up a friend as a combination butler and spy, and pondering the question of why all the doorknobs in her parents' home keep disappearing. But the plot, such as it is, almost doesn't matter. The fun in all of these books is in Izzy's interactions with her quirky friends and family, and in watching her character development as she slowly evolves into something vaguely show more resembling a mature adult.

Like the rest of the series, it's a breezy, entertaining read that's just about perfect for when you're in the mood for something light, but not too relentlessly fluffy or over-the-top silly.

This feels a bit as if it were intended as a wrap-up to the series, but I know there's at least one book after this, so apparently it didn't take. Which is fine by me. I'm not tired of it yet. show less

In my favorite book in the series thus far, Izzy is finally making some positive progress in life. That said, the Spellmans are all up to their usual antics, which include deception (open communication is just not in their repertoire), coercion, outright blackmail, and more than one incident of illegal imprisonment. Multiple cases/storylines keep Izzy occupied and moving forward. Highly entertaining & hilarious, I'm looking forward to the last two books in the series.

Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely adore this series? I'm terribly skeptical about [a:Lisa Lutz|74189|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1325011588p2/74189.jpg]'s proclamation that The Wire is better than Doctor Who and Get Smart but that may just be because I've not seen it yet. Still, what can be better than Doctor Who and Get Smart? Does The Wire have hilariously named robots that fight incredibly fake gorillas and/or threaten to exterminate you with plungers?

I thought not. Case closed.

When I first began reading [b:The Spellman Files|129117|The Spellman Files (The Spellmans, #1)|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171981639s/129117.jpg|2896642] and the rest of the books in this series I was told this was the show more last one. Naturally, I forced myself to spend large amounts of time between the reading of the various 'documents' because I wanted the time with the characters to last. All things, however, must come to an end. In this case an end that wasn't truly an end since [b:Trail of the Spellmans|12166282|Trail of the Spellmans (The Spellmans, #5)|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329960906s/12166282.jpg|15400368] was released. Still, though, I can understand how one could choose this to be the true end of the series. Everything is wrapped up beautifully, if with a bit of resignation. No one likes to see some things end.

[a:Lisa Lutz|74189|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1325011588p2/74189.jpg] herself, among others, have viewed the series not only in terms of the mysteries they portray but also as the evolution of the relationships within them. At the very beginning of the series, Isabel, the main character was remarkably immature and maladjusted. Well, the whole family was. You'd have to be mentally incapacitated to say that the Spellmans achieve normality at the end of this book, but they still have been making improvements. The transition to maturity is a long one, but one that [a:Lisa Lutz|74189|Lisa Lutz|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1325011588p2/74189.jpg] shows with good humor, cynicism, and a wide margin for error. I think just about everyone should love her for that. show less

I'm sad to see the Spellman saga come to an end. So sad that I actually teared up a little in the final pages. Seriously! I also realized today that I read each and every one of the four books in one sitting because they're so fun and paced so well.

I hope Lisa Lutz writes more books.

But if she doesn't, at least I know Isabel and her family will always live in my heart, and in the similarities I see in my own crazy family, none of whom are detectives, but they still manage to be nosy (myself included).

I'm going to start off by saying that I love books. I mean all types of books (maybe except for romance, but that's a whole other topic). Every once in a while you will read a book that will just be like nothing you ever read before. A book which you will herald as your favorite literary masterpiece. The types of books that when you tell your friends you read it, they will look at you in amazement and say "Wait, you didn't just read it, but you actually enjoyed it? You complete and utter freak!". The type of book in which you will hold onto until your dying day and when you are on your deathbed, your final words will be "Read this book, you philistine!" The Spellmans Strike Again, ladies and gentlemen....is not this book. But still it's show more pretty damn good.

The thing about the Spellmans is that the whole family is insane. I'm talking about the kind of insane that can be temporarily certifiable. They take getting into your family's business to a whole other level and make it into an olympic sport. I learned all this from the first installment The Spellman Files (which you totally have to read before you read this one. It's in the footnotes...) which introduced me to the wonderful and brilliant (and okay, kinda trainwreck-ish) Isabel (Izzy) Spellman (and yeah, I guess her family, too).

The Spellmans Strike Again is a mixture of a whole lot of things. It's part mystery, part romance, and mostly humor. But the reason which I've read this (and the previous installments) is because of the complete Spellman family. They're all wonderfully zany. They love each other, yes, but they also spy on each other, blackmail each other, and basically make each other's lives miserable with hilarious results.

You will absolutely love Izzy Spellman. She's a bit of a mess in the previous novels, but in this one, we see her make an active attempt to evolve and mature a little bit (but not too much, we wouldn't want her to be a completely better person would we? No. She makes us feel better about ourselves) while trying to sort out the details of her life, her investigation, and her mother's incessant meddling.

We see all of the other characters grow up and change a bit, too. Except for Rae, I don't think she'll ever change. As the Spellman saga finally ends, we get bittersweet closure. We welcome the characters new beginnings and cry over others end. Not only was I shedding tears for some storylines, but because this is the end of the Spellmans for us the readers. But it's okay, I've come to accept this (PLEASE NO!!!!) or at least come to terms with it a little better.

If you've read the previous Spellman novels, then there is no doubt that you will love this one. It's a satisfying end. If you've never read any of the Spellman novels, then I suggest you start at the beginning and work your way towards the end (unless you're like Izzy and like to start stories in the middle). Sure, The Spellmans Strike Again isn't a literary masterpiece and you won't be able to brag to your friends about this amazing new novel that they have to read which will make them seem like they were deserving of that Ivy League reputation (they're just going to have to deal with their shortcomings. It sucks, but hey, that's life), instead you'll be able to tell them about this amazing new book that will make them laugh, cry (in the words of Lorelai Gilmore "mostly because you're laughing so hard"), and just enjoy it completely. show less

In this fourth and final installment in the Spellman series, Izzy Spellman is right smack in the middle of some of her wackiest adventures yet. Because her mom still holds Prom Night 1994 over her she has to agree to go on 20 blind dates with a different lawyer each time. This is because her mom cannot stand her dating Connor, otherwise known as ex-boyfriend #12. Her best friend Morty calls weekly from Florida with nothing but gripes. One of her cases involves her hiring her good friend Len, to pose as a spy posing as a butler and this causes trouble for Len at home. Her sister Rae takes on a cause to "Free Schmidt" who she believes has been wrongly imprisoned and later Izzy takes up her own case of wrongful imprisonment. Hardware and show more light fixtures are disappearing daily from the Spellman home and last but not least Izzy is diligently working to catch the competition, the dishonest PI Rick Harkey, breaking the law or at a minimum something bad enough to get his PI license yanked.

If you've read the previous three books in this series you'll know that this is nothing but business as usual for Izzy.

As always, Izzy gets through her adventures while making me crack up on almost every page. Her family is just so wild and Lutz does such an awesome job with her character development that I could totally picture each and every one of them. Izzy is witty and always quick to deliver a snarky comment. Even though there seems to be a million different storylines it magically works into one great read that you should not miss.

I can't tell you how much I love this series and was shocked to learn this was the end of it. I could totally see this one becoming a long running series that I would never tire of. I'm going to miss the Spellmans tremendously but the series was wrapped with a satisfying end and I'm sure that Lutz will follow this series with something just as good. show less