The Spellman Files

A Novel

By: Lisa Lutz

Narrated by: Ari Graynor

From the award-winning author of The Accomplice and The Passenger comes the first novel in the hilarious Spellman Files mystery series featuring Isabel “Izzy” Spellman (part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry) and her highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators.

Meet Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, private investigator. This twenty-eight-year-old may have a checkered past littered with romantic mistakes, excessive drinking, and creative vandalism; she may be addicted to Get Smart reruns and prefer entering homes through windows rather than doors—but the upshot is she’s good at her job as a licensed private investigator with her family’s firm, Spellman Investigations. Invading people’s privacy comes naturally to Izzy. In fact, it comes naturally to all the Spellmans. If only they could leave their work at the office. To be a Spellman is to snoop on a Spellman; tail a Spellman; dig up dirt on, blackmail, and wiretap a Spellman.

Izzy walks an indistinguishable line between Spellman family member and Spellman employee. Duties include: completing assignments from the bosses, aka Mom and Dad (preferably without scrutiny); appeasing her chronically perfect lawyer brother (often under duress); setting an example for her fourteen-year-old sister, Rae (who’s become addicted to “recreational surveillance”); and tracking down her uncle (who randomly disappears on benders dubbed “Lost Weekends”). But when Izzy’s parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Izzy’s new boyfriend), Izzy snaps and decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there’s a hitch: she must take one last job before they’ll let her go—a fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person case. She accepts, only to experience a disappearance far closer to home, which becomes the most important case of her life.©2007 Spellman Enterprises Inc. All rights reserved; (P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Hilarious. My enjoyment of The Spellman Files was only slightly undercut by my irritation that I hadn't written it myself. The funniest book I've read in years!"

-- Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing

"The Spellman Files is hilarious, outrageous, and hip. Izzy Spellman, P.I., is a total original, with a voice so fresh and real, you want more, more, more. At long last, we know what Nancy Drew would have been like had she come from a family of lovable crackpots. Lisa Lutz has created a delicious comedy with skill and truth. I loved it."

-- Adriana Trigiani, author of Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap

"A spirited, funny debut...a rush of humor and chaos...casual, swift, and hip...A fresh story that works real issues through an offbeat premise."

-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The Spellman Files :) a great novel.

i really enjoyed of hearing the narration of Ari Graynor.
it's a nice and interesting book.

LOVED the Spellman books!

Extremely entertaining! Kooky characters, crazy family relationships and a mystery or two. The narrator's dead-pan delivery was perfectly suited to the tongue-in-cheek tone of the book. I ended up listening to the first 3 Spellman books in a row...couldn't get enough! If you like the Stephanie Plum novels, you're definitely going to love the Spellman family antics.

Easy, fun entertainment!

Listened to this book and loved the voice, timing and inflection of Ari Graynor. Next I tried the CD version from the library of the third and fourth books - don't like that reader, couldn't even listen to them! I am definitely going to buy the second book from Audible -
Hoping the last two books will become available from Audible and will be read by Graynor.
Stories are very amusing, nice light read. Family dynamics are great.

I liked it

Any additional comments?

As noted by other reviewers, the narrator was a bit monotone - but as I continued listening I got used to it and it did seem to work out as another reviewer said - the voice does seem to fit however, I'm still wavering if I want to move on to another book or not. I felt like the story was fine and I can see (or at least presume) that the books and characters will get better, but this one definitely seemed like a first novel - but everyone does have to have a first.

Incredible series

This is the first of an incredibly hilarious series. Izzie Spelman is a hero for the ages. An excellent read for a 5 hour car trip.