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Review
'A tour de force. Mock profundity blends into brilliantly detailed description in a novel that deserves to be read in tandem with James Lee Burke's magisterial THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN.' --Declan Burke, Irish Times
'Sara Gran does hard-boiled with a sociologist's eye. This is deeply intelligent fiction that cuts deep and captures a city's soul. Claire DeWitt's power will sneak up on you.' --Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising
'Terrific. I loved this book! Sara Gran recombines all the elements of good, solid story-telling and lifts something original from them. Hers is the first fresh voice I've heard in years.' --Sue Grafton, author of the 'Alphabet' series
'Gran is a writer with a fresh take ... she has long specialized in shaking up and revitalizing other corners of the genre world, so it's no surprise that she performs this same magic in CITY OF THE DEAD ... A valuable addition to the (way too small) body of post-Katrina novels.' --Laura Lipmann, author of Don't Look Back
'Claire DeWitt is a cool blend of Nancy Drew and Sid Vicious. With CITY OF THE DEAD, Sara Gran has pulled the traditional female sleuth into the twenty-first century with a novel that's smart and hip, dark and funny. I can't wait for the next one.'
--Alafair Burke, author of City of Lies
--Alafair Burke, author of City of Lies
'Sara Gran does hard-boiled with a sociologist's eye. This is deeply intelligent fiction that cuts deep and captures a city's soul. Claire DeWitt's power will sneak up on you.' --Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising
'Terrific. I loved this book! Sara Gran recombines all the elements of good, solid story-telling and lifts something original from them. Hers is the first fresh voice I've heard in years.' --Sue Grafton, author of the 'Alphabet' series
'Gran is a writer with a fresh take ... she has long specialized in shaking up and revitalizing other corners of the genre world, so it's no surprise that she performs this same magic in CITY OF THE DEAD ... A valuable addition to the (way too small) body of post-Katrina novels.' --Laura Lipmann, author of Don't Look Back
'Claire DeWitt is a cool blend of Nancy Drew and Sid Vicious. With CITY OF THE DEAD, Sara Gran has pulled the traditional female sleuth into the twenty-first century with a novel that's smart and hip, dark and funny. I can't wait for the next one.'
--Alafair Burke, author of City of Lies
--Alafair Burke, author of City of Lies
Book Description
The start of a gripping new crime series introducing the world's best private investigator
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you like your crime fiction, or heck, just your regular fiction, a little offbeat and dark -- this is well worth trying. The titular Claire is the world's foremost private detective and we meet her in 2007 New Orleans at the start of a new case. The nephew of a much-liked prosecutor has hired her to find out what happened to his uncle, who went missing during the post-Katrina flooding. The case is a bit of an uneasy homecoming for Claire -- she used to live in New Orleans, but left following the murder of her mentor several years ago.
Claire is a compelling, but very damaged protagonist, and definitely not your typical fictional detective. Just to give a sense of her, there's a brief throwaway line in the first third of of the book in which she mentions off-handedly that she's shot four people, killed two -- "none in self-defense." No further explanation given (nor necessary). She's also a devotee of the mysterious French detective Silette and his enigmatic treatise "Detection". She uses the I-Ching, takes whatever narcotics are at hand, follows hunches based on dreams, lies, cheats, steals, and is generally unstable.
The book tacks back and forth between Claire's investigation and glimpses into her messy past. Unlike most conventional crime stories, it's hard to tell what's relevant to the investigation and what isn't. There's a fair amount of time spent detailing her girlhood friendship with two other girls in New York, and the mysterious disappearance of one of them when they were teenagers some twenty years ago -- and you'll have to read to the end to learn if this have anything to do with the main plotline. Missing people are a recurring theme in the book, and creates a core of sorrow to the story.
The book also has a lot to say and show about post-Katrina New Orleans. Both the city and Claire are suffering from what might be considered post-traumatic stress disorder, and the pain of this contrasts with the deadpan prose and dialogue. The author lived through the floods, and the book doesn't shirk from grim and heartrending descriptions of what happened during and after the flooding. It's not a happy book, but it is one well worth reading by anyone with an interest in New Orleans, or if you like interesting female protagonists.
Claire is a compelling, but very damaged protagonist, and definitely not your typical fictional detective. Just to give a sense of her, there's a brief throwaway line in the first third of of the book in which she mentions off-handedly that she's shot four people, killed two -- "none in self-defense." No further explanation given (nor necessary). She's also a devotee of the mysterious French detective Silette and his enigmatic treatise "Detection". She uses the I-Ching, takes whatever narcotics are at hand, follows hunches based on dreams, lies, cheats, steals, and is generally unstable.
The book tacks back and forth between Claire's investigation and glimpses into her messy past. Unlike most conventional crime stories, it's hard to tell what's relevant to the investigation and what isn't. There's a fair amount of time spent detailing her girlhood friendship with two other girls in New York, and the mysterious disappearance of one of them when they were teenagers some twenty years ago -- and you'll have to read to the end to learn if this have anything to do with the main plotline. Missing people are a recurring theme in the book, and creates a core of sorrow to the story.
The book also has a lot to say and show about post-Katrina New Orleans. Both the city and Claire are suffering from what might be considered post-traumatic stress disorder, and the pain of this contrasts with the deadpan prose and dialogue. The author lived through the floods, and the book doesn't shirk from grim and heartrending descriptions of what happened during and after the flooding. It's not a happy book, but it is one well worth reading by anyone with an interest in New Orleans, or if you like interesting female protagonists.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wow, this is great, and knocks the socks of most 'series' crime. While i agree with the earlier review, i think Claire De Witt is such a weird and brilliant character that she stops the novel ever feeling too dark or depressing - she practically jumps off the page and is definitely worthy of an ongoing series. Can't wait to follow her adventures, however dark.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A weird and wonderful book. The blurbs and cover seem to imply that this will be a standard genre detective story,set in New Orleans, and while it is certainly worth reading for the atmospheric descriptions of post-Katrina New Orleans, this is most emphatically not standard generic fare. I have a particular liking for off-beat, faintly fantastical stories that use the trappings of a detective story to push the boundaries and go beyond both "realism" and genre. I don't know quite how to classify this non-generic genre (maybe because it defies classification) but many years ago I heard someone refer to one of Colin Wilson's novels as a "metaphysical mystery" and ever since that has been my personal tag for this kind of book. Sara Gran now joins authors Paul Auster, M. John Harrison and Kelly Link in my personal pantheon of favourites. I was also blown away by her brilliant psychological horror novel, "Come Closer.") So, if you like their books (and/or Charles Williams, G.C. Chesterton, Colin Wilson, Jeff VanderMeer) definitely add this one to your shopping cart.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Like a hurricane ....
I had already been aware of Sara Grans' work after very favourable reviews of previous novels Dope & Come Closer but this is the first time I've picked up one of her books. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Gareth Price
Brilliant central character, witty, clever, original
Loved this book - the central character is a brilliant construction - sharp, tough, funny, flawed, original. All the Silette stuff is totally convincing. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Victoria Zimmerman
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