Sara Gran – Carol's Notebook

Author: Sara Gran

Sara Gran is the author of the novels The Book of The Most Precious Substance, Marigold, Dope, Come Closer, Saturn’s Return to New York, and the Claire DeWitt series.

Her work has been published in over a dozen countries and as many languages. She also writes for TV and film and occasionally writes other things.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, now living in California, Ms. Gran has worked with books as a writer, bookseller, and collector for most of her career.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead is not my typical mystery read. The problem is simple enough. Her client, Leon, wants her to find his Uncle Vic, an assistant district attorney who disappeared during Hurricane Katrina. But Claire is not a conventional detective, Vic was not always a nice guy, and New Orleans is suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder. Claire follows Jacques Silette and his manual, Détection. It's about recognizing clues not finding them, about allowing connections to reveal themselves. Claire is guided by the typical interviews and clues, but also visions, dreams, and drug-induced states. It's slower moving for a mystery and we get bits and pieces of her background and what brought her to where she is now, both mentally and physically. New Orleans is a character in and of itself. Katrina has devastated the city and recovery is slow. It's a dark violent place for the people Claire interacts with, but it's also where they belong. It's engrossing...