And now for a bit different...
The Spellman Files series by Lisa Lutz - Mystery/ Comedy/
Meet Isabelle Spellman, Middle (adult) child of Olivia and Albert Spellman, who run Spellman investigations out of their Victorian style house in San Francisco. Isabell is 28 years old and just starting to "grow up" and work with her parents. Her older Brother David is a successful lawyer, and her younger sister Rae is a 14 year old Junior High student who does random surveillance of people as a hobby. In the first book, Isabelle (Izzy) starts out in a parking garage getting into a late model BMW with a non descript Ford sneaking up on her. she gets in the car starts it and notices the Ford, and then drives around San Francisco trying to lose her tail. the driver of the Ford is too good, she can't get away from him, so she stops, gets out of the car, walks back to the Ford that is right behind her, and the driver of the Ford rolls down his window. She then tells the driver and the passenger: "Dad, Mom, This has to stop!" Turns out that the BMW is her new dentist boyfriends car and the parents are curious as to who he is, and Izzy is not supplying any info to them.
The dysfunctionality of the family is what makes the books, that and the funny footnotes as you read the book which most are humorous flashbacks to Izzy's youth and escapades including vandalism, drinking and partying, and previous ex boyfriends. All of the family except the older brother David who seems to be the only sane one in the bunch will sneak around and spy on one another to see what the other member of the family is doing. Izzy does do investigative work for her parents, and sometimes has her little sister who loves surveillance help on stakeouts. there are only six books to the series, all told from the viewpoint of Izzy, and you see her mature and grow and understand that how her misspent youth affected her parents, siblings and others around her and she works through her life.
Supposedly, the next books in the Spellman series are going to be told from the younger sister Rae's point of view, which should be great, but so far 5 years have went by and no new books. Rae's motto is "barter and bargain for *everything*" in which she has made several thousand dollars off of family, friends and classmates. should be interesting when those start rolling out.
Booklist:
The Spellman Files (2007)
Curse of the Spellmans (2008)
Revenge of the Spellmans (2009)
The Spellmans Strike Again (2010)
Trail of the Spellmans (2012)
The Last Word (2013)
And this one, while not a novel, was written by Rae and is done as a childrens book and was mentioned in one of the above books:
How to Negotiate Everything (2013)
Anson