About the Author

Having sold her first screenplay at the age of 21, Liza Lutz quit college to make it big in Hollywood, only to spend the next ten years rewriting the script! During that time she supported herself via menial jobs, including a two-year stint at a San Francisco private investigation firm, which inspired her to write her first novel, THE SPELLMAN FILES.

Reviews

Big buzz at the London Book Fair, multiple foreign rights sales, and a film sale to Spider-Man's producer-what more could a first novelist want? Lutz's heroine works for her nutty family's detective business. With a three-city tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Cracking the case can get complicated and outrageously wacky when a family of detectives is involved, but Lutz has a blast doing it in her delicious debut. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman, a San Francisco PI who began working for Spellman Investigations at age 12, could easily pass as Buffy or Veronica Mars's wiser but funnier older sister. Izzy digs TV, too, especially Get Smart (an ex-boyfriend's ownership of the complete bootlegged DVD set is his major selling point). Now 28, Izzy thinks she wants out, but elects to take on a cold case while dealing with 14-year-old sister Rae, a nightmarish Nancy Drew, and parents who have no qualms about bugging their children's bedrooms. At times the dialogue-heavy text reads like a script and the action flags, but these are quibbles. When Rae suddenly disappears, Izzy and her family must learn some serious lessons in order to find her. Can the family that snoops together stay together? Stay tuned as a dynamic new series unfolds. 150,000 first printing. (Mar.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.