Claire DeWitt Mysteries

From the author of City of the Dead, comes a spellbinding mystery with "the most interesting private eye...since Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander" (Washington Post). When Claire DeWitt's ex-boyfriend Paul Casablancas, a musician, is found dead in his Mission District house, Claire is on the case. Paul's wife and the police are sure Paul was killed for his valuable collection of vintage guitars. But Claire, the best detective in the world, has other ideas. Even as her other cases offer hints to Paul's fate-a missing girl in the grim East Village of the 1980s and an epidemic of missing miniature horses in Marin County-–Claire knows: the truth is never where you expect it, and love is the greatest mystery of all. "A distinctive new American voice in mystery fiction." -NPR's Fresh Air

"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