Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Meet Isabel 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 Isabel. 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.

Isabel is the middle child, David her perfect old brother and Rae the 11 year her senior accidental 3rd Spellman. David became a lawyer to escape the madness of the family business, Rae embarrasses it. While Isabel, the rebel child, whether drinking too much or using drugs or always going for the wrong boyfriend she can't find her way.

So when Isabel's parents hire Rae to follow her (for the purpose of ascertaining the identity of Isabel's new boyfriend), that is the final straw. Isabel decides that the only way she will ever be normal is if she gets out of the family business. But there is a hitch: She must take one last job before they'll let her go. The final job? A fifteen-year-old, ice-cold missing person's case. But when a disappearance occurs far closer to home, Isabel's final job becomes the most important case of her life.

This was a greatly entertaining novel. I really liked all the characters and you can't help but sympathize with Isabel who knows she lives in a crazy life but can't do anything else. From reading the author's notes it appears we may seem more adventures of the Spellman. But this can definitely stand on it's own and left me very satisified.

Good Behavior by Donald Westlake

While escaping from a robbery attempt, Dortmunder falls through the roof of a convent. The cloistered nuns take this as a sign from heaven and tell Dortmunder (by writing notes) that they will not turn him in if he helps to return Sister Mary Grace to their convent. Sister Mary Grace is a young nun who is being kept in a tower apartment by her millionaire father, who is trying to deprogram her, but she is firm in her commitment to remain a nun. She is able to smuggle out the details of the high-rise's security system to Dortmunder, and the big escape plan begins.

Of course nothing really goes as planed as with most of Dortmunder's plans. He brings in the usual cast of characters to help him by promising them the king of heists. First he has to find a company that isn't quite on the up and up. He makes a deal with J.C. Taylor who owns several companies in one office. She gets a fee upfront and lets them use her office and shipping department to send out the stolen goods that will be sold to various fences. They can steal what can be mailed out of one of the shipping dept. Meanwhile why they are stealing various good Dortmunder goes to rescue the nun. In typical "nothing goes quite right" Dortmunder fashion. He gets off on the floor below the top floor and finds himself involved with a rebel group about to go and take a South American county. He manages to get himself rescued by the nun but is found hiding in a dishwasher. The gang at first decides to leave Dortmunder on his own but then come up with their own plan to rescue him. The police are brought in to arrest the rebels but unfortunately are doing a search to look for any other stolen goods hence backing the gang into a corner. A hilarious scene in which the nuns are brought in and all the guys dress up like nuns to escape.

I alway laugh when I read a Dortmunder novel and I managed to miss this one. So I'm glad that I went back to catch up on this one.

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

Sequel to Case Histories. Jackson Brodie returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by "Honda Man" on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.

Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. Atkinson is good at keeping all the storylines straight as they cross and weave into a very complicated plot and an ending I didn't see coming. I almost did not read this book as I didn't care for Case Histories but I found myself wanting to know more about Jackson and how it might end.

Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller

White-haired, leprechaun-size Kiki Strike is a new student at Atalanta School in New York City when she meets 12-year-old Ananka Fishbein, the narrator of Miller's debut novel. Together they begin a detailed exploration of the Shadow City, the subterranean rooms and streets under New York's subway system, and Kiki recruits a team of other precocious 12-year-olds, whose skills include hacking, chemistry, lock picking, forging, making handmade explosives, and mechanical engineering, to join them. Ananka, the team's urban archaeologist, will supply her family's extensive library and learn everything about rats, the current Shadow City inhabitants. As the girls try to obtain layered maps of New York City's infrastructure, they fear that terrorists with the same goals are putting the city in terrible danger. The peripheral plotline about a nefarious, exiled princess of Pokrovia, who is a fellow Atalanta School student makes the story flow.

The end of each chapter gives us tips from Ananka on topics such as "How to Be a Master of Disguise" and "How to Foil a Kidnapping" and many more. This book was great fun. I found the story fresh and exciting and I didn't want it to end. I liked how it didn't try to make everything take place in a week. The book actually takes place over 2-3 years. We see the characters develop and evolve into very interesting girls. I'm hoping we'll get to know more about the other girls as we only really get to know the most about Ananka (since she narrates) and Kiki. This reminds me of Aretemis Fowl but for girls.