I can't enthuse enough about the audiobook I just finished. I had read Lisa Lutz' two earlier Spellman books, about a seriously dysfunctional family of private investigators in San Francisco. They are quirky and very funny, with plots taking somewhat of a back seat to characters. The City by the Bay also comes through well for me, admittedly just a three-time visitor and only superficially knowledgeable about SF; Lutz mentions the only major SF restaurant I've been to, Fog City Diner, so that's another way to make me (and all the rest of the visitors) feel "in" the story. The two earlier books, THE SPELLMAN FILES and THE CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS got justifiably rave reviews, book club attention, and award nominations. The third in the series, THE REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS, I experienced in audio, narrated by Christina Moore. Main character Isabel (Izzy) tells the story in a breezy style and a delightful "voice," as the writers say. The wacky family is as comfortable as an old hiking boot. Mom and Dad run the investigations, sister Rae somehow cheats and gets great SAT scores (or did she?), brother David (the sane one) has an early mid-life crisis, main character Izzy's love life still leaves a lot to be desired and besides, she's taking time off from the family business to bartend at The Philosopher's Club. Trying to decide if she wants to continue as an investigator, she accepts a husband's request to find out if his wife is straying. The mystery is rather low-key and figures intermittently among the family frolic scenes, although the solution is a clever one.
Moore is a perfect pitch for Izzy, whose "voice" (in all its meanings) carries the book and the recording. I was still laughing out loud at the final pages where Izzy's "footnotes" are exaplained. Lutz's books are as good as early Evanovich.
And that's darned good.
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