In elementary school we participated in BookIt, which was a program where we set a goal of a number of books to read and when we reached that goal we'd get a coupon for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. It never took much for me to be motivated to read, but getting that pizza was pretty special. A few weeks ago I got an email from the library that four books I had requested were ready to pick up. Panic! How would I read so many books? Obviously I need to motivate myself with pizza, so from here on out, it's a book a week!
Fortunately Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran was both short and a mystery-- a perfect quick read. Claire is hired to investigate the disappearance of man's uncle in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Her detection methods are based on her mentor, Constance, as well as a book by Silette called Detection. Her methods also include copious amounts of booze and prescription and non-prescription drugs. Besides her actual case, several other "mysteries" are alluded to, making a strong case for future books.
New Orleans is portrayed as fairly post-apocolyptic in this book, not so different from Zeitoun. It's the perfect setting for crime noir and Gran's writing is spot on. A favorite quote, that represents a colleague, but could refer to many inhabitants of New Orleans: "Some people, I saw, had drowned right away. And some people were drowning in slow motion, drowning a lit bit at a time, and would be drowning for years. And some people, like Mick, had always been drowning. They just hadn't known what to call it until now. "
4/5 Netflix stars (and one book closer to my pizza).
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