Tag: Lisa Lutz

#BookBeginnings The Last Word by Lisa Lutz

One of my favorite authors,  Lisa Lutz, has a new book coming out in August called The Swallows. To tide me over I grabbed one of her Spellman series, The Last Word  for Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Book Beginnings is a fun meme hosted by Rose City Reader blog. To participate, share the first sentence or so of a novel you are reading and your thoughts about it. When you are finished, add your URL to the Book Beginnings page linked above. Hope to see you there!

 

book-beginnings-Gershkowitz

The Last Word by Lisa Lutz

(*Amazon Affiliate link)

The Spellmans are an unconventional family (read dysfunctional) of private investigators who often spend more time investigating each other than criminals.

The great thing about the series is that that you could feel comfortable recommending them to a young adult or even your mother because they are devoid of violent murders. Plus, they feature plenty of laughs.

Summary:  In the last novel, Isabel Spellman has staged a coup and taken over her family’s PI business, but nothing is going as planned. As she struggles to keep the business afloat, a former client accuses her of embezzlement and if she doesn’t clear her name, she could lose everything.

First Sentence:

Memo

To All Spellman Employees:

Pants are mandatory.
Footwear is encouraged,

Signed,
The Management

Discussion:

That certainly sets the tone for the novel. Sounds like some of Isabel’s family members are protesting her takeover in creative ways.

What do you think? Have you read one of Lisa Lutz’s novels?

The paperback version is called Spellman Six: The Next Generation. That’s a bit confusing if you are trying to read them in order.

Author Post: Lisa Lutz

Early in her career, Liza Lutz wanted to be a screenwriter. After selling one screenplay, things stalled. She first wrote The Spellman Files as a screenplay, but it was only able to publish it after turning it into a novel. After some success as a mystery author, Lisa now writes for the HBO series The Deuce.

 

Spellman Novels by Lisa Lutz:

The Spellmans are an unconventional family (read dysfunctional) of private investigators who often spend more time investigating each other than criminals.

The great thing about the series is that that you could feel comfortable recommending them to a young adult or even your mother because they are devoid of violent murders. Plus, they feature plenty of laughs.

  • The Spellman Files (reviewed) -signed copy
  • Curse of the Spellmans
  • Revenge of the Spellmans
  • The Spellmans Strike Again
  • Trail of the Spellmans
  • Spellman Six: The Next Generation -paper back/ The Last Word -hardback

The Spellman’s Strike Again

The hardback version of the last book in the series is called The last Word, and the paperback version is called Spellman Six: The Next Generation. That’s a bit confusing if you are trying to read them in order.

Lisa Lutz also has a stand alone (so far) thriller, The Passenger (2016).

 

She has a new novel coming out in August 2019, The Swallows.

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About Author Posts:

Because I read a lot of mysteries, I’ve been trying to come up with a better system to keep track of which novels I’ve finished. I thought blogging would help, which it does, but I don’t always review everything I read. To get more organized, I’ve decided to create a series of author posts with lists of novels and links to my reviews. I plan to edit these pages as needed.

Mystery Review: The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Let’s start out with a mystery that you could feel comfortable recommending to a young adult or even your mother because it is completely devoid of violent murders. The Spellman Files  by Lisa Lutz is about a unconventional family (read dysfunctional) of private investigators who often spend more time investigating each other than criminals. It is the first of a six book series (list on authors website.)

Although the books are touted as humorous, be aware that Lutz’s humor runs towards the deadpan. You have to pay attention to catch all the improbably funny situations.

You can get a feel for her wacky humor in this video about another in the series, Trail of the Spellmans.

If you have trouble getting the jokes, you should think about what it might be like to be an author at a book signing.

Speaking of book signings, I met Lisa Lutz at the Tucson Festival of Books last weekend. There she revealed she wrote The Spellman Files as a screenplay first and revised it to be a stand alone novel. She also said that if she had known the Spellmans would become a series, she wouldn’t have killed off one of the characters.

If you are tired of the standard meaty fare, give the The Spellman Files a try. It is a light fruit salad of a mystery, perfect for a warm summer night.

Have you read The Spellman Files? What did you think of it?

 

Disclosure: This book was purchased and signed at a book signing. Also, I am an affiliate with Amazon so I can provide you with cover images and links to more information about books and products. As you probably are aware, if you click through the highlighted title or image link and purchase a product, I will receive a very small commission at no extra cost to you. Any proceeds help defray the costs of hosting and maintaining this website

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