Book 1

The Spellman Files

by Lisa Lutz

Published 1 March 2007
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. Part Nancy Drew, part Dirty Harry, 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. "The Spellman Files" is the first novel in a winning and hilarious new series featuring the Spellman family in all its lovable chaos.

Book 2

Curse of the Spellmans

by Lisa Lutz

Published 28 February 2008
They're baaaack ...Re-meet the Spellmans, a family in which eavesdropping is a mandatory skill, locks are meant to be picked, and blackmail is the preferred form of negotiation - all in the name of unconditional love. When Izzy Spellman, PI, is arrested for the fourth time in three months, she writes it off as an occupational hazard. She's been (obsessively) keeping surveillance on her new next-door neighbour (suspect's name: John Brown), convinced he's up to no good - even if Spellman Investigations management (ie:her parents) are not. When the (displeased) management refuse to bail Izzy out, it is Morty, Izzy's octogenarian lawyer, who comes to her rescue. But before he can build a defence, he has to know the facts. Over weak coffee and pastrami sandwiches, Izzy unveils the whole truth and nothing but the truth - as only she, a licensed 30-year-old professional, can.

Book 3

Revenge of the Spellmans

by Lisa Lutz

Published 10 March 2009
Having been ordered into therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject, former private investigator Izzy Spellman is wisely taking a break from Spellman Inc, having embarked on a less controversial career as a barmaid. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a 'friend' looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. A suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed, it would appear to be a routine case involving nothing more than that most boring of PI rituals: surveillance. But Izzy soon discovers that she's not the only person keeping a close eye on Mrs Ernie Black and with each passing hour the Case of the Wayward Wife throws up more questions than answers.

Book 4

The Spellmans Strike Again

by Lisa Lutz

Published 16 March 2010
Former wild child Izzy Spellman has finally agreed to take over the family business, and the transition won't be a smooth one.

Book 5

Trail of the Spellmans

by Lisa Lutz

Published 28 February 2012
The fifth in the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated series about a fearless private investigator Izzy Spellman and her quirky, yet endearing, family of sleuths: "Lie back and enjoy this tale of intergenerational gumshoe mayhem" (Kirkus Reviews).

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SPELLMAN HISTORY, Isabel Spellman, PI, might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities-with no apparent motive. Dad has a secret. Izzy's brother and sister are at war-for no apparent reason. And her niece keeps saying "banana" even though she hates bananas. That's not to say that Izzy isn't without her own troubles. Her boyfriend, Henry Stone, keeps wanting "to talk," a prospect Isabel evades by going out with her new drinking buddy, none other than Gertrude Stone, Henry's mother. Things aren't any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations. First, Rae is hired to follow a girl, but then fakes the surveillance reports. Then a math professor hires Izzy to watch his immaculate apartment while he unravels like a bad formula. And as the questions pile up, Izzy won't stop hunting for the answers-even when they threaten to shatter both the business and the family.

Book 6

The Last Word

by Lisa Lutz

Published 9 July 2013
Targeted by the members of her dysfunctional family for control over Spellman Investigations after staging a retaliatory takeover, Izzy is wrongly accused of embezzling funds from a wealthy Alzheimer's patient.