The Spellmans Strike Again

January 18, 2010
In Edgar-finalist Lutz's entertaining fourth and final novel about the eccentric Spellman PI clan (after Revenge of the Spellmans
), Isabel “Izzy” Spellman juggles the usual family drama—her mother tries to sabotage Izzy's relationship with her Irish bartender boyfriend and younger sister Rae throws herself into freeing a wrongly convicted man—while helping to drum up business in a dreary economy. While Rae works on her “Free Schmidt” campaign, Izzy investigates the whereabouts of a missing valet with a checkered past and sifts through garbage for a screenwriter client. Older brother David, the only Spellman not involved in the family business, grows closer to his defense attorney girlfriend. On the sly, Izzy is also tailing Rick Harkey, a rival San Francisco PI, and discovers that Harkey left behind a trail of suspicious arrests and conveniently misplaced evidence in his career as a cop. Narrator Izzy's biting wit—mixed with a refreshing dose of humility and sadness—easily carries the story.

As one who has followed the Spellman series from the start, this reviewer was at first put off by narrator Christina Moore's voice. It's not as youthful, energetic, or high-pitched as one imagines of the protagonist, reluctant private detective Isabel ("Izzy") Spellman. Further, Moore's accent reveals a provenance far from the Northern California setting. But soon enough, her commitment to the material completely wins one over. Each of the characters comes alive in Moore's reading, especially Izzy's prying mother, who blackmails her daughter into weekly blind dates with eligible lawyers. As with all of the Spellman books, there are multiple plotlines, and the book is filled with hysterical footnotes that Moore delivers without breaking the flow of the narrative. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine