Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

Delicious and addictive.--Salon.com Reads . . . as if David Lynch directed a Raymond Chandler novel.--CNN 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 . . . DeWitt's mesmerizing character and memorable voice take your breath away.--New Orleans Times-Picayune 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. 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. Claire also has deep roots in New Orleans, where she was mentored by Silette's student the brilliant Constance Darling--until Darling was murdered. When a respected DA goes missing she returns to the hurricane-ravaged city to find out why. 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 Reminds me why I fell in love with the genre.--Laura Lippman I love this book! -- Sue Grafton