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Available Dark: A Crime Novel (Cass Neary #2)

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 324 ratings · 84 reviews

"Shimmers with gorgeous writing even as it scares the dickens out of you." —Tess Gerritsen

Photographer Cass Neary is already wanted by the police for questioning when she receives a mysterious job offer that sends her to Helsinki, where an iconic fashion photographer shows her a trove of gorgeous photos depicting ritual killings. After narrowly escaping death herself,

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Hardcover, 246 pages

Published February 14th 2012 by Minotaur Books (first published January 1st 2012)

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Dec 29, 2012 Ray rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked the writing a lot but I had some trouble following the plot.

Initially I was put off by the first-person narration. There was something affected and inauthentic about the voice. Relatively soon after though I bought it and enjoyed it.

Then came the plot. So here's the deal about genre: if a publisher is trying to brand a novel as a mystery, or in this case a "crime novel," there needs to be some sort of puzzle that a reader can solve. If not, then it's not a genre novel and frankly I hold...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Tim Niland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

Cassandra Neary is an old-school hand on the New York City punk rock scene and a photographer of some reputation. After running into some trouble in Maine, she is looking to make an escape from her crowded New York City apartment when an unexpected offer arrives. Receiving an invitation from an enigmatic man in Helsinki who wants her to authenticate some photographs before he purchases them, she is soon on her way to Finland to meet a reclusive photographer whose pictures of dead people have an...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Gloria Feit rated it 4 of 5 stars

This novel isn’t one that defies description, exactly, but it does make it difficult. Its tone is bleak throughout, perhaps in keeping with the geographical landscape, made palpable by the author’s gorgeous writing. The plot is not complex, but that is not the crux of the book, which is the haunting quality of its beautiful prose.

Cass Neary is a photographer with a moribund career, a woman prone to night terrors, who still indulges in her long-time near-addiction to alcohol and drugs of various...more This novel isn’t one that defies description, exactly, but it does make it difficult. Its tone is bleak throughout, perhaps in keeping with the geographical landscape, made palpable by the author’s gorgeous writing. The plot is not complex, but that is not the crux of the book, which is the haunting quality of its beautiful prose.

Cass Neary is a photographer with a moribund career, a woman prone to night terrors, who still indulges in her long-time near-addiction to alcohol and drugs of various kinds, from “speed” to crystal meth [about which I learned more than I ever wanted to know as to its effects on the human body, and mind] and everything in between. Nearly six feet tall, she is self-described as “a burned-out, aging punk with a dead gaze, a faded tattoo, and a raw red scar beside one eye.” The story takes her to the streets and highland areas of, respectively, Helsinki, where she is told “the entire country’s unemployed and on the verge of a psychotic breakdown,” and Reykjavik [also in dire straits, where there can be snow in August and where, she is told, “everything is an illusion”], trying to track down a long-lost friend/lover from her high school days of thirty years ago, and in an attempt to evade both the police and a murderer.

Cass leaves the Lower East Side of Manhattan after receiving a lucrative job offer: to confirm the existence of, and authenticate, a group of photos depicting ritual killings, still photos which could have started life in a snuff film, something called “murderabilia.” There is much discussion about the photographer’s technique of using only available light, the converse of which gives rise to the title. Nordic, Viking and Icelandic religions and myths play a large part in the story line. We are told of “ghosts that didn’t know they were dead,” and there is a quote from the sagas of the region: “Death will claim no man until his time has come, and nothing will save a man who is fated to die. Therefore be bold: to die in fear is the worst death of all.”

There were many cultural references that I must admit escaped me, which were, I’m guessing, linked to “punk” music [“death metal” and “black metal”] and “punk” photography [a genre I didn’t even know existed]. The writing is macabre and disturbing on several levels. This is a novel not easily forgotten.
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May 23, 2012 Missnike rated it 1 of 5 stars

A cold, bloodless, soulless description of events does not a story make.

My first 1-star book in a month. Since I have such strong feelings about this book, it’s best to split this review into the aspects of the writing that most stood out:

a) Character differentiation: I think a writer has succeeded with character differentiation when a reader hears a line of dialogue and can immediately imagine which of the characters in the book might have uttered it. A hundred pages into this book, I realized...more A cold, bloodless, soulless description of events does not a story make.

My first 1-star book in a month. Since I have such strong feelings about this book, it’s best to split this review into the aspects of the writing that most stood out:

a) Character differentiation: I think a writer has succeeded with character differentiation when a reader hears a line of dialogue and can immediately imagine which of the characters in the book might have uttered it. A hundred pages into this book, I realized that the four characters we had encountered until that point (their names already escape me, eventhough I just finished the book this morning) were indistinguishable. There was the photographer’s assistant, the rich-guy-in-the-shadows who sent the email to the protagonist, the photographer who took the pictures from many years ago and the protagonist (our Lisbeth-Salander wanna be, hereafter LL for Lisbeth-Lite). Throughout this plodding book, the dialogue remains flat and cold as we go from one corner of the earth to another (USA, Finland, Iceland) – each line sounds like it comes from a neutral observer - an observer without a heart, without any emotions. The whole thing very quickly devolves into a soulless list of facts, a dispassionate description of events. At one point LL finds out about a little kid with what appears to be a relapse of leukemia; to compound matter, his only hope of survival appears to be an expensive (and experimental – read, unproven) treatment in Mexico. Does this garner any reaction from LL? 2 sentences where she is allowed to wax philosophical about the injustice that is life? To show some emotion about anything?

You can imagine my shock, then, when halfway through this trundling book I glanced at one of the breathless (nauseating) blurbs on the sleeve of the book and the reviewer wrote something about “…done with compassion…”. I did a double-take. Compassion in this book? You’re having a laugh.

b) The Nordic setting: While Ms. Hand does a fair job of describing the setting of this book and transporting the reader to the Nordic regions of the world, that, too, soon becomes problematic. There are two jarring elements that stand out:

1) After reading about the gray, bleak, desolate feel of the Nordic-Scandinavian-Icelandic countries in mid-winter, you’ll find that all the towns/cities/outposts become (just like the characters) indistinguishable. After 90 pages, could I really tell Helsinki apart from whatever Icelandic town she ended up in? Are they really all just bleak, frigid and featureless places in the winter, with barren trees, little light and inhabitants who grunt at their feet and do little else but smoke, listen to metal music and wear dark clothing? Is that all there is to all these cities/towns/outposts – every corner of every single one of them? The protagonist journeys from Finland to Iceland at some point early in the book; were I to base my feelings of both countries exclusively on the descriptions in this book, I would conclude that all parts of both countries are effectively the same, carbon copies, indistinguishable…! And after 2 or 3 plane rides and bus rides, they all become – wait for it – forgettable!
2) At some point, she likens the setting in one of the cities to Mordor. You know, the Mordor that Tolkien worked relentlessly over a period of 10 years (no less) to bring to life for his readers so that he wouldn’t have to lazily liken it to some other bleak patch of earth that another hardworking writer before him slaved hard to create? By calling up Mordor, I think Ms. Hand was effectively saying: “I give up! I can’t paint the picture for you – but I sure as hell can (lazily) ask you to remember what Tolkien and Peter Jackson created!” It’s lazy, sloppy. And for me, it was the last straw – it became a 1-star book from that point on.

c) The strange words. Let me begin by saying that while I grew up in a multi-lingual setting, English is effectively my first language and I have taken GRE-level English. I have what I would describe as an above-average vocabulary. Well, a hundred pages into this book, I realized that there were many strange words that just do not usually come up in regular writing. Examples include “vitrines” (apparently means glass display), “nonce”, “rictus” and this gem “susumis” (it appears even Google does not appear to know what that means). At some point, I convinced myself that some of these words were as a result of a translation from Finnish or whatever language this book was initially written in. Wrong. She wrote the book in English. Yet she put these strange words in there. In any case, this is not entirely a negative thing – I encourage writers who force their readers to expand their vocabulary (otherwise how else would we learn new words?). I just did not expect to see so many obscure words in one book.

d) In sum, I have little positive to say about this book. It is a bleak, lazy product with indistinguishable characters whose names you will forget even before you shut the book. And you won’t care about a single one of them. Not a single one.

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Apr 17, 2012 Angie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: noir, mystery, scandinavia

Perhaps one of the best "Scandinavian" mysteries/crime pieces I've read since "The Inspector and Silence" by Hakan Nesser and "The Snowman" by Jo Nesbo. (Those may have been the last two I read; or, rather, the last two I could finish. I try to read more of those than ever get reported on this site.)

The only difference this title brings is that it is a true "crime" novel, rather than a "mystery." The protagonist is a photographer with a talent that has almost left her, and a woman desperate for...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Cheryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cassandra Neary receives a voice message from Investigator Jonathan Wheedler. It is partly due to this voice message that Cassandra accepts an assignment from Anton Bredahl, a guy she just met over email. The other reason being that Anton wants Cassandra to travel to famed photographer Illkka Kaltunnen’s house to assess some art work of his to verify that they are real. Plus, Anton is going to pay Cassandra a lot of money. Cassandra could really use the money and this is a good way to leave town...more

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Feb 15, 2012 H. Anne Stoj rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I don't know when I became such a fan of Elizabeth Hand. The first book I ever read by her was Glimmering, which sat on my shelf for quite a while. But ever since I read it, I've collected no small number of her work. An amazing wordsmith, it makes her pieces a joy to read. One of the things that I've loved through all her work is the importance of art. Art plays a large role in my own work, so it's not strange for me to make the connection. However, photography is an area I don't know much abou...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Catherine Siemann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gorgeously written. Spiky, burned-out photographer and punk hold-out Cass Neary is back, and she's a well-drawn character. Hand draws vivid, memorable pictures of Finland and Iceland, especially the latter in the midst of its current economic crisis. (As a New Yorker, I appreciated Cass's growing sense of dissonance with the gentrified Lower East Side, as well.)

The novel's moral ambiguity is fascinating in the genre of mystery/thriller -- some people did Very Bad Things in the past, but moralit...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Philtrum rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Hand’s first book featuring middle-aged, burned out, New Yorker, ex-punk, drug-addled photographer Cass Neary – Generation Loss – but mainly because of the claustrophobic, nightmare-like atmosphere Hand described when setting that first book in out-of-season Maine.

Cass Neary is an unlikely and unlovable heroine. She’s not really a heroine at all. Stuff just happens to her and she reacts numbly. But this could be overlooked in the first book.

The second book takes up right after t...more

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Jun 22, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, thriller

Superb Literary Thriller from Elizabeth Hand

Elizabeth Hand’s “Available Dark” is a brilliant, engrossing work of crime fiction that is among this year’s finest novels, courtesy of one of our finest prose stylists in contemporary American fiction. In beautifully rendered, quite descriptive, prose, Hand has fashioned a most compelling anti-hero, photographer Cass Neary, who was introduced in the cult favorite “Generation Loss” (which I have not read yet); however, readers don’t have to have read t...more

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May 26, 2012 Craig Laurance rated it 4 of 5 stars

This pacing of this crime novel is relentless--it's a true "page turner." But as action-packed as it is, what really stands out is the voice of the narrator. Cass Neary is morbid, burned out speed freak, occasional klepto with a dark sense of humor. Would I like to hang out with her in real life? Nope--she's too amoral and has a mean streak. But her narrative voice is additive, full of witty asides. She's a photographer with a dark-adapted eye and a subcultural autodidact, a chronicler of the wa...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cass Neary has led a very exciting life to date as a photographer but it is about to get a lot scarier. She receives an email from one Anton Bredahl, who is interested in purchasing a strange collection of photographs by a famous photographer named Ilkka Kaltunnen. He wants Cass to authenticate the pictures before he purchases them. He arranges for Cass to fly to Finland and meet with Ilkka and view the prints.
Cass' reputation as a photographer herself had gotten Bredahl's attention . The one s...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Ken H. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Following the events of Generation Loss Cassandra Neary finds herself in Northern Europe and caught up in a murder mystery involving the area's old Black Metal scene, an ex boyfriend and a series of disturbing photographs.

I absolutely adored Generation Loss and was anticipating this sequel with more than a little excitement. While I wasn't disappointed I wasn't exactly blown away either. Available Dark is certainly an entertaining read and Cassandra Neary continues to be one of the most compell...more

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Feb 28, 2012 M Griffin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Available Dark follows Cassandra Neary, a damaged, self-destructive and somewhat washed-up art photographer, who first appeared in Hand's 2007 novel, Generation Loss. A novel with Neary as a protagonist is bound to be a wild ride. She's prone to sudden changes in direction, abruptly taking off for an isolated island off of Maine (in Generation Loss), or to meet a shady Finnish collector of death-obsessed photographs, or chase a long-lost friend/lover who might be in Iceland. Along the way she en...more Available Dark follows Cassandra Neary, a damaged, self-destructive and somewhat washed-up art photographer, who first appeared in Hand's 2007 novel, Generation Loss. A novel with Neary as a protagonist is bound to be a wild ride. She's prone to sudden changes in direction, abruptly taking off for an isolated island off of Maine (in Generation Loss), or to meet a shady Finnish collector of death-obsessed photographs, or chase a long-lost friend/lover who might be in Iceland. Along the way she encounters murder and threat, and often manages to multiply her own troubles by the following her own badly damaged sense of direction. Complicating all this is Cass's painful personal history, which lingers in her present despite the passage of years. Some people deal with adversity by bucking up and getting on with things, while others self-medicate using a cocktail of antisocial behavior, emotional avoidance, and a constant flow of mood-altering substances. Cass fits in the latter, and for this reason her problems aren't so much solved as left to accumulate, trailing in her wake.

Such a compelling central character does much of the work in engaging the reader. On top of this we have unusual settings (Reykjavik and Iceland's outlying areas are especially exotic, well drawn here) and such intriguing milieu as the worlds of photography concerned with death and folklore, the Scandinavian Black Metal scene, and obscure underground cult-like groups dedicated to resurrecting ancient Norse worship. The book is packed with vivid details, bizarre characters, and fascinating and varied artistic and cultural obsessions.

Most of Hand's earlier writing was constrained to Fantasy and related genres, but here she steps away from the impossible. Available Dark concerns itself with real world situations, characters and conflicts, yet these convey all the bizarre extremity of the strangest alt-world fantasy. It's possible some of her devoted readers may be disappointed by what is essentially a mainstream thriller, but I don't feel Available Dark suffers in the least from the lack of overt "impossible" elements. Normally if one of my favorite genre writers took a detour into the mainstream, I might say, "That's nice, now get back to what you do best." In this case, I find the character and settings so compelling I'd happily follow a Cass Neary series.

Hand seems to me a writer's writer, less concerned with superficial effects or pursuit of the latest publishing industry fad, more interested in crafting artful, expressive prose and shining light upon genuine and true "real life" moments. With Available Dark, Elizabeth Hand walks the tightrope between more accessible mainstream entertainments on one hand, and on the other maintaining a high artistic standing in the unflinching exploration of the dark and exotic. Available Dark constitutes yet another proof of Hand's status as one of the very best writers working today, in any genre. I can't wait for more Cassandra Neary.
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Feb 21, 2012 Bondama rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really should have given this book more like 2.5 stars. Elizabeth Hand is an extremely skilled writer, and one of my all-time favorite books was written by her Waking the Moon is a complex, incredibly fascinating exploration of the animistic, dark side of the Goddess.

But this is a "crime book." (At least she's honest!) I will say that the characters were incredibly fascinating, and I wanted very, very much to continue with the exploration of the connection between the action of the characters...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand (Minotaur) is the sequel to Generation Loss, and both are excellent, compulsively readable contemporary dark suspense novels about Cassandra Neary, a brilliant photographer who lit up the 70s punk landscape briefly but quickly burned out with liquor and drugs. After escaping home to Manhattan after some real nastiness in Maine (Generation Loss). Neary is offered a great deal of money to fly all expenses paid to Helsinki and authenticate a series of five photograp...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Mike Zinn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Welcome back to the days when a great book was less than 300 pages, grabbed you from the start and never let you go. This is one of the best reads I've had in a long time. This is a continuation from Generation Loss, which was great, but not so easy to read. This is just such a super return to the great crime novels of the early 50s that I can't recommend it too highly. One thing that comes to mind is the Dan Simmons "Hard" etc. novels. He is a great writer of serious works, but departed to writ...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Jeannie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, mystery

It's hard not to want this book to go on forever! The protagonist, Cass Neary, is on the run in Iceland and she doesn't exactly find a vacation paradise. I love the way this book intertwines with the earlier Cass Neary story, Generation Loss. By referring to the earlier story, I got a real sense of Cass's growth - or lack of it! I also loved the focus on photography. I now look at art photos in a different way because of these books. Cass's character is new and fresh to me, an avid reader of mys...more

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Dec 24, 2012 DR rated it 3 of 5 stars

It’s hard to top the bleak Maine setting of the first “Cass Neary” novel by Elizabeth Hand, but the main action of this sequel occurs in a place that “looked like the set for a zombie remake of the Shackleton voyage” (i.e., Iceland). And Cass, trying to escape possible repercussions from her first adventure, immediately is off on another that’s even more ill-advised and dangerous.

A new set of macabre photographs and a stranger’s request for her special eye immerse Cass in a murky world where dea...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Shelley Fearn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-suspense

Photographer Cass Neary is brought to Helsinky by a famous photographer who then shows her photos of ritualized killings. When he is murdered immediately following their interview, she flees. Wanted for questioning she flies to Iceland to ask for help from a famous musician and former lover. The murders seem to follow her and she needs to find the murderer before she ends up under arrest.

I found the novel slow going at first. It also was very dark -- of course Iceland is very dark in the winter...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Geeta rated it 5 of 5 stars

I should have a shelf for Difficult Women since I seem to be reading about a lot of them these days. Cass Neary is more than difficult--she an addict, the mistress of her own destruction, and not easy to like. But Hand's writing is clean and vivid and undercuts any potential for melodrama and histrionics from this first person narrator. The story is set largely in Iceland,in winter, and reunites Cass with a long-lost boyfriend from high school. The most compelling element of the book isn't the m...more

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Mar 22, 2012 K.A. Laity rated it 5 of 5 stars

I never really thought of GENERATION LOSS needing follow up, so I was surprised when Liz mentioned that Cassie's story would go on -- I was also delighted. This book offers a wild whirl of gruesome, amazing and mythic. The Finnish and Icelandic sections show the hard work and research that went into them, although most people will not know or notice that I suspect as they'll be too caught up in the adventures. You want to alternately strangle Cass or get her the hell out of the mess she's in, bu...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Nightwing rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Available Dark, Elizabeth continues the journey begun in Generation Loss. Her protagonist, Cass
Neary, avoiding the authorities who want to question her about a death in Maine, now finds herself landing a job identifying some obscure photographs from the Black Metal world in Finland. She is barely in Finland long enough to do the job before she goes to Iceland to locate a lover from her youth. And then it begins to get strange. Everywhere Cass goes, bodies are left behind and strange photogra...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book! Unapologetically grim, Available Dark mines the ripe but overlooked black metal culture of the 80s and 90s to great effect. For anyone for who considers Mayhem a (not-so) guilty pleasure this is a must read. The same goes for readers who appreciate a good anti-hero but would love a female one, as Cass Neary is what you've been waiting for. It has a bit of Chuck Palahnuik vibe (think Diary), and is a great follow up to the excellent Generation Loss.

Although I defini...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Cynthia Ravinski rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've waited two years to read this one. Ever since I heard Elizabeth Hand read from it... I really loved her deep dive into the Scandinavian music scene and culture (she mentions Viking sunstones!) The writing was tight and lovely yet easy to read. I flew through this book in about two weeks (and I don't have a lot of reading time).

Four stars because I didn't want to put it down for the last half of the book. Not five stars because it wasn't quite as gripping as some of the other books I've bee...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Irene rated it 3 of 5 stars

HB -- I would have given this book a 4 if Cassie was not so drug infested. The author did a great job with introducing the reader to celebrated photographers but the interest in collecting photographs with murdered victims is over the edge. Libeth teetered on the edge and that is why her character was respected for who she was in the author's eyes. Cassie has crossed over to the dark side with her use of drugs and not being able to care for herslf. I would compare Cassie to Jim Morrison before h...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Bibliophile rated it 3 of 5 stars

Can't quite make up my mind about this one. I liked Hand's previous novel with photographer Cass Neary as the messed-up heroine. In "Available dark", she's barely getting by, popping pills,downing booze. On the bright side, she gets to go a freezing Finland to look at some really creepy and artistic photos of dead bodies. Surprisingly, this doesn't end well, so she hops on a plane to Iceland. Iceland, in case you didn't know, is a pretty depressing place these days. Not even the menacingly growl...more

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May 03, 2012 Sienna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

I like books about people I like. (I recognize the challenge of making readers root for the unlikeable.) I dislike crime novels. And I love Elizabeth Hand's characters, storytelling, language. When Generation Loss introduced the world to has-been Dead Girls photographer Cass Neary a handful of years ago, I listened to the eerie recording Hand had made of the first chapter in Scary Neary's own voice, preordered the book from the estimable Small Beer Press, and promptly put off reading it. For a y...more I like books about people I like. (I recognize the challenge of making readers root for the unlikeable.) I dislike crime novels. And I love Elizabeth Hand's characters, storytelling, language. When Generation Loss introduced the world to has-been Dead Girls photographer Cass Neary a handful of years ago, I listened to the eerie recording Hand had made of the first chapter in Scary Neary's own voice, preordered the book from the estimable Small Beer Press, and promptly put off reading it. For a year.

Here's the thing. Liz Hand has been one of my favorite writers since my friend Heather told me I couldn't go another day without reading Waking the Moon. I had just turned eighteen and was about to head off to college. I devoured her other books, even the out-of-print titles that took ages to track down, and consider "Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol" one of my favorite short stories ever. Mortal Love is the perfect meditation on creativity and love and madness, Bibliomancy a treasure. Hand's prose is lush in the way of jungle foliage: beautiful, intense, sometimes uncomfortable and overwhelming. I still return to Waking the Moon, to Sweeney and Oliver (oh, Oliver) and the city on a regular basis, Nick Drake and Roky Erickson my soundtrack.

I wouldn't want to run into Cass on the street — I don't think she'd have much time for me. But I can't help but feel a grudging respect for her, because for all my fear she won me over, and now, in her second tale, she heads to Finland, to Iceland, to those cold climes that feel like homes we haven't yet returned to, especially at this time of year, when the chill never quite leaves the damp air blanketing us and we (well, I) wonder again why New Zealanders just don't get insulation. It's visceral and terrifying and unexpectedly beautiful, full of black humor and metal, a world that's easy to imagine so long as we leave ourselves out of it — and what a privilege it is to catch a glimpse of darkness and goodness tangled in an embrace so artful that the violence becomes secondary to the vision. I guess I'm trying to say that hell has frozen over (except for the volcanoes disrupting air traffic), and I loved this crime novel. (less)

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Feb 21, 2012 Ysabeau rated it 5 of 5 stars

Liz is one of my favorite writers. Her prose is gorgeous, her styling immaculate and no one writes better about the longing for the Vision and the Void, of the intersection between Death and the Divine. Cass Neary, her heroine, is a real-life Lisbeth Salander, whose triumph lies not in the fairy-tale ruining of those who have wronged her, but in merely surviving. Lisbeth Salander is a fable, a wish-fulfillment dream of a fury. Cass Neary is the real deal. She burns in order to shine.

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Mar 30, 2012 Rebecca Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this novel a bit less than Generation Loss perhaps because the character of Cass Neary was no longer a surprise to me. This book takes her out of the US to the Nordic countries, which, while it was very well-done and presents a ground-level gritty picture of life in the different cultures, may have seemed a bit less "fish out of water" for Cass than sending her to Maine. There are some wonderful characterizations here, even the minor characters have great depth, and some of them displa...more

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About Elizabeth Hand

A New York Times notable and multiple award– winning author, Elizabeth Hand has written seven novels, including the cult classic Waking the Moon, and short-story collections. She is a longtime contributor to numerous publications, including the Washington Post Book World and the Village Voice Literary Supplement. She and her two children divide their time between the coast of Maine and North Londo...more

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Available Dark: A Crime Novel (Cass Neary #2)

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