With her staccato rhythms and deliberate vernacularisms, her street-wise pose and her penchant for grungy "denim and leather," Isabel's persona lies somewhere between "Dirty Harry and Nancy Drew." But Isabel's true antecedents lie deeper in the past, in that genre known as "hardboiled" or "noir." Like her precursors, Isabel is a private investigator. We recognize Isabel Spellman's voice immediately. And I know they are listening." So run the opening sentences of Lisa Lutz's wry novel, The Spellman Files, and the people listening and forcing the main character into a dangerous car chase are HER PARENTS. But my boots echo on the slick cement, broadcasting my location to anyone listening. "I duck into the parking garage, hoping to escape.
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