Concept: What if a young woman grows up in the family business of private detective work but decides she wants to get out. This book has a novel take on the private detective novel which I enjoyed.
Characters: The main character of Isabel, aka Izzy, is funny and refreshingly honest. The other characters are also well rounded and well done, including her teenage sister Rae and her boy-friend dentist.
Writing Voice: Lutz has a good writing voice with a nice balance of introspection and action. She's funny too.
Unfortunately, the lack of structure was a distraction. The typical structure is 25% set-up followed by equal parts response, attack and resolution. For the first half of The Spellman Files, I didn't know what the book was about--it was all set-up. At around the 65% mark, it finally settled down to the first plot point: Izzy decided to quit the business but her parents wouldn't let her leave until she did one more case. Here the book became more of a standard detective novel and it was more satisfying because the main character now had a goal. However, a second plot point was introduced, her missing sister, which turned out not to be connected to the first goal of solving the old mystery. This diluted the effect of both mysteries because they were unconnected in the end.
The Spellman Files is a case study in the importance of structure. It was good, but it could have been great.
