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Lisa Lutz offers sweet 'Revenge' in the latest Spellman saga

Image from Simon & Schuster Publishers

I strongly believe that in order to survive the Northwest gloom in March that one needs a trip to Hawaii and find a funny novel to read.  If a Hawaiian adventure isn't in your travel plans or budget this year, you don't have to fret:  Revenge of the Spellmans (in bookstores and libraries today) by Lisa Lutz offers enough sunshine and laughter that you may find yourself asking Hawaii, who?

Revenge of the Spellmans is the third book in Lutz’s hilarious series about a family of Private Investigators (and one lawyer) that can’t seem to stop spying and tailing each other. The third book is quite similar (wacky and fast-paced), if not funnier, than both The Spellman Files and Curse of the Spellmans. This mystery starts with Isabel (Izzy) Spellman on hiatus from her job at Spellman, Inc and temping as a bartender at her favorite quasi-dive bar The Philosopher’s Club. When Izzy isn’t bartending she’s spending quality time with her court-appointed therapists (she has two).  Everything changes when Izzy takes on a case for her boss Milo and is subsequently fired from the bar. Now that she is unemployed Izzy can focus on chauffeuring her elderly friend/ lawyer Morty Schilling around, housesitting for her brother David while he’s on “vacation,” and how to improve her lackluster love life. Despite her best efforts, Izzy is caught up again in Spellman Family chaos.

The Spellman series isn’t the only thing Lutz has written. She also wrote the 2001 Mob comedy Plan B starring Diane Keaton. Curse of the Spellmans nominated for a 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel and winner of the 2008 Alex Award. Movie rights for The Spellman Files have been optioned by Paramount Pictures. If the book is made into a film, I certainly hope Lutz gets to write the screenplay. That’s a movie I wouldn’t mind seeing. Hell, I like the Spellman books so much I’d watch a TV show based on the novels.

As much as I’d like to discuss the plot and Izzy’s antics (and whether or not she ever professes her love to Inspector Henry Stone), I don’t want to give away any of the hilarity that ensues. People magazine has called Isabel Spellman the “love child of Dirty Harry and Harriet the Spy,” but I would argue she’s more like Bridget Jones moonlighting as Nancy Drew. The Spellman series is much more substantial and entertaining read than all of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich combined. These books are definitely for fans of Evanovich or Carl Hiaasen. If you read The Revenge of the Spellmans and still want more, Lutz will be in Seattle April 1^st and 2^nd to read from and sign her novels.  While you don't have to read The Spellman or The Curse of the Spellmans to understand and enjoy The Revenge of the Spellmans, I certainly recommend it (though Lutz does provide an excellent appendix that will bring you up to speed).