Pun Salad

Really kind of thought I would like this book more than I did. It was nominated last year for an Edgar for Best Novel. The front-cover blurbs proclaim: "whip-smart sass" (People), "delightful" (USA Today), "Fast-paced, irreverent, and very funny" (some guy I never heard of).

Instead, the book yielded (for me) one or two chuckles every hundred pages or so. (Disclaimer: humor's a funny thing: most people seemed to enjoy the book just fine, and, dear reader, you'll note the Amazon link over there will get you a copy for $0.01, plus shipping and handling. Check it out, see if your mileage varies.)

The Spellmans are a San Francisco family. Ma and Pa Spellman run a private-eye agency, employing eldest daughter Isabel (the book's narrator) as an investigator. Also in the mix are a 15-year-old precocious daughter, Rae, brother David (a lawyer), and a cop named Henry Stone, who was (apparently) accidentally run over by Rae in the previous book. Stir in new-neighbor John Brown, about whom Isabel is instantly suspicious. Also: someone is copycatting one of Isabel's past misdeeds: vandalism of a neighbor's holiday lawn displays. And (finally) all members of Isabel's family are acting mysteriously, as if they have something to hide.

When you check the reviews for the book, you'll see words like "wacky", "madcap", "screwball", "daffy", "quirky", etc., etc. Yes, fine, I get it. I didn't care too much about, or for, the primary characters, so all that wacky daffiness just sat there on the page. Neither does it help that Isabel's a pretty lousy detective. I figured things out about a hundred pages before she did. (Actually, she doesn't figure things out: someone literally calls her up with the solution—deus ex telephone.)