“The hard-living, wisecracking titular detective bounces around post-Katrina New Orleans trying to track down a missing prosecutor in this auspicious debut of a new mystery series-and the Big Easy is every bit her equal in sass and flavor.”- Elle When a respected DA goes missing she returns to the hurricane-ravaged city to find out why.
Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans, where she was mentored by Silette’s student the brilliant Constance Darling-until Darling was murdered. 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. 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. DeWitt’s mesmerizing character and memorable voice take your breath away.”- New Orleans Times-Picayune “What would you get if that punkish dragon girl Lisbeth Salander met up with Jim Sallis’s Lew Griffin walking the back streets of New Orleans? Or Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone transformed herself into a tattooed magnolia driving a 4x4? Clare DeWitt, that’s what you’d get. as if David Lynch directed a Raymond Chandler novel.”-CNN Why did I stick with it until the end? Claire DeWitt herself was a rather interesting, unconventional personality and the philosophy behind her detective skills made for some of the only interesting material in the book.“Reads. (Hello? Did I nod off? How did I get from A to B to C?) Many of the characters are so boring and lacking in any meaningful dialogue (how many times can we use the "F" word?) that I found myself rolling my eyes in frustration.
New characters and back stories are introduced at every turn, forcing the reader to pause, re-read (or rewind) to determine just where this story is headed. Review 2: This book certainly has the proper amount of grit and atmosphere to pique the interests of noir fans, but it is sorely lacking in plot development and fluidity.
I never felt her characters were stereotypes, investing them with humanity and complexity, and she introduces sexual abuse into the plot without it feeling exploitative - you feel the emotional impact of what the characters live t. Having just been to New Orleans for the first time, she captured the atmosphere of the city again for me, while expressing the rage and horror of the floods and their aftermath. She maintains a consistent, absorbing tone and there's a sense of rhythm to the writing that all the best crime writers have, with even a slight touch of magic realism - something I don't always like, but in this context added to the feel of the story and character. Review 1: I really enjoyed this powerful book - Gran mixes differing styles of crime/mystery writing to great effect.
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