Lisa Lutz Books In Order

Publication Order of Izzy Spellman Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Lisa Lutz is one of the New York Times bestselling author from America who has written several highly successful books based on the crime, comedy, humor, and fiction genres. Initially, she started her career doing screenwriting for Hollywood movies. One of the screenplays that she had written was rejected, after which she decided to use it as the basis of her novel series. To everyone’s surprise, the series went on to become a bestseller and helped author Lutz establish herself among the prominent authors of her time. The series was based on a private investigator family known as the Spellmans. Author Lutz was born on March 13, 1970, in Southern California, The United States. She studied at a number of universities, including the UC Irvine, Leeds University, and UC Santa Cruz in England, as well as the San Francisco University in The United States. However, she was not able to obtain any degree. From the start of her career up to the 1990s, author Lutz had to survive by doing several low paying jobs. These included working at a private investigation company, where she used to spend most of her spare time in writing and rewriting a comedy series called as Plan B. The first screenplay that she wrote was optioned in the year 1997 and was adapted into a Hollywood movie released in the year 2001. The movie was declared by the Variety Magazine as being unfunny. After that, author Lutz went on to produce a few more tentative screenplays, but she could not find success in finding a buyer. Then she decided to make a final effort and completed writing the screenplay of ‘The Spellman Files’.

To her bad luck, this screenplay was also rejected. Author Lutz gave a deep thought to it and then realized that her story required some more space for getting told properly. Eventually, she decided to write the screenplay in the form of a novel. While author Lutz was still living in California, she started writing the novel in the year 2004. In order to work on it full time, she moved to a relative’s vacation house in the upstate New York. There, she finished writing the first Spellman novel and then returned to Seattle for writing the second installment of the series. The next destination of author Lutz was San Francisco, where she stayed until 2012. As of today, she lives in a faraway region of the upstate New York. The novel series written by author Lutz describes the Spellmans, which a family full of private investigators. They appear to be closely knit to each other, but also suspect each other’s activity. They seem to spend most of their time in investigating the activities of each other.

The debut novel of the series shows a suspenseful plot in which a 14 year old member of the Spellman family named Rae Spellman gets abducted. In the year 2008, the debut novel of the series was nominated for a total of 3 awards in the category of the best debut novel, including the Macavity Award, the Barry Award, and the Anthony Award. It was also nominated for the Dilys Award and was able to win the Alex Award. The novel went on to reach the #27 on the bestseller list of the New York Times. A production company known as Paramount Pictures has obtained the film making rights of the novel, hiring Barry Sonnenfeld as the director and Laura Ziskin as the producer. However, the shooting of the film has not yet started as of 2016. The second novel of the series was also nominated for the prestigious Edgar in the year 2009. With the success of the first two books in the series, author Lutz went on to complete the writing work of 4 more novels in the series. In the year 2011, the Simon and Schuster publishers released a standalone comic book written by author Lutz, along with her friend and former partner named David Hayward. After this, she wrote a couple of other standalone novels in her writing career till 2016.

The Spellmans series written by author Lisa Lutz consists of 6 books in total published between the years 2007 and 2015. The first book in this series was published under the title ‘The Spellman Files’. It was released by the Recorded Books in the year 2007. Its story is basically set in San Francisco, California, The united States and features the characters Rae Spellman, Olivia Spellman, Isabel Spellman, David Spellman, and Albert Spellman. At the start of the book, Isabel Spellman is introduced as a 28 year old private investigator who has somehow got over his past mistakes of excessive drinking, creative vandalism, and romantic mistakes. Isabel likes to enter into her home through the windows and seems to be addicted to smart reruns. In spite all these things she is pretty much good at her job in her family’s private investigation firm. Just like all the other Spellmans, she too has the natural habit of invading into people’s privacy. However, she realizes that each member of her family is spying on others. The Spellmans seem to bring their work in their home and this is when things begin to become difficult for Isabel. She finds it hard to distinguish herself from being a Spellman employee and a Spellman family member. When her parents hire her little sister to spy on her, Isabel decides that it will be good for her to runaway from her family business. But, before she could do that, she gets assigned to a new job that she hopes would be her last one. She is asked to find a 15 year old missing person. The case ends up being the most important one of her life.

The next book in the series is titled as ‘Revenge of the Spellmans’. It is also set in San Francisco, California, and is published by the Simon and Schuster publishers in the year 2009. As the plot of this book begins, it is shown that Isabel Spellman is on hiatus from her family business. Her boss named Milo cuts her hours of bartending and asks her to meet a friend, who turns out to be her new client. Isabel assures herself that she will try to make the case as short and sweet as possible, and will indulge in nothing more than surveillance. The client asks her to spy on her wife. But, as the hours pass by, Isabel becomes more intrigued with the case. In the meantime, all the Spellman members seem to have adopted a surprising attitude towards work and life. They so not seem to have any worries about the proper functioning of the family business. Isabel finds that her brother David, her little sister Rae, and her mother are looking after their duties properly due to unknown reasons. On the other hand, her new case seems to affect her personal and mental health. Isabel begins to face all sorts of problems in her life due to tensions arising because of the family crisis. In the end, it appears that the novel is filled with side splits, ingenious and hilarious sequences, and several tender installments, which make the readers intrigued to the story till the very end.

4 Responses to “Lisa Lutz”

1. terrytattles: 2 years ago

   This is really funny stuff. The Spellman family is out of sight hilarious and the reading is truly a trip. If you want to go on a fun-filled reading adventure, start right here. You’re gonna love it. I strongly suggest however that you read these books in the order that they were published. I just finished reading “How to Start a Fire”. This is a truly excellent book, and it’s no wonder it won lots of awards. Very quirky characters, sometimes very funny, but a deep dive into the three main characters. Very rewarding reading experience.

   Reply
2. terrytattles: 2 years ago

   This is really funny stuff. The Spellman family is out of sight hilarious and the reading is truly a trip. If you want to go on a fun-filled reading adventure, start right here. You’re gonna love it. I strongly suggest however that you read these books in the order that they were published. I just finished reading “How to Start a Fire”. This is a truly excellent book, and it’s no wonder it won lots of awards. Very quirky characters, sometimes very funny, but a deep dive into the three main characters. Very rewarding reading experience. But I repeat, the Spellman family books will have you giggling and put a long-lasting smile on your face.

   Reply
3. Dr. Neil Hochman: 2 years ago

   I just read the Spellman Files which was selected for my Mystery Book Club at my local library in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Simply great and I’ve just started the second in the series. Your bio brings back great Ca. and college memories.

   Reply
4. Bob Brown: 3 years ago

   I enjoy her books – the three I’v read

   Reply