second in a series

I’m clearing off my desk and taking things back to the library. I was doing so well! I had winnowed down my checked out items to a manageable number somewhere in the 50s, but now I’m back to 86. How does this happen?! Nevermind. I know how it happens.
UPDATE: I just double checked and it's only 68 things! That's not so bad...

Anyway - both of these books are: 1) sitting on my desk ready to go back to the library 2) the second book in their respective series 3) feature a female protagonist both supported and bedeviled by her eccentric family.


Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz

I liked this very much! it’s my kind of crime novel: screwball, funny, about characters rather than corpses.
Here’s a description of the family from the jacket flap: “Now the Spellmans, a highly functioning yet supremely dysfunctional family of private investigators, return in a sidesplittingly funny story of suspicion, suspense, surveillance, and surprise.” (I disagree with sidesplitting, but completely understand the alliterative urge. It made me laugh, but no sawdust was lost.)

Curse of the Spellmans is funny, fast paced, and delivered by Lutz with affection and understanding for the completely neurotic behavior of this family of P.I.s. Izzy Spellman is the main character and chief investigator, but it’s her family (and her role as chief screw-up within the family) that makes these books stand out. But it’s not just about the Spellmans - there’s an array of interesting secondary characters who populate this version of San Francisco. I always get a kind of Rockford Files vibe from the series, which I love - the characters are warped and wounded in various ways without being completely broken and the family ties are strong if strained.

CAVEATS: She does a lot of footnoting which was distracting until it wasn’t; when she’s not breaking the 4th wall she’s leaning on it pretty hard.


Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson

I really enjoyed book one of this YA series (Suite Scarlett), and was very glad to revisit the Hopewell Hotel and all those who dwell in her. This series is like crack to me - it’s like a CW show, but IN A BOOK. Check it: set in New York City, acting shenanigans, teenaged wiseacres, unexpected reveals and reversals, broken hearts, misunderstandings, romance, sibling rivalry and affection, running gags, a formerly fancy hotel in genteel decline (I love hotel stories), and just the right amount of clothing description. I would watch it/ read a new episode every damn week if I could.

Let’s meet the Martins: oldest is brother Spencer, a gifted physical comedian and actor; next is Lola who has the power to spin straw into gold (except when she can’t); Scarlett (our heroine) 15 year old high school student and part time theatrical agent (thanks to her indentured servitude to former guest/now boss, the flamboyant Mrs. Amy Amberson); Marlene is the youngest, a cancer survivor,pain in the ass, and “Power Kid.” (The parents are in it but not IN IT - although they are more present in this book than in the first.)

This adventure involves a terrible Broadway musical, secret talent, the popular long running television show Crime and Punishment, biology class, a nervous dog named Murray, a party stopping dance number, and MUCH MUCH MORE.