The Curse of the Spellmans

Another delightful installment from the Spellman series.

Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So how can something be so good and coherent and yet be so random and rambling? I don't mean random in a negative way at all. In fact, I find the randomness quite charming, just as I find Isabel Spellman quite charming and funny. Izzy and the entire Spellman clan are a bunch of nut cases, but the stories work for me.

In this, the second installment of the Spellman series, Izzy finds herself busy surveilling the neighbor who is surely up to no good; her teenage sister Rae has run over her "best friend"...a forty-something-year-old inspector named Henry, and Henry, not surprisingly, is fed up; her practically perfect older brother David has lost his razor sharp edge; her mother is sneaking out of the house at all hours; and her father, well, he's secretly on a new found health kick. And there is more...but I'll spare you the run down.

Like I said...random.

What I love about Lutz's story is that everything seems to be happening all at once, and so the novel should feel chaotic. Yet somehow it doesn't. She shifts from subplot to subplot seamlessly, even though she is moving from one conflict to the next quite quickly. I would liken it to a professional race car driver, taking you out for a quick spin on the Autobahn in a Mercedes Benz. Even though you would inevitably be going so very fast, the ride would be perfectly smooth. I think I'd like to try that some day.

And then, of course, there are the "mysteries" that Izzy must solve. I'll go ahead and admit that the central conflict, Izzy's obsession with the man next door's private life, was fairly easy to figure out, but the others are a bit more puzzling, so there was enough tension in the waiting to see what would happen next that I didn't get bored or want to scream "DUH!" the entire time I was reading.

Moreover, these books really aren't about the mysteries and are more about the characters and their ridiculous antics, especially Izzy and Rae...or Rae and Henry, who make quite the comedic team, actually. I'm telling you, the characters here are a breath of fresh air, and so is the story, even if it isn't so mysterious. And this is mostly because of Lutz's wry sense of humor and excellent comedic timing. In fact, I like this one a little more than I liked the first, and I really enjoyed the first.

I'm thrilled to have found these little gems, and I can't wait to read the next in the series.

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