This is less an autopsy of Detroit and more an autobiography of the author, Charlie LeDuff. It's an interesting and usually saddening series of vignettes about Detroit and the extreme poverty and corruption that are destroying it, strung together by stories about LeDuff and his family and written in an almost Raymond Chandler style, painting LeDuff as some long-suffering, hard edged guy hero with a heart of gold singlehandedly trying to fight for the city and its inhabitants.

The whole book is really about LeDuff, but Detroit gives him an interesting backdrop to look good against. That said, he still tells an interesting story and paints a vivid picture of a suffering city. Don't expect to really learn much about Detroit from the book though, just little glimpses and fragments framed as unconnected personal interest pieces.