Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
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Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 1,400 ratings
Goodreads Choice Award nominee
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Claire DeWitt is not your average private investigator. She has brilliant skills of deduction and is an ace at discovering evidence. But Claire also uses her dreams, omens, and mind-expanding herbs to help her solve mysteries, and relies on Détection—the only book published by the great and mysterious French detective Jacques Silette before his death.

The tattooed, pot-smoking Claire has just arrived in post-Katrina New Orleans, the city she’s avoided since her mentor, Silette’s student Constance Darling, was murdered there. Claire is investigating the disappearance of Vic Willing, a prosecutor known for winning convictions in a homicide-plagued city. Has an angry criminal enacted revenge on Vic? Or did he use the storm as means to disappear? Claire follows the clues, finding old friends and making new enemies—foremost among them Andray Fairview, a young gang member who just might hold the key to the mystery.

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  1. Listening Length
    8 hours and 40 minutes
  2. Author
    Sara Gran
  3. Narrator
    Carol Monda
  4. Audible release date
    June 2, 2011
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
  7. ASIN
    B0053YI7CQ
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 8 hours and 40 minutes
Author Sara Gran
Narrator Carol Monda
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date June 02, 2011
Publisher HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0053YI7CQ
Best Sellers Rank #215,576 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#6,685 in Women Sleuth Mysteries
#13,584 in Suspense (Audible Books & Originals)
#30,323 in Women Sleuths (Books)

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
1,400 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

L. J. Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2013
Verified Purchase
First Sentence: "It's my uncle," the man said on the phone.

Claire DeWitt advertises herself as the world's greatest private investigator. As such, she accepts a case in recent post-Katrina New Orleans. Her client is the nephew of Vic Willing. The case is to find out what happened to this the city's wealthy district attorney who disappeared during the flooding after the hurricane.

Every now and then, an author comes along with a voice and style that it is almost impossible to describe, quantify, or explain. That was my reaction to Ms. Gran's first book, "Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead". At its heart, it's a classic hard-boiled mystery, complete with drugs, guns, liquor and bad guys. Than intermix with that a detective who was trained by a wealth New Orleans woman, Constance Darling, and the book "Détection" by Jacque Silette..."Clues are the most misunderstood part of detection. Novice detectives think it's about "finding" clues. But detective work is about "recognizing" clues"... plus a layer of dreams, intuition..."Never be afraid to learn from the ether. ...That's where knowledge lives before someone hunts it, kills it, and mounts it in a book.", and the I-Ching, and you have something that is unique and wonderful.

Claire is anything but your usual female detective. She's from Brooklyn, she knows death and drugs and liquor. She's not a comfortable protagonist. We learn details of her past and life throughout the story. What is interesting is that every character Gran creates is vivid and memorable, including those who don't exist such as Constance and Silette. It's a story that doesn't really have any minor players, only short scene.

Gran's descriptions are powerful. New Orleans is a city unlike any other yet, particularly in this time setting, she does not make any effort to romanticize it. It is ugly, violent, sad, desperate and very real. Remarkably, however, at the end we're left with a sense of hope, both for the city and the characters. You want to know what becomes of them, even if they break your heart.

The true sign of a book that stands above the usual, is that it makes you stop and consider..."What will fill the void left by the missing person?...Who will now breathe his air, eat his food marry his wife? Who will fill his seat at the university lecture, the foot ball game, in the old armchair at home?..." Gran has a different perspective than I've ever found.

The story's plot may not always be the easiest to follow, but it is so worth paying attention to every word and every clue and giving each page a bit of thought. That's easy to do as it is thoroughly and completely engrossing. There are times it may seem trite or pretentious, but you then find yourself going back and reading sections again because something about them resonates. Only because I needed to sleep at night, did I ever put it down.

"Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead" is a remarkable book. I suspect you will either love it or wonder whether I was indulging in one of Claire's vices.

CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (PI-Claire Dewitt-New Orleans-Cont) - Ex
Gran, Sara - 1st in series
Mariner Books - 2011
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MyBookishWays
4.0 out of 5 stars A great start to a new mystery series!
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2012
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I was in the mood for a mystery, and something different, and I got both in Claire DeWitt. Claire is in post Katrina New Orleans after being hired to find a man's uncle who went missing during the terrible flooding. Claire explains her usual high fees and begins her investigation. As Claire has witnessed time and time again, nothing is ever really what it seems, especially in a missing persons case, and soon Claire realizes that she might have her hands full with this one. Vic Willing, a high profile DA, disappeared about 18 months earlier, and his nephew Leon, feels a duty to hire someone to investigate, especially since his uncle left everything to him. Never particularly close to Vic, Leon is unable to provide many details about his uncle, but that's ok, because Claire is on the case.

Claire DeWitt is such a quirky little book, and it manages to suck you in pretty quickly (at least it did me). Told in Claire's wry and world weary voice, we follow her as she navigates the sometimes lawless streets of post Katrina New Orleans, digging up clues, smoking the occasional joint, and generally pestering people until she gets what she wants. Claire thinks pretty highly of her skills, having been a devotee of the famous French detective Jacques Silette, and she's not one to let people put her off. She's a complex character, and throughout the investigation, gives us little tidbits of insight into her childhood and past, which have much to do with the person she is today. Sporting the pain of one of her best friend, Tracy's, disappearance at only 16, and the homemade tattoos of her and their other friend Kelly's initials on her wrists, as well as the sudden death of her mentor, Constance, Claire is quite a force to be reckoned with. While on the case, she befriends a teenage troublemaker who may or may not have something to do with Willing's death, is shot at, and is certainly not welcome with open arms by the secretive community.

The devastation of a storm ravaged New Orleans provides the perfect background to the investigation of a man that holds his own secrets, and parts of this story will break your heart. Ms. Gran's prose is spare, but it certainly gets the job done, and her knowledge, and obvious love for, the fascinating history and heart of New Orleans is on full display. It comes in at a bit under 300 pages, so you'll zip through it fairly quickly, and the author manages to pack quite an emotional punch in such a thin volume, also expertly weaving just a smidge of the supernatural in for a heady mix. This is the start of a series, so I'm sure that more will be learned about the disappearance of Claire's childhood friend, Tracy, in future novels. At least I hope so, since it's such a heavy burden that Claire carries. Nevertheless, Claire DeWitt is a highly entertaining and atmospheric mystery, and I can't wait for future installments!
2 people found this helpful
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gsxr
3.0 out of 5 stars Gritty noir type crime novel
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2022
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Different take on crime noir than I’ve read in the past. The chief protagonist, Claire DeWitt, is somewhat of a Sherlock Holmes type, without the sidekick, but she is deductively brilliant, reckless, and drug addicted herself, as was Holmes. The setting is the unsavory side of New Orleans, and she is there to solve a murder of a local district attorney at the behest of a nephew.

DeWitt has many flaws and is only borderline likable herself. Bits of life philosophy are blended throughout this slowly unraveling walk through much of the grit and dark side of New Orleans set in the aftermath and later from the Hurricane Katrina that devastated the city. There is little to redeem most of the characters here, and the story eventually winds up the loose ends at the end. It is not really suspenseful and just an average novel overall. Well written, but little spark or suspense, mostly uninteresting characters.
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Top reviews from other countries

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DENNIS AKERS
5.0 out of 5 stars The truth is out there
Reviewed in Spain on February 16, 2024
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A kind of sneaked in through the back door novel. Detection is all that’s left, after everything has been lost.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing plot
Reviewed in India on April 13, 2020
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Loved the character of Claire DeWitt. After a long time I got to read a pure mystery novel. Claire’s past interwoven into the actual story line makes me want to pick up the next book to see if she can find out more about the event in her past.
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Léanne
1.0 out of 5 stars Dark and boring
Reviewed in France on May 5, 2019
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L'histoire plonge dans les bas quartiers de la Nouvelle Orléans où la détective Claire DeWitt enquête sur une disparition inquiétante lors du cyclone qui a ravagé la ville. Elle s'est auto-proclamée la meilleure détective au monde mais malheureusement elle n'en fait pas la preuve, et le lecteur reste sur sa faim. De longueurs en digressions, le roman se traine jusqu'à une fin sans surprise (la pédophilie semble être devenue la porte de sortie des romanciers en panne d'inspiration). Le personnage de Claire ,très caricatural, toujours entre drogue, alcool et violence incontrôlée est invraisemblable et profondément antipathique. La Nouvelle Orléans est aussi un personnage sur le même modèle : saleté, violence, drogue, alcool... On est très loin de l'univers de James L. Burke , qui bien que parfois sombre, arrive à créer un monde et des personnages attachants. C'est le talent d'écrivain qui fait la différence.
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Morgan
1.0 out of 5 stars Why bother
Reviewed in Australia on June 14, 2020
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The mystery in this is why it was ever written. The other mystery is why anybody would read it. The heroine spends most of her time boasting about her unlikeability (not wrong there) , getting stoned and offering ersatz Tao-like sayings about detection while apparently following a disappearance in New Orleans. i have no idea how it ends. Life beckoned and I answered its call.
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Caz Mysteries
4.0 out of 5 stars Unlike any other crime novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2015
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Although this type of crime novel is not really to my taste, I found it surprisingly engrossing. The private investigator, Claire Dewitt, has been tasked with finding the Asst District Attorney, Vic Willing, who has been missing for some time. One year on New Orleans is still suffering from the aftermath of the storm and people are suffering from lack of safe housing and basics like food and other necessities. Claire gets together with the local "bad" boys in her quest and this has plenty of frightening repercussions.

This novel is Sara Gran's debut and I am going to look out for follow-ons.
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