The highly anticipated new thriller from internationally renowned author Sara Gran, author of Come Closer and the Claire DeWitt series. "Gran perfectly captures the eccentric world of antiquarian bookselling while portraying a profound and magical reckoning with loss and the possibility of going on. She has outdone herself. " — Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review "While Lily's hunt propels the story forward, it is Gran's frequently exquisite prose that demands investment from its audience." — Bookpage, Starred Review "Sara Gran's THE BOOK OF THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE is a mix of book buying mystery, erotica, and a pinch of Clive Barkerian obsessive existential horror, but it's all Gran. And it's all brilliant." — Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World "Extravagant, sexy and compelling. I loved it." — Lauren Beukes,...

Review"Just when I begin to despair that the PI novel has worn out its welcome, a writer with a fresh take reminds me why I fell in love with the genre. Sara Gran has long specialized in shaking up and revitalizing other corners of the genre world, so it’s no surprise that she performs this same magic in CLAIRE DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD. And while I confess to having very little objectivity about New Orleans and no credentials to judge its literary portrayal, this is a valuable addition to the (way too small) body of post-storm novels."--Laura Lippman "Terrific. I love this book! Absolutely love it. This is the first fresh literary voice I've heard in years. Sara Gran recombines all the elements of good, solid story-telling and lifts something original from a well-loved form."--Sue Grafton"I just burned through Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, and it's the first truly fantastic book I've read this year. Gran's evocation of the exposed wounds of New Orleans - before and after the storm - is a master-class in descriptive and emotive writing, and Claire is one of the most exciting new characters in years; a Raymond Chandler heroine with just enough of an off-beat vibe to tilt the whole thing enticingly off-kilter. Everything here - from the smallest touches to the grander mythology setting the tone of the series - just sings."--Drew Williams, Little Professor Book Center "Not your mother's girl detective, Claire DeWitt is a cool blend of Nancy Drew and Sid Vicious. With Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Sara Gran has pulled the traditional female sleuth into the twenty-first century with a novel that's smart and hip, dark and funny. I can't wait for the next one." - Alafair Burke, author of LONG GONE "Gran (Dope, 2006, etc.) provides...a comically self-important detective and a searing portrait of post-Katrina New Orleans."--Kirkus Reviews "As brash and bold as Sherlock Holmes himself, Claire DeWitt arrives in still-chaotic New Orleans 18 months after Katrina. She's been hired to investigate the disappearance of Vic Willing, a local prosecutor, who's not been heard from since the hurricane. Claire surprises the local gangtsa set with her unique bravado. One of them, Andray, is compelled to help her tap into the darkness of Katrina's aftermath. From there, Claire finds her answers. Mentored and deeply inspired by a famous French detective, the I Ching, and profoundly illuminating dreams, a complex Claire leads us into her own nightmares as well. VERDICT This is not to be missed-Claire is a moody, hip, and meticulous investigator. Gran (Dope; Come Closer) builds an addictive sense of anticipation with a fantastical frame. Alternately gritty and dreamy, this would appeal to those who liked Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist and readers of Charlie Huston (e.g., The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death). Highly recommended." --Library Journal STARRED "Captivating"--Publishers Weekly, STARRED"If there isn’t yet a subgenre called funky noir, this wacky PI novel could be a fragrant first...lots of fun."--Booklist PRAISE FROM BOOKSELLERS (PRE-PUB TOUR) "Thanks again for such a wonderful experience last week. I love how HMH and Algonquin are bringing writers to the booksellers ahead of publication date because it makes such a difference having that personal knowledge of the author. And when the authors are awesome like Sara is, it makes their books stand out more in my mind, and thus makes me more likely to try to handsell their books. Sure, we all try to sell the books we like and we think a customer will like, but when there's a personal connection with the author, it feels more like we're introducing new readers to not just a book, but a friend."--Emily Crowe, Odyssey Book Shop "Sara Gran is awesome. Don’t let her small, bespectacled frame deceive you; she’s a firecracker with fascinating stories to tell, and she has an obvious, passionate love of her craft. I could have talked to her for hours. And I love her book so far; it’s terrifically different from so many other mysteries I’ve read. And with regard to New Orleans: she really knows her stuff. I DO very much like the pre-publicity dinners, and not just because of the free booze.  It encourages me to read books I might not ordinarily pick up (*Sara’s being an exception, as it’s right up my alley), and talking at length with the author about why they wrote the book, their background, etc. all helps me to sell their book." --Hilary Emerson Lay, Spirit of '76 Bookstore "We had a blast with you, Carla and Sara. I think these sorts of pre-pub events are very worth it. I do believe they help generate enthusiasm for a book and an author which helps generate sales. Of course, Sara is an author that it's easy to be enthusiastic about. She's genuine, smart, fun and quick to forge connections. That is, we like her very much. Being a former bookseller, she's kin and you can feel that. In a good way. Like when you meet a cousin you barely know but like instantly. She's our cousin who has made good and we're sorry we don't get to see her more because she lives on the wrong side of the country."--Stan Hynds, Northshire Bookstore "The novel, Gran's fourth, is difficult to categorize, offering a strangely appealing mix of the mystical and the hard-boiled. The book is beautifully written in a tight, quirky style that distinguishes Gran as one of the more original writers working today."--Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press Review“Terrific. I love this book! Absolutely love it. This is the first fresh literary voice I've heard in years. Sara Gran recombines all the elements of good, solid story-telling and lifts something original from a well-loved form.” —Sue Grafton (Sue Grafton )

Claire DeWitt, the hard-living and tough-talking private investigator, has always been something of a detective. As a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, Claire and her two best friends, Tracy and Kelly, fell under the spell of the book Detection by legendary French detective Jacques Silette. The three solved many cases together and were inseparable - until the day Tracy vanished without a trace. That is still the only case Claire ever failed to solve. Later, in her twenties, Claire is in Los Angeles trying to get her PI license by taking on a cold case that has stumped the LAPD. She hunts for the real story behind the death of a washed-up painter ten years earlier, whose successful and widely admired artist girlfriend had died a few months before him. Today, Claire is on her way to Las Vegas from San Francisco when she's almost killed by a homicidal driver. In a haze of drugs and injuries, she struggles off the scene, determined to find her would-be killer's identity - but the list of people who would be happy to see her dead is not a short one.  As these three narratives converge, some mysteries are solved and others continue to haunt. But Claire, battered and bruised, continues her search for the answer to the biggest mystery of all: what is the purpose of our lives, and how can anyone survive in a world so clearly designed to break our hearts again and again?

The eagerly awaited second book in the Claire DeWitt mystery series, featuring “one of the genre’s most original characters in years . . . as if David Lynch directed a Raymond Chandler novel.” (CNN)When Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt’s musician ex-boyfriend, is found dead in his Mission District home, the police are convinced it’s a simple robbery. But Claire knows nothing is ever simple.With the help of her new assistant, Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul’s fate in her other cases—especially that of a missing girl in the gritty 1980s East Village and a modern-day miniature horse theft in Marin. As visions of the past reveal the secrets of the present, Claire begins to understand the words of the enigmatic French detective Jacques Silette: “The detective won’t know what he is capable of until he encounters a mystery that pierces his own heart.” And love, in all its forms, is the greatest mystery of all—at least to the world’s greatest PI.An addictive new adventure featuring an irresistible heroine.Review"In her second outing, tattooed cokehead Claire DeWitt puzzles over the murder of an ex-boyfriend. There's absolutely nothing predictable about either the multilayered investigation—cloaked in references to Indian scriptures, Thomas Merton, and cheesy 1980s TV mysteries—or DeWitt herself, who charms despite her fraying life. A" —Entertainment Weekly"The high-stepping, coke-snorting, Zen-loving heroine of Sara Gran's new novel is something of a mess, but she's also the most interesting private eye I've encountered since Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. . . .She mostly follows her intuition, along with the precepts laid down by the great (and fictional) French detective Jacques Silette, who said things like, 'Solutions wait for you, trembling, pulling you to them, calling your name, even if you cannot hear.'" —Washington Post"From Nancy Drew to Miss Marple to Lisbeth Salander, there's a long and distinguished line of famous women in mystery fiction. I have a new favorite female sleuth to add to the list, Claire DeWitt." —CNN.com"The Claire DeWitt novels are not so much noir mysteries as stories about the nature of mysteries themselves. The stories are wise, chilling, insightful and reeking with despair—and yet so beautifully written in an original, quirky style that it is difficult to resist them. . . . Readers will marvel at Gran’s talent." —Bruce DeSilva, Associated Press"Claire’s old love, Paul Casablancas, is murdered in an apparent robbery gone bad, opening a floodgate of emotions for her. She finds a clue (“trust only the clues,” says her detective mentor, Jacques Silette) that helps her trace Paul’s final steps that ultimately led to his death. . . . Gran’s detective searches for truth, not necessarily justice, and philosophical tidbits scattered throughout give the storyline an otherworldly tone. Remarkably, Gran keeps her tortured detective focused throughout, ensuring a satisfying read. Highly recommended." —Library Journal, STARRED review "Most novels, regardless of genre, appeal to readers' minds or to their emotions. The dark mysticism of Gran's books, however, echoes within their souls." -- Examiner.com "Gran continues to reinvent the crime novel with her latest, Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, in which her inimitable protagonist follows a tangled web of cases involving the murder of Claire's musician ex-boyfriend, the mysterious theft of a group of miniature horses, and a trip down the rabbit hole of her own psyche." -- Publishers WeeklyAbout the AuthorSARA GRAN is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, including Come Closer and Dope as well as the Claire DeWitt series. She also writes for film and TV (including TNT's "Southland") and has published in The New York Times, The New Orleans Times Picayune, and USA Today. She is a former bookseller and a native of Brooklyn.

From the author of the Claire DeWitt series: This "witty and poignant" novel of a woman moving on to a new stage of life, as her mother does the same (Rocky Mountain News). Mary Forrest is in her late twenties and comes from a literary family—her widowed mother still runs a prominent journal and shows up at Manhattan book parties packed with writers and intellectuals. Decades ago, Evelyn Forrest faced the kind of harassment that would make headlines in later times, but now her daughter works in publishing in an era that's a little easier for women. Yet, young Mary is about to face some challenges of her own. Evelyn's memory has been giving her problems—like "going home" to the place on Twelfth Street where she hasn't lived since 1977. As Mary tries to support her mother, she struggles with personal relationships, and discovers that a coworker is brazenly trying to steal her job. At an astrological reading that she got as a...

A recurrent, unidentifiable noise in her apartment. A memo to her boss that's replaced by obscene insults. Amanda—a successful architect in a happy marriage—finds her life going off kilter by degrees. She starts smoking again, and one night for no reason, without even the knowledge that she's doing it, she burns her husband with a cigarette. At night she dreams of a beautiful woman with pointed teeth on the shore of a blood-red sea.The new voice in Amanda's head, the one that tells her to steal things and talk to strange men in bars, is strange and frightening, and Amanda struggles to wrest back control of her life. A book on demon possession suggests that the figure on the shore could be the demon Naamah, known to scholars of the Kabbalah as the second wife of Adam, who stole into his dreams and tricked him into fathering her child. Whatever the case, as the violence of her erratic behavior increases, Amanda knows that she must act to put her life right, or see it destroyed.From BooklistStrange noises that come and go; objects that inexplicably appear, then vanish. Such bump-in-the-night shenanigans are horror-story standard fare, but in Gran's gifted hands, these stereotypes fade away like ghosts. In this sparsely constructed and compellingly succinct gem of a novel, Gran's heroine leads a normal life until things suddenly and mystifyingly go wrong. Amanda does hear noises and experience bizarre situations, yet as a vague but tantalizing feeling of unease settles in, Amanda's fear feeds her needs and desires. Gran's premise, that we accept the impossible, for to do otherwise is to foolishly court disaster, informs the subtle tension beneath this deliciously wicked tale. A short book, it is nonetheless long on style, thanks to Gran's talent for quickly and convincingly portraying Amanda's reluctant terror, abject denial, and, finally, resigned acceptance of the malevolent force commandeering her life. Seductively menacing, alluringly sinister, Gran's ominous study of psychological and spiritual suspense heralds a refreshingly sophisticated and literate approach to an often-predictable genre. Carol HaggasCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reservedReview“What begins as a sly fable about frustrated desire evolves into a genuinely scary novel about possession and insanity. Hypnotic, disturbing, and written with such unerring confidence you believe every word, Come Closer is one of the most precise and graceful pieces of fiction I've read in a long time.”—Bret Easton Ellis“Ideal for an evening’s reading, with a kick that will stay with the reader for days afterward.”—Dallas Morning News“Sara Gran has written an intelligent horror story, a literary creepshow that works its magic subtly and well.  It’s a marvel of restraint and taste, and still it worms its way under your skin and stays there.”—Darin Strauss“Sara Gran’s Come Closer ought to carry a warning to readers.  It’s impossible to begin this intense, clever, beautifully written novel without turning every page.  A wonderful accomplishment.”—Margot Livesey “I read Come Closer on the train, in a snowstorm, on a cold December night.  It was the right atmosphere for this perfectly noirish tale of madness and love.  Author Sara Gran writes with scalpel-like clarity, expertly blending tones to create a new kind of psychological thriller.  I loved this book.  Days after finishing it, it has not left my mind.”—George Pelecanos“‘What we think is impossible happens all the time.’ So claims the beguiling narrator of Come Closer, and after reading this spare and menacing tale, the reader has to agree.  Sara Gran has created a sly, satisfying (fast!) novel of one young woman possessed not only by a demon but also by her own secret desires.”—Stewart O’Nan“Come Closer is sharp and strange and, best of all, at the moment of truth it doesn’t flinch from its own mad logic.”—Sam Lipsyte“The Yellow Wallpaper meets Rosemary’s Baby in a slim, wonderfully eerie novel.”—Kirkus Reviews"Polished and unsettling." —The Cleveland Plain Dealer “It gave us the creeps.”—Arizona Republic