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Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

(Claire DeWitt Mysteries #1)

Sara Gran (Goodreads Author)

3.67 · Rating details · 8,395 ratings · 1,386 reviews

This knock-out start to a bracingly original new series features Claire DeWitt, the world’s greatest PI—at least, that's what she calls herself. A one-time teen detective in Brooklyn, she is a follower of the esoteric French detective Jacques Silette, whose mysterious handbook Détection inspired Claire’s unusual practices. Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans, where s ...more

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Hardcover, 273 pages

Published June 2nd 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published May 24th 2011)

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May 21, 2011 carol. rated it it was amazing

Recommended to carol. by: Kernos

Shelves: desert-island, my-library, mystery, female-lead, my-library-kindle, favorites, my-library-hardcover

I was a little afraid to re-read this book, because the first time through was so absolutely stunning, it was as if it was written for me. As my first review did not do justice to its wonderful combination of mystery, introspection, and setting, I'm setting out to rectify it.

Claire DeWitt is a detective, willing to use all means necessary--including hallucinogenic dreams, the I Ching and fingerprint analysis--to solve her cases. She knows ultimately she will be solving the case for herself, beca ...more

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Sep 01, 2013 Jeffrey Keeten rated it really liked it

’There are no innocent victims’, wrote Jacques Silette. ‘The victim selects his role as carefully and unconsciously as the policeman, the detective, the client, or the villain. Each chooses his role and then forgets this, sometimes for many lifetimes, until one comes along who can remind him. This time you may be the villain or the victim. The next time your roles may switch.
It is only a role. Try to remember.’

Claire DeWitt has been enticed back to her former stomping grounds in New Orleans to i ...more

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Jul 23, 2014 Shelby *trains flying monkeys* rated it liked it

Recommended to Shelby *trains flying monkeys* by: Dan Schwent

Shelves: liburry-book, read-2015

Claire DeWitt is probably one of the most unique characters I've ever read in a mystery book. She has a "bible" that she goes by written by her idol French detective Jacques Silette, she doesn't mind using a few drugs to enhance her abilities, and she believes she is the world's greatest detective.
Several of those very qualities got on my nerves at times during the book.
Lord, forgive my sins, of which there are too fucking many to count.
Then there were times I liked her. She fully admits her tro ...more

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Jan 11, 2019 Karl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-01-books-bought

In “Claire DeWitt and The City of The Dead” by Sara Gran, Claire DeWitt is not your average P.I. She's the self-proclaimed world's greatest detective; she also uses her dreams, partakes in mind-expanding herbs and utilizes a manual on detection from a mysterious Frenchman to help her solve cases. That book gives her advice like “Only a fool looks for answers. The wise detective seeks only questions.“ or "Those who try to grasp on to the mystery will never succeed, only those who let it slip thro ...more

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Dec 21, 2018 Lucy Langford rated it liked it

3***

“The detective thinks he is investigating a murder or a missing girl. But truly he is investigating something else altogether, something he cannot grasp hold of directly. Satisfaction will be rare. Uncertainty will be your natural state. Sureness will always elude you. The detective will always circle around what he wants, never seeing it whole. We do not go on despite this. We go on because of it.”

Claire DeWitt, one of the more unusual PI's I've come across in literature, is set the task of 3***

“The detective thinks he is investigating a murder or a missing girl. But truly he is investigating something else altogether, something he cannot grasp hold of directly. Satisfaction will be rare. Uncertainty will be your natural state. Sureness will always elude you. The detective will always circle around what he wants, never seeing it whole. We do not go on despite this. We go on because of it.”

Claire DeWitt, one of the more unusual PI's I've come across in literature, is set the task of finding a missing man after the storm in New Orleans. Claire DeWitt is definitely not your typical PI; tattoo's, consumption of a lot of alcohol, smoking weed-she takes no nonsense from anybody. Armed with her copy of a book called "Detection" by a famous Detective called Silette, and knowledge developed from her old mentor, Constance, she investigates crimes.

I found that this book didn't flow as smoothly as I hoped. The parts that did flow smoothly was between showing her past, with the disappearance of her friend Tracey, and the present, the investigation and solving of the case of the missing Vic Willing. The parts that were difficult to separate were to determine what were her imagination/visions (due to being in a drug induced state) and what was reality.

Some parts of DeWitt's character I particularly liked and I found a believable PI- I liked the fact she was rather snarky. However, some parts of the book I didn't fully understand, for example, her heavy reliance and belief from tea drinking and I Ching coins. Some of the clues seemed so far-fetched as well and everything, to me, seemed to fit and coincidences occurred almost 'too nicely'. DeWitt's character is shrouded in things that happened in her past, things that we touch upon but we do not go into detail- leaving many questions unanswered.

However, I did enjoy the author's ability to give the city of New Orleans character after Hurricane Katrina. I come from another country and was very young when this occurred so I do not remember much, but it was interesting to see how a place is devastatingly effected by this and the people in it. Sara Green does brilliantly when describing the heavily stricken places and the poverty of it's patrons, the heavy gun violence and gang violence and affiliations of the streets of New Orleans.

Overall this was a good novel to read for private investigating. Claire DeWitt was an interesting and snarky character, even though I did not understand or fully appreciate her reliance on 'psychic' methods for clues. A lot of the clues seemed like massive coincidences that fitted just a little too nicely for me and isn't how detective work is usually portrayed (e.g. hard work and really trying hard to seek the truth). ...more

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Nov 04, 2016 Joe Valdez rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-suspense

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead is the fourth novel by Sara Gran, an exquisitely titled and wonderfully composed introduction to what publishers like to call "an unprecedented private investigator." Published in 2011, the author doesn't fall back on gimmick or try to build her mystery on the basis of a quirky characterization--alcoholic private eye, OCD private eye, 1980s private eye--but instead uses drunkenly rich language to unravel a mystery in, where else, New Orleans. Neither Claire ...more

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Jul 20, 2014 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kindle-unlimited-experiment, 2014

When prosecutor Vic Willing goes missing in post-Katrina New Orleans, Claire DeWitt comes to town to find out who killed him. Can she put her personal demons aside long enough to find out?

This is the sixth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

This is one of those books that's going to be really hard to do justice to in a review.

Claire DeWitt is the g When prosecutor Vic Willing goes missing in post-Katrina New Orleans, Claire DeWitt comes to town to find out who killed him. Can she put her personal demons aside long enough to find out?

This is the sixth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.

This is one of those books that's going to be really hard to do justice to in a review.

Claire DeWitt is the greatest detective in the world and a very unconventional one. Her bible is a book called Detection by renowned French detective Jacques Silette, a confusing and contradictory philosophical tome that is either a work of genius or utter insanity.

If George Pelecanos' Nick Stefanos learned his methods from Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently and was female, the result would be a lot like Claire. Or if Nancy Drew suffered a great loss and got hooked on drugs. Rather than relying on conventional methods, Claire supplements them with intuition, dreams, the I-Ching, and a cocktail of alcohol and mind-expanding drugs. City of the Dead reads like a vision quest at times.

The combination of philosophy and the wreckage of post-Katrina New Orleans do a lot to raise this above a lot of similar detective fiction involving missing persons. The setting is a character unto itself.

Claire's background is explored in dreams and flashbacks, revealing how she became the world's greatest detective, starting with solving mysteries with her two friends when she was just a teenager, having found Detection in a forgotten dumbwaiter in her parent's dilapidated mansion. Lots of dark things are only hinted but you get the feeling Claire has been to hell and back several times.

The case was suitably serpentine and while I had an idea what happened to Vic Willing, I was in the dark about the particulars for most of the book, which I love in a mystery. The whole thing reminded me of Twin Peaks a bit in its strangeness.

I've made the book sound really dark but it's not. Claire's sense of humor keeps the book from descending too far into the darkness despite the horrors she uncovers.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead is one of the best books I've read all year. Five out of five stars.

Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $35.12.
...more

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Jun 04, 2018 Lori rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It's a great noir detective story set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. Ninja bonus points, it's the first of a series.

description

Sara Gran ...more

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Jun 13, 2011 James Thane rated it really liked it

This is the most inventive and unconventional crime novel I've read in years--a meditation on the nature of mystery as much as it is a "mystery" novel.

Claire Dewitt is a student of the famous French detective Jacques Silette, has been mentored by one of Silette's protoges, and is now herself the world's greatest detective. Picture Nancy Drew by way of Hunter S. Thompson.

After an absence of ten years, Claire is called back to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, to solve the disappearanc ...more

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Jul 20, 2018 Diabolica rated it really liked it

Shelves: better-lock-him-up

Quite frankly, one of the most unconventional detective novels I've ever read. But I liked it.

Claire gets a job to find the root cause behind the death of well-liked prosecutor who died during the storm. And that's where our mystery begins.

I've literally never read a novel with a detective whose behaviour was as outlandish as Claire's.

To clarify, here are some things she's done and claimed to have done over the span of this novel:
> smoked pot on the job
> dropped out of school at 17
> smelled c ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Trudi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime-mystery, rusa-reads, a-sense-of-place, series, 2013, awesome-audio, audiobook, favorites, kick-ass-heroines

How do I love a book? Let me count the ways.

1. Setting: Post-Katrina New Orleans. Swampy, sensual, tragic, dangerous. A complete immersion into the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a damaged and depressed city, betrayed and forgotten, seeking its redemption.

2. Heroine: Kick-ass, ruthless, complicated, haunted. Claire DeWitt is much like the city of New Orleans itself: damaged and dangerous, tragic and seeking redemption. Neither needs nor desires your pity or understanding.

3. Language: Hard ...more

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May 21, 2013 Jenn(ifer) rated it really liked it

Shelves: xx, summer-of-women-2013, read-in-2013, gr-friends-recommend

I have to admit it, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. Honestly, it's the first time I picked up something from the "mystery" section of the library. And certainly the first time I read something endorsed by Sue Grafton (cough).

As far as mysteries go,the best thing about this one was the lack of predictability. I mean, I guess I should have seen the ending coming in retrospect, but I didn't. At all. So kudos to you, Gran, for keeping me on my toes and holding my interest.

I m ...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Robert Dunbar rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviews

I've been an avid fan of Sara Gran's work since Come Closer. Her books are difficult to categorize, like the works of so many of my favorite authors. Her new one is a sort of existential-detective-literary-noir with heavy supernatural (or at least occult) overtones. God help the book store clerk who has to figure out where to shelf it. It's also brilliant, delightful, delicious, and an absolute joy to read, full of the most unexpected cadences and rhythms, rife with surprising plot twists, witty ...more

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Jul 19, 2020 Aditya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I follow a couple of the top crime fiction awards and I have never seen Sara Gran crop up in those nominations. It is a colossal blunder on their part because Gran has an unique narrative voice that demands attention. Claire DeWitt, self proclaimed world's best detective is on the redemption trail after being in recovery for addiction issues. Set in post Katrina New Orleans, realized beautifully and heartbreakingly, her latest job is to find an assistant DA who went missing during the storm.

DeWi ...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Timothy Dalton rated it did not like it

So for this book, I listened to the audio version which is not something I normally do. I have a few upsets with this book. When I say a few, I mean probably ten. First of all the main character Claire Dewitt isn’t a badass at all, but the story attempts to write her as such. One scene in particular she speaks of walking upon several gang-banger guys who are armed to the teeth, and in the author’s words “with enough to take on Fallujah”. The main character says, “they were tough, but I was tough ...more

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Dec 29, 2018 Scott rated it it was amazing

"That's the thing about being a private eye. The job will bleed you dry. No one ever says 'Hey, maybe the PI needs a break. Hey, let's buy the PI a drink.' No thank-you cards, no flowers, no singing telegrams, and half the time you don't even get paid." -- Claire DeWitt, private investigator, on her chosen profession

Sara Gran's City of the Dead takes that classic American archetype - a hard-drinking, cynical private eye with some integrity - and kicks it firmly into the 21st century with the new "That's the thing about being a private eye. The job will bleed you dry. No one ever says 'Hey, maybe the PI needs a break. Hey, let's buy the PI a drink.' No thank-you cards, no flowers, no singing telegrams, and half the time you don't even get paid." -- Claire DeWitt, private investigator, on her chosen profession

Sara Gran's City of the Dead takes that classic American archetype - a hard-drinking, cynical private eye with some integrity - and kicks it firmly into the 21st century with the newest character who should join the ranks of Spade, Marlowe, Archer, and Spenser in PI lore. Claire DeWitt is her name, and after this debut I hope this original, offbeat character sticks around to tackle a lot more cases.

DeWitt was a Brooklyn teenager influenced by two incidents: the finding of the influential book Detection by Jacques Silette, and the abrupt and unexplained disappearance of her best friend Tracy. Flash forward a few years and DeWitt receives her informal training from (the wonderfully named) Constance Darling, a Silette contemporary operating in New Orleans. Silette's words and Darling's ways are repeatedly referenced in DeWitt's thoughts and/or actions throughout the story.

City of the Dead has DeWitt, now a grown-up solo San Francisco PI, reluctantly back in 'The Big Easy' to investigate the disappearance of a respected assistant district attorney. The events take place only a year or so after the traumatic Hurricane Katrina, so things are still off-kilter in a damaged community that already had extreme and on-going issues with crime, poverty, corruption, etc.

Along the way we learn about DeWitt, especially with the classic first-person narration often used to great effect in private eye books. She's no angel (but who is?), and she's not Nancy Drew. DeWitt is prone to alienate herself from friends / acquaintances with her sometimes abrasive attitude. There may be some mental health issues. She also uses some questionable controlled substances to relax. And yet once she starts her investigation she will stubbornly see this thing through until the end. ...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Andrew Neal rated it it was amazing

I'm sure there are people who would tell you that this book is about a grown up girl detective who uses drugs and esoteric techniques to solve the mysteries no one else wants solved, but I'd say it's about the way people, places, and events are connected in surprising and often absurd ways.

There was a wonderful balance between the protagonist's depression and the background presence of humanistic compassion, which never strayed anywhere near the realm of preachiness. There was also a perfect bal ...more

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May 17, 2019 debra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good, different. Could have done without Silette's "Wherever you go- there you are." words of wisdom, and (view spoiler)

PS Would never have tried th ...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Sue rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: mystery lovers who want something different

Shelves: kindle, mystery, read-2013

An existential mystery! Who'd have thought it would have it's own manual? Claire Dewitt learned at the feet of an apparent master who used the manual in teaching her students the way of living as well as the ways of detecting. As Claire tells us:

"Silette wrote one book, Detection, in 1959. Jaques Silette
was a genius. So I thought. So a few thousand others around
the world thought too." (loc 344)

This was the man who created her bible, the book that gave meaning to her life, the very frazzled l ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Vanessa rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery, bookpage, novelist

This book was..interesting. I know that word is often used as some low-key shade like, "How was dinner? It was interesting." But I don't mean it that way. I just don't know what I think, exactly.

Claire DeWitt lives in an alternate universe (I thought this before I read an interview with the author that pretty much says the same thing) where private investigators are much more prevalent and revered and loathed in equal measure. They are also less Marlowe-style gumshoes and more loopy metaphysic This book was..interesting. I know that word is often used as some low-key shade like, "How was dinner? It was interesting." But I don't mean it that way. I just don't know what I think, exactly.

Claire DeWitt lives in an alternate universe (I thought this before I read an interview with the author that pretty much says the same thing) where private investigators are much more prevalent and revered and loathed in equal measure. They are also less Marlowe-style gumshoes and more loopy metaphysical vision questers. And Claire, ever since her mentor Constance died, is considered the best of the best. She's also given to pinching painkillers from clients’ bathrooms and using palmistry and the I Ching just as much as surveillance and interviews.

In this book, the first in a series of three thus far (as of this writing, the third one was just published), Claire is asked to take the case of a missing man in New Orleans about a year and a half after Katrina. Claire has not been there since Constance died. It's also her first case since her ~~nervous breakdown~~ really long spa weekend. Along the way she'll seek answers in dreams, muse frequently about the long shadow of the hurricane and what followed, and, uhm, smoke PCP with some suspects.

(Claire, girl, let's talk. You want to buy some weed from a desk clerk or pocket the occasional Vicodin, fine. But when it comes to Dust, Nancy Reagan was right.)

This was such an odd book. I liked Claire--I think--but for most of the story I wondered what in the actual hell she was doing, which I guess was the point. I did fear the mystery would be solved in an unsatisfactory, random way, especially after Claire meets a young homeless boy and proves she's a detective by accurately guessing his biographical history down to his once having worked in an ice cream parlor. How could she possibly know that? Unlike Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, her means of deduction is never explained, probably because there really isn't any.

However, the mystery is solved in a way that makes sense, I found the ending surprising moving, and I could see this character having some staying power (there is the long-standing unsolved case of the disappearance of a childhood friend from Brooklyn that I expect will come back at some point.) I think I liked this and want to read more? I've got to let this book sit for a while before I decide. I have seen some glowing reviews of the sequels by fellow Goodreaders and that, as you probably know for yourselves, is a good sign. ...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Ed rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: fans of offbeat private investigator novels

Recommended to Ed by: browsing library new books

Shelves: ed-s_cozy_mysteries_read

It's refreshing to run across an offbeat, stylish, and sparky private eye novel like City of the Dead is. Claire DeWitt arrives in New Orleans where she trained to be a private investigator years ago to search for a local attorney who disappeared while Hurricane Katrina slammed the city. Claire brings along her own baggage. She's certainly no angel, liking her booze and dope. But she possesses a good heart, a relentless curiosity, and a zenlike devotion to her trade. She's also a likeable protag ...more

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Feb 21, 2015 Toby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: black-as-night, lit, whodunnit

Sara Gran's Claire DeWitt reads like hardboiled contemporary noir, it's dark and bleak and morally ambiguous at times with an intriguing central mystery and a compulsively readable private eye. It also shares genre tropes with those highly unbelievable cozy mysteries in which detectives are celebrated celebrities around the world known for solving cases such as The Murder on the Blue Train and The Jewels of Aunt Marjie. And then there's the child detective all grown up and living with failure an ...more

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Jun 26, 2017 Arie rated it really liked it

Recommended to Arie by: carol.

From the starling cover to the cold hard end, this is an unusual book. It's a crime novel, but with hints of the supernatural, whose heroine heavily uses drugs and solves crimes out of an obsessive need. A strange book by a strange man is the lifeline, the heartbeat through the story that holds all the little separate pieces of plot together. There are three mysteries here: The surface (a man searching for his missing uncle), the catalyst (Claire DeWitt's missing friend) and the undercurrent of ...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it it was ok

I loved Come Closer and Dope...as such I was pretty excited to read the latest from Sara Gran expecting something smart, witty, dark and fun to read...I was pretty disappointed...

Clair DeWitt...'the World's Greatest Detective'....is tasked with a case of finding out about the death of a New Orleans district attorney by his nephew. This happened post-Katrina so naturally that makes things complex from the beginning; a city and its people devastated, nobody trustful of anybody from the outside...W I loved Come Closer and Dope...as such I was pretty excited to read the latest from Sara Gran expecting something smart, witty, dark and fun to read...I was pretty disappointed...

Clair DeWitt...'the World's Greatest Detective'....is tasked with a case of finding out about the death of a New Orleans district attorney by his nephew. This happened post-Katrina so naturally that makes things complex from the beginning; a city and its people devastated, nobody trustful of anybody from the outside...Was he killed? Drown during Katrina? What happened to him?

I'm wondering what makes Clair DeWitt 'the world's greatest detective'. Apparently for her it was a calling, not a choice. Clair, graduate from a mental hospital, high school drop out, avid drug and alcohol user and master of sarcasm and treating other people like dirt learned the trade from her deceased mentor who in turn learned from a book, Detecion' written by 'France's greatest detective' in the 70s. Passages from this life altering book crop out constantly throughout the book...they read more like philosophical mumbo jumbo than anything else. The fact that the book just keeps turning up in the darnedest places (a book that's said to be pretty rare by the way) makes on scratch one's head.

Clair closes in on what really happened to the subject of the mystery as the story progresses through judicious usage of pot, booze and embalming fluid laced joints that are all the rage amongst the gangs and homeless in the area.

As I write this I find myself comparing Clair DeWitt to Gregory House from the television show. Great at the job, complete and utter train wreck in personal life and awful with just about everyone they run into. Problem is, she's like house times a hundred. I found myself not really liking her at all. Her detecting methods seem to be some combination of mystical mojo and intuition I couldn't quite figure out, usually emphasized by much use of controlled substances and in her lucid moments, she pretty much browbeats everyone she encounters with sarcasm.

The mystery itself? It was ok. I didn't find much real suspense and as with some of her previous work I didn't think 'wow, I just HAVE to find out what happens next!', because I knew with every page turn there would be more Clair DeWitt and more mumbo jumbo from her Detective's Bible.

I don't mind damaged characters, in fact I find them the most interesting to read but they should at least have something likable about them and I really couldn't find much to like about Clair DeWitt. The inside jacket of the book said that this is the beginning of a new series. Will I give the next one a shot? I think so, clearly because I know Sara Gran can write something I can really enjoy, and who knows? Maybe the more we learn about her and the events that make her so damaged the more interesting she'll become.

So I'll consider this one a stumble out of the gate and hope we see some more detecting in the next one and maybe a little less revelation via acid trip. ...more

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Apr 12, 2018 Anna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites-in-2018, 2018-aty-in-52-books, mystery-thriller

OK, this is a great book. The setting and atmosphere are grim, the protagonist likeable (even if she doesn’t think so and would perhaps be offended at my saying so), the side characters are engaging, the mystery intriguing…and every now and then it is funny. I find that very important.

The setting, New Orleans after “the storm”:

The streets of the Lower Ninth Ward were caked in grayish-brown dried mud. So was everything else. Nothing had been cleaned. Little bits of people’s lives were scattered a ...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Terina rated it it was ok

I waited a few days to review thinking my opinion would change. It didn't. The concept is interesting - a mystical private investigator who is the best in the world and has her own personal unsolved mystery. I just couldn't get past all the coincidences that weren't explained by the resolution. She happened to be in NY on 9/11 so she could answer someone's question about it. She happened to pick up a dirty business card. She happened to be in the right neighborhood, turn the right corner. I also ...more

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Jun 08, 2013 LJ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: female_author, mystery, louisiana, new_orleans, contemporary_post_1945

First Sentence: “It’s my uncle,” the man said on the phone.

Claire DeWitt advertises herself as the world’s greatest private investigator. As such, she accepts a case in recent post-Katrina New Orleans. Her client is the nephew of Vic Willing. The case is to find out what happened to this the city’s wealthy district attorney who disappeared during the flooding after the hurricane.

Every now and then, an author comes along with a voice and style that it is almost impossible to describe, quantify, First Sentence: “It’s my uncle,” the man said on the phone.

Claire DeWitt advertises herself as the world’s greatest private investigator. As such, she accepts a case in recent post-Katrina New Orleans. Her client is the nephew of Vic Willing. The case is to find out what happened to this the city’s wealthy district attorney who disappeared during the flooding after the hurricane.

Every now and then, an author comes along with a voice and style that it is almost impossible to describe, quantify, or explain. That was my reaction to Ms. Gran’s first book, “Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead”. At its heart, it’s a classic hard-boiled mystery, complete with drugs, guns, liquor and bad guys. Than intermix with that a detective who was trained by a wealth New Orleans woman, Constance Darling, and the book “Détection” by Jacque Silette…”Clues are the most misunderstood part of detection. Novice detectives think it’s about “finding” clues. But detective work is about “recognizing” clues”… plus a layer of dreams, intuition…”Never be afraid to learn from the ether. …That’s where knowledge lives before someone hunts it, kills it, and mounts it in a book.”, and the I-Ching, and you have something that is unique and wonderful.

Claire is anything but your usual female detective. She’s from Brooklyn, she knows death and drugs and liquor. She’s not a comfortable protagonist. We learn details of her past and life throughout the story. What is interesting is that every character Gran creates is vivid and memorable, including those who don’t exist such as Constance and Silette. It’s a story that doesn’t really have any minor players, only short scene.

Gran’s descriptions are powerful. New Orleans is a city unlike any other yet, particularly in this time setting, she does not make any effort to romanticize it. It is ugly, violent, sad, desperate and very real. Remarkably, however, at the end we’re left with a sense of hope, both for the city and the characters. You want to know what becomes of them, even if they break your heart.

The true sign of a book that stands above the usual, is that it makes you stop and consider…”What will fill the void left by the missing person?...Who will now breathe his air, eat his food marry his wife? Who will fill his seat at the university lecture, the foot ball game, in the old armchair at home?...” Gran has a different perspective than I’ve ever found.

The story’s plot may not always be the easiest to follow, but it is so worth paying attention to every word and every clue and giving each page a bit of thought. That’s easy to do as it is thoroughly and completely engrossing. There are times it may seem trite or pretentious, but you then find yourself going back and reading sections again because something about them resonates. Only because I needed to sleep at night, did I ever put it down.

“Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead” is a remarkable book. I suspect you will either love it or wonder whether I was indulging in one of Claire’s vices.

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (PI-Claire Dewitt-New Orleans-Cont) – Ex
Gran, Sara – 1st in series
Mariner Books – 2011
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Jul 29, 2014 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Detectives who consult the I Ching, missing lawyers with parrots

Shelves: audiobook, contemporary, female-protagonist, female-author, new-orleans, mystery

Claire DeWitt is the protege of Constance Darling, the "greatest detective in the world." Using tea leaves, I Ching, home-brewed philosophy, and a book by a French detective named Jacques Silette, studying under Darling was like apprenticing as a wizard. Then Constance Darling died, leaving Claire as her heir to the title of greatest detective in the world.

It's hard to say how tongue-in-cheek Claire is being when she calls herself that, but she states it in a flat, no-nonsense manner that makes ...more

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Oct 27, 2014 Bonnie marked it as dnf · review of another edition

I decided if I heard Claire call herself 'the world's greatest private eye' one more time (it happens. a lot.) I was going to lose my shit so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead. ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 Barbara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-contemporary, best-of-2020, crime-fiction-female-mc, enrichment, favorite-series

I read The Infinite Blacktop on the basis of strong reviews when it was first published in 2018. I enjoyed it, but when I was done I realized that I very much wanted to read the first book in the series, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead. Infinite Blacktop was laced with references to Claire's personal history, and I had an idea that it would all make more sense if I started at the beginning.

Well, I've just done that, and although I can't say that "making sense" is something Sara Gran is go I read The Infinite Blacktop on the basis of strong reviews when it was first published in 2018. I enjoyed it, but when I was done I realized that I very much wanted to read the first book in the series, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead. Infinite Blacktop was laced with references to Claire's personal history, and I had an idea that it would all make more sense if I started at the beginning.

Well, I've just done that, and although I can't say that "making sense" is something Sara Gran is going for in the Claire DeWitt series, I can say that I enjoyed City of the Dead even more than Infinite Blacktop. Her descriptions of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the impact of the storm and the broken levees (the worst engineering disaster in the history of the US, according to Wikipedia) not just on the physical structures of New Orleans but on the mental health of the survivors, is nothing short of amazing. It is not a conventional rendering in any sense, but I would venture to say that it is far more compelling than 90% of what you've seen on broadcast news or social media.

The mystery that brings Claire back to The City of the Dead is both tied to the storm and its aftereffects, and separate from them. And as is so often the case with books set in New Orleans, the city itself is something of a character.

Gran is an author of unique talents, one who stimulates us to consider issues related to The Meaning Of Life and other equally weighty topics through Claire's musings, her search for omens, her interest in the I-Ching and her ingestion and inhalation of all manner of illicit and unhealthy substances. It's easy to feel connected to her even if you share no life experiences simply because she challenges you at every turn and presents you with realities that, as she would say, you may not want but you definitely need.

I look forward to reading the middle book in the series, Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway. I guess at the end of the day I just enjoy being in the reading company of difficult women who challenge me to think beyond the mystery they are ostensibly attempting to resolve. ...more

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About Sara Gran

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Other books in the series

Claire DeWitt Mysteries (3 books)

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Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway (Claire DeWitt Mysteries, #2)

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“Be grateful for every scar life inflicts on you. Where we’re unhurt is where we are false. Where we are wounded and healed is where our real self gets to show itself. That’s where you get to show who you really are” — 22 likes

“It doesn't matter what people want to hear. It doesn't matter if people like you. It doesn't matter if the whole world thinks you're crazy. It doesn't matter whose heart you break. What matters is the truth.” — 22 likes

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