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emckeon1002's review against another edition
4.0
I picked up the earlier, Claire DeWitt and the City of Dead, in a Northampton bookstore and was captivated. Claire DeWitt is a mystical car-wreck of a PI that you can't take your eyes from. In "The Bohemian Highway" we learn more about her conversion to a career as a detective through her induction into a society of truth-seekers who follow the writings of legendary and mysterious (of course) French detective, Jacques Silette. This book plumbs the dark corners of the soul, but pulls you through the pages like a good mystery should. Gran is a fine writer, and I look forward to more in this series.
mattbowes's review against another edition
5.0
Claire DeWitt is currently the greatest detective in the world, a rank she achieved after the death of her mentor Constance Starling. After the events of The Case of the Green Parrot, related to us in book form by Sara Gran as Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Claire has left New Orleans and returned to San Francisco. It doesn’t take long, though, for trouble to rear its ugly head once again, as her old flame, Paul Casablancas, turns up dead in what appears to be a burglary of his house. Paul was the one Claire never really got over, and the death hits her doubly hard as she introduced him to his future wife. No one really hires Claire to look into this case, but she does it anyway, adding The Case of the Kali Yuga to her ongoing workload (alongside the decidedly lower-stakes Case of the Missing Miniature Horses).
Interspersed with Claire’s return into the Bay Area rock music world, we also get the story of young Claire and her best friend Tracy solving another mystery in post-punk ’80s New York City, The Case of the End of the World. A young party girl has gone missing in the sleazy underworld of the East Village, and only these two plucky teenagers stand between her and total oblivion.
Check out the rest of my review at This Nerding Life: http://thisnerdinglife.com/2015/04/07/review-claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway-by-sara-gran-2013/
Interspersed with Claire’s return into the Bay Area rock music world, we also get the story of young Claire and her best friend Tracy solving another mystery in post-punk ’80s New York City, The Case of the End of the World. A young party girl has gone missing in the sleazy underworld of the East Village, and only these two plucky teenagers stand between her and total oblivion.
Check out the rest of my review at This Nerding Life: http://thisnerdinglife.com/2015/04/07/review-claire-dewitt-and-the-bohemian-highway-by-sara-gran-2013/
spinstah's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this but there’s a drug addiction subplot I found a little distracting. But otherwise interesting characters and and an intertwined story that I think added a lot to the book.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
When her ex-boyfriend is murdered, Claire DeWitt goes on the case. But what does it have to do with the other case she's working on, The Case of the Missing Horses, or one from her past, The Case of the End of the World? And is there enough cocaine in the San Francisco area for Claire to find her ex-boyfriend's murderer?
This is the eighth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.
In the second book in the series, Claire DeWitt continues being the world's greatest detective. This time, Claire's mission is a much more personal one. As she digs through Paul Casablancas' past, she also confronts her own, when she and Tracy were looking for a missing girl in Brooklyn when they were teenagers.
As with the previous book, Claire uses unconventional methods like dreams, tarot cards, and copious amounts of cocaine to keep things going after she exhaust conventional methods. Who knew clues like a missing guitar and poker chips could snowball like they did. Once again, Claire proves she's the World's Greatest Detective.
She also proves she's just barely skating along the border of genius and insanity, getting more self-destructive as the case progresses with her cocaine and pain pills. The case from the past in Brooklyn gives us a glimpse of how Claire got to where she is today.
The second book leaves a lot of questions unanswered, paving the way for the third and final book. Who is the one leaving copies of Detection for people to find? How was it Claire and her friends were the only people to read the Cynthia Silverton books when they were kids? And who was it that cliffhangered Claire's ass at the end of this book?
The writing, as with the previous book, is superb. It reminds me of Megan Abbott and George Pelecanos writing a Nancy Drew mystery. I enjoyed this one slightly less than the first Claire DeWitt book but it was still a great read. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $48.10.
This is the eighth book in my Kindle Unlimited Experiment. For the 30 day trial, I'm only reading books that are part of the program and keeping track what the total cost of the books would have been.
In the second book in the series, Claire DeWitt continues being the world's greatest detective. This time, Claire's mission is a much more personal one. As she digs through Paul Casablancas' past, she also confronts her own, when she and Tracy were looking for a missing girl in Brooklyn when they were teenagers.
As with the previous book, Claire uses unconventional methods like dreams, tarot cards, and copious amounts of cocaine to keep things going after she exhaust conventional methods. Who knew clues like a missing guitar and poker chips could snowball like they did. Once again, Claire proves she's the World's Greatest Detective.
She also proves she's just barely skating along the border of genius and insanity, getting more self-destructive as the case progresses with her cocaine and pain pills. The case from the past in Brooklyn gives us a glimpse of how Claire got to where she is today.
The second book leaves a lot of questions unanswered, paving the way for the third and final book. Who is the one leaving copies of Detection for people to find? How was it Claire and her friends were the only people to read the Cynthia Silverton books when they were kids? And who was it that cliffhangered Claire's ass at the end of this book?
The writing, as with the previous book, is superb. It reminds me of Megan Abbott and George Pelecanos writing a Nancy Drew mystery. I enjoyed this one slightly less than the first Claire DeWitt book but it was still a great read. 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Current Kindle Unlimited Savings Total: $48.10.
beckermanex's review against another edition
3.0
I keep reading this series with a love/hate relationship. I like a good mystery and crime to solve, and this series gives you that, but you cannot write about a worse group of people that you really have to try hard to care about. Claire should be dead 10x over with her antics and just overall personality, and that's part of who she is, damaged to a degree you'll never believe, but she gets results, so we look the other way. Just reading over and over about her destructive nature, it boggles the mind.
The core mystery to the book itself is a whodunit with local ties to Claire, but the plot is pretty run of the mill, it's the spiderwebs from it, from previous cases, from an on-going case from years prior involving Claire's missing best friend that furthers the intrigue and keep me reading. I'll be back for the next, but I may not jump into it with open arms.
The core mystery to the book itself is a whodunit with local ties to Claire, but the plot is pretty run of the mill, it's the spiderwebs from it, from previous cases, from an on-going case from years prior involving Claire's missing best friend that furthers the intrigue and keep me reading. I'll be back for the next, but I may not jump into it with open arms.
audreylee's review
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Self harm
bryce_is_a_librarian's review against another edition
4.0
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."
christopherward's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ldv's review against another edition
1.0
Weird. Can you say she solved the murder when her assistant did most of the leg work, she used her connections to just keep probing witnesses, she is unethical in her detecting and spends most of the story doing drugs? Not to mention that most of the plot is moved forward via drug-i diced dream-revelations. An author can use that trick maybe once in a story, but not regularly. That is just week writing in my opinion. Dreams might reveal important info in real life, but in a written narrative it is just too construed to feel real.
The ongoing subplot of the past mystery memory felt unconnected to the current mystery. Maybe I would have been more invested if I had read the first book, but I didn't and I won't. Not worth it.
The ongoing subplot of the past mystery memory felt unconnected to the current mystery. Maybe I would have been more invested if I had read the first book, but I didn't and I won't. Not worth it.
maureenr's review against another edition
3.0
so disappointing compared to first book. the "a" storyline was stale and uninteresting. the only saving grace was the "b" storyline from her past. I think the first book benefited from the setting in post-Katrina New Orleans.