A review by drlark
Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

The self-described Best PI In the World travels to New Orleans where she once lived and trained to investigate the disappearance of a prominent DA during Hurricane Katrina. The book is set about 18 months after the storm and features a New Orleans that hasn't really begun to recover. The writing is lovely, as I expected from Sara Gran, but I have to say, the rest did not live up to my expectations. I'm not a connoisseur of the PI novel, but there were elements of the mystery that I struggled to follow. A fair amount seemed to fall into place by chance. (Which I think is maybe part of Claire's "method" but I'm not sure.) Also, the racial dynamics of the story made me uneasy. Too much exploitation of Black suffering with only white protagonists. Andray Fairview is a great character, but unless he continues to have a role in the series, to continue to grow and develop as a character, I think he falls too neatly into a stereotype for our white heroine to save.

That said, I enjoyed Claire as a character and the twists and turns of the storytelling, so I will probably pick up book 2 to at least give it a chance.