The Last Word: A Spellman Novel by Lisa Lutz

I have maintained in the past that sustaining the humor in a humorous mystery is one of the most difficult things to do, especially when the first volume was laugh-out-loud funny. Unfortunately, Lisa Lutz’s Last Word: A Spellman Novel did not live up to its predecessors. (Not that it was a bad book. It just didn’t live up to the standard set by the first book in the series.) The thing about the Spellmans is their quirkiness and while they still are quirky, something was lost.

As usual in a Spellman novel, the most fun is had when the family interacts, spies on each other, keeps secrets, bribes each other and there is a bunch of that going on. Isabel’s ex-boyfriend, Henry, takes a back seat in this novel, which saddened me. I liked him as a character. Actually, as I think about this, the funniest character is Isabel’s niece Sydney, aka Banana, who is somewhere between 2 and 4 years old, according to the opening pages. If that’s who you have to rely on for laughs, well…..

The ‘mysteries’ are not overwhelmingly exciting. As usual, there are several going on.

If you want a nice, mindless beach read, I’d suggest the Spellman series…no hesitation. Don’t get me wrong. If Lisa Lutz publishes another Spellman book, I’ll be on line to get my copy, but my expectations will be somewhat lower. Based on the ending of the book, I wonder whether this will indeed be the last word. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.