Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead Review

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(More customer reviews)Claire DeWitt and the City of The Dead by Sara Gran tells the story of private detective Claire DeWitt's investigation of the death of ADA Vic Willing in post-Katrina New Orleans. Willing's nephew Leon hires Claire ("...people said you were the best.") when his uncle disappears without a trace after the storm. Leon's own search has yielded little, so he asks Claire to take on the case even though she warns him he may not like what she finds.
Claire, originally from Brooklyn, hasn't been back to New Orleans since the death of her mentor Constance Darling several years ago. Although she lacks Constance's wide net of contacts in the city, Claire is both well-trained and a natural detective, relying on her instincts, dreams, omens, the I-Ching, herbal substances, and a book called Detection by a famous and mysterious French detective called Jacques Silette, which is frequently referred to in the novel (the quotes from and references to Silette are one of the things I especially enjoyed about the book). Claire meets up with old acquaintances and makes new ones during her investigation, which indeed reveals more about Leon's uncle than he cares to know. Claire sticks with the frustrating case even when her life is in danger.
The novel is full of vivid characters and presents a depressing yet fascinating portrait of after-the-storm New Orleans. Even the minor characters, such as a homeless woman in a park, are memorable. Gran has a knack for description both of people and places. Her story moves along at a good pace. I liked both the procedural details and the less conventional methods Claire employs to figure out what happened to Vic. Claire is both brilliant and self-destructive; you marvel at her and want to slap her at the same time. She lies when she feels like it, can be extremely obnoxious if it helps her get information, and can also be kind and nurturing to those in need. She has a lot of baggage from her past, which included oddball parents and a close friend who disappeared when Claire was a teenager. She's a very good character and I would enjoy reading more about her in possible sequels.
The only thing I didn't like, admittedly a trivial thing - the book's title. I don't know why but I can't remember it. I had mentioned to a fammily member that I was reading a book about New Orleans and could not for the life of me come up with the title. Maybe it's too long, maybe it just doesn't capture the story - anyway, just a minor complaint, because overall I thought it was a very good book and as I said, I would like to see more of Claire. Highly recommended even to those who aren't big mystery fans - I chose the book more for the New Orleans setting than the mystery but enjoyed all aspects of the story - plot, location and characters.

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