From her Q & A with Randy Dotinga at the Christian Science Monitor:
Q: For people who haven't read the book, who's Claire DeWitt?Visit Sara Gran's website and blog.
A: Claire DeWitt is in her mid-30s and from Brooklyn. She's "the world's greatest detective," but no one believes her. We'll find out if it's true as the series goes on.
She's been been through a lot, had a really hard childhood, and a lot of personal losses. She doesn't get a lot of pleasure in her life, but she does get pleasure out of solving crimes.
She's a devotee of a French detective who has an unusual school of detective work based on intuition, omens, and psychology. It is not science-based, more like the alternative medicine of detective work.
Q: She seems pretty messed up as she tries to solve the case of a missing prosecutor. Is that fair to say?
A: She's in one of those phases in her life where she's in between things. She’s not really depressed, she’s not really happy. She doesn’t have a future she's particularly looking forward to, but she's not in her past. She didn't want to go to New Orleans, but goes there to help solve this crime.
She does have this way of solving mysteries that’s....[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue