Sara Gran's first book in the present series, Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, was a revelation and made my list of the best crime novels of the year. After a seemingly interminable wait the sequel, Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway has finally arrived.
In both books Sara Gran proves to be a magician. Everything that happens is both a realistic procession of clues that lead Claire to the solution of a "case" and at the same time a geometric conundrum of the soul.
The mysteries that abound in Claire's life and in the lives of her friends are revisited again in the new book. Like a kaleidoscope dipped in LSD, we see events that were presented in the first book now repainted in a new array of psychic colors.
Sara Gran has the ability to present us with a straight ahead, tough talking, hard boiled female P.I. doing her Mickey Spillane best. At the same time, through dropped hints, runic circulations and all manner of sounds,smells and physical vibrations she takes us to strange yet oddly familiar haunted hollows of the human heart.
Through her magical manipulation of uncomplicated prose she ferries us across the river Styx and into the labyrinth of a personal hell. This spiraling descent into a maze of mysteries is reflected as in a hall of mirrors. Watching Claire find her way is like being in an opium dream with Hercule Poirot perched on one shoulder and Mike Hammer on the other.
This is a superior and multi-layered story that not only draws on the tropes of Noir but also pop culture, eastern thought and the physical world in all its manifestations. It is a love story about love and a mystery about the nature of mystery. Both books are not to be missed. Sara Gran is a totally unique voice in modern crime fiction.
review by: STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ
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