Tomorrow is February 14, which is Valentine’s Day to most people. But here in New Orleans, we have a holiday that takes precedence. That’s right, it’s Mardi Gras, baby!

I’m celebrating the season by going to a lot of parades and reading a mystery set in New Orleans: Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran. Since Claire meets her client at The Napoleon House and orders jambalaya and a Pimm’s Cup, I decided to recreate her meal at home for this installment of the Fandom Foodie.

“A cab dropped me off at Napoleon House in the French Quarter. The client was already there. I sat across the table from him and listened to him pretend he wanted me to solve his mystery. He didn’t know he was pretending. They never do.

I got a Pimm’s Cup and a bowl of jambalaya.

‘So,’ I began. “The last time you saw your uncle was…’”

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Page 3

Two Iconic New Orleans Dishes

Jambalaya is one of the first dishes people think about when asked to name a New Orleans food. It’s basically rice flavored with herbs, Creole seasoning, and chicken broth, with a sh*t ton of meat thrown in for good measure.

There’s Cajun jambalaya, which doesn’t include tomatoes, and Creole, which does. Since Napoleon House has Creole style jambalaya on their menu, that’s the style I went with, following a recipe by Café Reconcile courtesy of LouisianaCookin.com. I loved this recipe! It was perfect with a drizzle of hot sauce and a handful of scallions on top.

Fun fact: I’ve actually eaten the jambalaya at Napoleon House. It was pretty good, but so far, the best jambalaya I’ve had was at Blue Bayou on Canal Street. You can’t really go wrong no matter where you sample it in the city.

The Pimm’s Cup was actually invented in London, but it became popular in New Orleans, probably because it’s a refreshing summer drink, and we basically have summer for eight months out of the year here.

I followed this recipe for the original Pimm’s Cup cocktail from The Spruce Eats.

Unfortunately, I didn’t care for the Pimm’s Cup. This was a very light gin-based drink made with Pimm’s No. 1 mixed with British lemonade (which is tart and carbonated, as opposed to the super sweet, uncarbonated American version). I dislike tart drinks and felt the alcohol got lost to the lemonade. I tend to prefer more spirit-forward drinks, bonus points for anything with bourbon or whiskey. I think I’ll stick to Sazeracs from now on, but it was fun to recreate Claire’s meal from the book!

Review of Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

4.5 stars for this book. It was a voice-y mystery with a gritty, emotionally damaged protagonist. At times, I veered into disliking Claire due to her constant sarcasm and excessive substance abuse, but I never felt she was uninteresting.

Now, if you’re purely interested in a mystery, you might not enjoy this book since it takes quite a few detours into Claire’s backstory and the philosophy of the famous (fictional) detective Jacques Silette.

To be honest, the main mystery was so broken up over different chapters that at times I found it hard to follow the clues and remember key details. However, I’m personally a fan of character-driven stories, so I enjoyed learning more about Claire’s backstory. Her voice was so compelling that I thoroughly enjoyed the poetic diversions interspersed with the mystery. I appreciated that the author fleshed out side characters as well, including Claire’s mentor, Constance, and a former PI named Mick.

The story took a very emotional turn in chapter 37. This is one of my favorite passages from the entire book:

“There are no coincidences. Just opportunities you’re too dumb to see, doors you’ve been too blind to step through. And for every one you miss there’s some poor f***ing soul who’s been left behind, waiting for someone to come along and show him the way out.”

Page 173

A Slower-Paced Mystery with Emotional Depth

Reading this book didn’t feel like hurtling through an urgent mystery. It felt more like being pulled through a dream – and not in the least because there were many dream sequences (maybe a few too many, but that’s ok). I floated through the mystery with Claire, delving deep into the well of her memories and heartbreaks. One of the most poignant of these was the disappearance of her friend, Tracy.

Chapter 43 was a standout chapter as it covered the aftermath of Tracy’s disappearance, particularly how the mystery consumed Claire and her friend Kelly. It was heartbreaking when Claire made the difficult decision to leave New York and let Kelly drown in the unsolved disappearance that had become their shared obsession. I understood perfectly why she had to do it. I also understood why Kelly continued to cling to the mystery that had swallowed her, consuming her entire being.

Ms. Gran is a masterful writer who crafts such compelling characters that readers can sympathize with, no matter if they’re doing something smart, stupid, painful, difficult, necessary – or perhaps all of those together.

The solution to the mystery at the end…I don’t really know how I felt. I didn’t exactly feel surprised, but I also didn’t expect it. I felt sympathy for the killer due to what he suffered (I’ll just leave it at that to avoid spoilers). I commend Ms. Gran for crafting a nuanced, emotional story where both killer and victim elicit an emotional response from the reader. That is very difficult to pull off, and she made it look effortless.

So now that the mystery is solved and Claire is on her way back to California, I’ll stay in the city of New Orleans and toast to Mardi Gras with my Pimm’s Cup, then enjoy another bowl of jambalaya (and another one the next day – that recipe made plenty of leftovers!).