Canongate Books The Blue Place

Aud Torvingen #1

by Nicola Griffith

A police lieutenant with the elite "Red Dogs" until she retired at twenty-nine , Aud Torvigen is a rangy six-footer with eyes the color of cement and a tendency to hurt people who get in her way. Born in Norway into the failed marriage between a Scandinavian diplomat and an American businessman, she now makes Atlanta her home, luxuriating in the lush heat and brashness of the New South. She glides easily between the world of silken elegance and that of sleaze and sudden savagery, equally at home in both; functional, deadly, and temporarily quiescent, like a folded razor.

On a humid April evening between storms, out walking just to stay sharp, she turns a corner and collides with a running woman, Catching the scent of clean, rain-soaked hair, Aud nods and silently tells the stranger Today, you are lucky, and moves on—when behind her house explodes, incinerating its sole occupant, a renowned art historian. When Aud turns back, the woman is gone.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, LGBT, Queer, Lesbian, Crime, Thriller

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1998

About the author

Nicola Griffith has won the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize, the Society of Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Washington State Book Award (twice), the Nebula Award, the Otherwise/James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, Premio Italia, Lambda Literary Award (6 times), and others. She is also the co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies. Her newest novels are Hild and So Lucky. Her Aud Torvingen novels are soonn to be rereleased in new editions. She lives in Seattle with her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge, where she's working on the sequel to Hild, Menewood.

Series:
* Aud Torvingen

Reviews

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely blew me away, again.

Aud Torvingen is a very self-contained woman when first we meet her - she has ordered her life as she likes it, preferring not to waste time on things like useless running to nowhere for fitness, instead expending her energy to create if she feels the need to make her muscles move. She has money, and uses it to smooth out the bumps in life. She has friends, but she also has some very solid barriers around herself.

But as the book goes on and she begins to open up to the world further, so to does our view of her pull back from the close up, to show us more of her world and her life, to show us some of why it is that she should rely so heavily on relying on no-one.

The writing, as I mentioned, is phenomenal - each setting is a character of it's own, and leaps from the page as well-formed and tangible as the human characters do. Nicola Griffith dispenses with many of the transition moments; characters don't move and travel between moments, but instead each scene jumps to the next like they're beautiful, self-contained pearls, strung on the string that makes up the book.

Really, there's no way to review this that could do it full justice. This is a book that should be read and experienced, that I firmly believe will become a classic - it doesn't just stand the test of time, but gets better the more passes.

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Floating because apparently this series was unavailable in the UK until now!

Griffith has great prose. You may enjoy this even if, like me, you aren't usually a reader of hard-boiled suspense. 15 years after reading this I remember the MC Aud and the prose, but not the actual plot motivators.

****original review

A very tough heroine. A convoluted mystery involving art appraisal. Some traditional Scandinavian cuisine.

[Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminds me of Silk Stalkings if it were gay, or maybe The Red Shoe Diaries if it were more murder-y and also gay. I don't think I'd want to hook up with the woman who muses idly about the many ways everyone around her including me could be murdered, mainly by her, but that's just my personal issue.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edgy thriller/power-fantasy with richly descriptive writing and a smart, sexy heroine. The BLUE PLACE rocks!

"By page four of Nicola Griffith's The Blue Place (Avon, $23), we've met the tall, beautiful, smart and deadly Aud Torvingen, heard about the recurring nightmares that have her walking Atlanta streets at midnight, ...and witnessed a house explode. Things slow down a little after that, but ...it's hard to overpraise the taut plotting and broad intelligence of this thriller. ...what makes The Blue Place stand out is its precision. You constantly feel like you're getting the inside dope on new worlds, including those of martial arts, woodworking, Norwegian foods and dress styles, ice hiking and burglar alarms... "
-- from Paul Skenazy's perceptive review at the Washington Post (not online)

Snapshot quotes:
Aud Torvingen, dressing to meet a new client:
"I felt sharp, rich, very good looking. It pleases me to wear silk couture and gold and pearls. I like the way it feels on my skin, the way it fits."

And looking out into her Atlanta garden:
"Two cardinals trilled liquidly at each other, bright red against emerald green. One of the neighbour's cats slunk belly down through the grass towards them. Snakes in fur coats, Dorothy Parker had called them."

The book ends in graphic blood & terror. Aud gets revenge, but puts herself in terrible jeopardy.

There have been mundane complaints that Aud is smarter, stronger, faster and sexier than you, or indeed any mere human. This is true. If power-fantasy offends you, do not enter THE BLUE PLACE!

[Althea Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really really sorry that I had accidentally read the sequel to this book (Stay) first! Knowing that a certain character is going to die took a significant something out of the experience... Still, this is an absorbing, exciting, and emotionally wrenching book...

Aud Torvingen, an ex-cop, is currently working as a self-defense instructor and bodyguard. Her current client is seemingly a cinch - a diplomat's daughter who needs 'more of a babysitter than a bodyguard.'

But when Aud, by chance, comes across a scene of arson, and collides with a woman who's mysteriously running toward the burning house, she feels compelled to investigate... and finds herself drawn into a dangerous and treacherous web of crime spanning art fraud, money laundering, drug cartels and more...

Unexpectedly, she also finds herself falling in love...

[Lex Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough book to read, not a joyful book by any means. Some parts were depressing, lots of death and lots of talk of death. But even with all that, it was an excellent book. It's the kind of book that makes you say wow at the end, while your mind is kind of spinning, trying to process all you just read. I like books like that, that make you feel something while reading, and still feel after you finished.
The writing is good, you feel the author is truly knowledgeable on the subjects she writes. Griffith, can get a little over descriptive at times, but nothing that ruins the story.
There is two more books in this series, and I will definitely be reading them. I don't know if anyone could read this first book and not want to read the next. This first book is not a cliffhanger, it's just an ending that sucks you in and makes you long to know what happens next.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective mystery in which lone wolf, Badass Normal “Security Consultant” Aud Torvingen develops a Bodyguard Crush on a client targeted by a member of the Dixie Mafia . First book in the author's Aud Torvingen series.


Jostedalsbreen glacier, "The Blue Place" in western Norway, setting for Act II of the novel.

My dead-pixel copy was a modest 309 pages long. It had a 1998 US copyright.

Nicola Griffith is a British American novelist, essayist, and teacher. She has written almost ten novels of fiction and one of non‑fiction, along with numerous pieces of short fiction. In the dim past, I've read at least two of her science fiction novels. This is the first detective novel I've read by her.

"Never mix business with pleasure." – Business Proverb

This was the first Griffith novel I've read in a long time. It was written about the same time as her best-known science fiction and is set in the IRL of the late 1990s. The protagonist, vaguely reminds me of a female version of Lee Child's character Jack Reacher or the slightly earlier Robert Ludum character Jason Bourne , both of which were contemporaneous with her novel's protagonist.

TL;DR Review

Well-to-do, self-retired, ex-police Lieutenant, Aud Torvingen has a side hustle as a Security Consultant. She witnesses a Fiery Cover-Up resulting in a death, which the police wash their hands of it. She is hired by the victim's beautiful employer to investigate the murder. The trail leads to the Dixie Mafia and romance.

This was a very 1990s story. Public payphones are still a thing. In this story, the badass, Ice Queen , Anti-Hero's heart melts, because she’s Unknowingly in Love with her client. Griffith's main character is serviceable, but appears patchwork in bright light. The prose is uneven, in places purple, and occasionally in opposition to societal norms. It contains a few continuity errors, and the mise-en-scène can be as thin as the protagonist's background. The story is surprisingly dark and violent. Finally, Griffith spent too many pages on Act II and had to pull a Deus Ex Machina ending from Torvingen's expensive clutch purse (which typically holds a small pistol). However, this is a serviceable first effort by a capable, but not yet expert, author attempting to do a sex change on the then-popular 1990s rogue hero to set up a series.

The Review

I am a fan of detective fiction and science fiction. When she wrote this, Griffith had already made a name for herself in science fiction and was trying something different. In the context of the 1990s, it was a big leap and very different from the detective novels of the time.

Griffith is a proficient author, and before writing this, she had significant experience and success with Ammonite and Slow River, both science fiction novels. I found several minor errors in the prose that a copyeditor should have caught. Both dialogue and descriptive prose felt contemporarily hip for the late 1990s, as I remember it. However, the dialog and descriptive prose felt lumpy. Torvingen always said the right things at the right time in public. However, her inner dialogue was occasionally at odds with the urbane character she was supposed to be. For example, on her fellow man:

Lake Lanier just north of Atlanta—where during dry summers the stumps of trees and drowned homes occasionally ripped the bottom out of pleasure boats driven too fast by their too young, too stupid owners who saw a water as a surface, a water road, unaware of depths and currents and the life that dwelt there.

I also found there were too many animal similes and purple prose: "She moved like a cheetah as we left.", "I cut through it like an otter knifing playfully though the water." and "She was strong, lithe and fit and wild past civility." It was at odds with the Norwegian Torvingen's general Scandinavian stoic, minimalism aesthetic. Interestingly, in a very few places Griffith leaked she was a Brit, by the way she referred to the UK.

There were a few continuity errors in the story. Some of them are egregious. They undermined the narrative. For example: Torvingen elaborately planned a break-in of the wealthy antagonist's home. When she does, there is a long description of her electrically disabling the house's security system with a patch cord and hardware. Five pages later, she surprises three thugs already in the house attempting to remove the evidence she came for. (She gets knifed in the process of incapacitating two of them.) Why didn't the thugs who entered the house earlier set off the active alarm system she'd previously disabled?

The novel had a single POV: Aud Torvingen, the protagonist. (Detective fiction is traditionally first‑person, single‑POV.) Torvingen is a near-superhuman character. She's a Norwegian immigrant, a daughter of privilege, an ex-police lieutenant and somehow she acquired a covert operative's skills. She's also physically attractive in that iconic tall, thin, light-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian fashion. It's alleged that she's in her 30s. However, considering her resume and proclivities, she should be in her late 50s to be as accomplished as she was. She also has a Never Be Hurt Again and Missing Mom issues. Torvingen's love interest and client is Julia Lyons-Bennet. She's a successful entrepreneur, daughter of privilege, and a martial artist too. She's also physically attractive, but with a brown-eyed, brunette aesthetic. Their meet-not-cute was an early telegraphed riff on the hate-to-love trope.

The obvious antagonist was a member of the Dixie Mafia, with an Obvious Villain, Secret Villain riff. The antagonists were actually well obfuscated. The Big Bad lurking behind them was drug related.

The story also contains a host of 1990s supporting characters from detective fiction. True to the genre, Torvingen "knows a guy or gal" for everything needed to move the plot forward— journos, cops, or CIs from her days as a cop, for instance. Other figures include the "good Bad Girl," Bad Cop, Rookie Cop, plugged-in Café Owner, diplomats, etc. The narrative is littered with thugs—both townies and Murder for Hires—but, interestingly, there are no lawyers, crooked or otherwise, that are met in person. For such a slim book, Griffith employs a surprisingly large cast of genre-generic characters.

Taken all together, except for Torvingen, Julia and the antagonist(s), subordinate characters were rather thin and many of them are surprisingly transient. Even the Dornan character, one of Torvingen's closest friends, doesn't merit more than this mention, because of his scanty development.

Plotting starts out as Two Lines, No Waiting with Torvingen doing a bodyguard gig, at the same time as the arson/murder investigation, the A Story. The B Story had some ties to the A, but it quickly became vestigial. I felt Griffith squandered those pages. As a result, the quasi-standard ~300-page limit for a work of detective fiction came up fast on her. She does an abrupt setting transition and an ending twist Downer Ending which leaves Torvingen as a She Who Fights Monsters protagonist setting up for the following books series.

The story contains sex, some drug use, rock' n' roll, and moderate violence.

Torvingen is sexually active in the story. All sex is F/F in the story. In the beginning, she's nearly predatory about it, but that changes. Descriptions were titillating, but not graphic, with quick fades to black. I found it odd that there was no heteronormative sex at all occurring between any of the supporting characters in the book. Tobacco products were consumed. (Its the late 1990s.) Julia was a lapsed cigar smoker. Schedule II substances were a plot element. Alcohol was consumed. This included: beer, wine, hard liquor, shots, and cocktails in clubs, bars, restaurants, and parties. Torvingen bought prestige wines for personal consumption. Club music was danced to, but no specifics were given. Pop music was described as "thin, metallic stuff like recarbonated [sic] generic cola". I suspect "decarbonated" was intended? Torvingen listened to jazz and folk for relaxation.

Violence was frequent, including physical, edged weapons, and firearms. Torvingen was a hard, skilled martial arts fighter and an unfailing shot. She was uninhibited in her use of violence. She could also take punishment that would have killed a grizzly bear. For an attractive woman who occasionally wore expensive, fashionable clothing, she was remarkably unconcerned about scarring resulting from injury. The resulting trauma is described with moderate detail; the body count was moderate.

Central locations in the story were: Metro Atlanta, Georgia; Oslo, Norway, and the Jostedalsbreen National Park .

I've been to Atlanta several times, and a close family member lives there. The descriptions were as good as my memory, which goes back to the late 1990s. I concluded Griffith had spent some time there.

Recently I've been to Oslo. This was as a result of my addiction to Jo Nesbø's Harry Hole Oslo detective series. I've spent a lot of time on that series' pages and have seen the film and television series, and walked the streets. I'm familiar with the mean streets of Oslo. (It only has the population and area of Washington, D.C..) Griffith's description of Oslo was a tourist's description. It was not described in the terms of someplace Torvingen had grown-up in. It was only an OK façade.

Never having been to the Jostedalsbreen glacier or rural Norway, I can't comment on the description, though it was of approximately the same quality as Oslo's, only more purple for a "Blue Place".

Technically, the book was only OK. However, there were technical errors, a suspicious lack of detail, and niggling omissions. For example, despite her hyper-competence, Torvingen only had a user's knowledge of computers. She made statements that showed ignorance of even 1990s computer forensics. There was a distinct lack of detail regarding firearms, despite Torvingen's facility with them. It didn't indicate much "hands-on" time with them. This extended to cars too. Torvingen was a masterful driver, but she never related the model of any of the cars she drove. She owned a Saab in Atlanta, a peculiar and rare vehicle in the southern USA in the 90's, before the make being taken over by GM. There was never a mention of its model (it was likely a 900) or the peculiarities of driving them. (She drove the stick version.) Finally, Torvingen didn't own a cell phone. In her occupation, even in the late 90s, it would have been more useful than her personal carry firearm.

Finally, this book was blissfully short at 300 pages compared with many of today's bloated contemporary sci‑fi, detective, and fantasy novels.

Summary

I see what she did there with the main character.

I grew up with a guy who was a Norwegian immigrant. I spent a lot of time around him and his Norwegian-speaking family. I believe Griffith knows someone from Norway really well. They're probably like her protagonist?

It goes downhill from there.

Torvingen was one of those near-superheroic characters like Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne. Actually, Griffith was prescient in creating a character more like a female John Wick . He is a 21st Century character, who is morally ambiguous and with near infallible skills. That protagonist became popular long after Reacher and Bourne. However, it required a significant suspension of belief for me to accept Torvingen. I couldn't believe her experience and abilities could exist in a normal person outside of graphic novels and superhero television and film.

The story hasn't aged well either. For example, Torvingen, being well-to-do, had expensive tastes and owned nice things. Griffith dropped a lot of brand names. Not all of them, particularly the women's fashionable brands, have survived into the 21st Century. I thought Torvingen's driving a Saab was cool, but the fashion designer of her Tiny Black Dress (TBD), "a dress no bigger than a napkin," was lost on me.

The continuity and grammatical errors really irked me. She needed a better copyeditor badly.

I'm also not a big fan of serial fiction. However, there are only three books in this series.

Otherwise, the story was rather conventional and predictable. However, I'll admit I had to wait for the denouement to learn the identity of the Secret Villain.

I do appreciate the effort. Griffith was writing something different with this book "back in the day".

This was a good read, but not a great one. It was most notable for its contrast between a neo-noir, anti-heroine, rogue detective and the protagonists everyone else was reading at the time.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aud is too good to be true, and even if I laughed out loud many times at her too-goodness, it was delicious to inhabit the days of this disturbing lesbian-chick Übermensch. I could have done without the plot, which somehow seemed beside-the-point; I think the author knew it was a necessary machinery for bringing violence into the story, and it showed. All I know is that while I was reading I wanted desperatly to be an expert woodworker with a natural instinct for killing. But Aud takes a joy in violence that fits with the joy she takes in everything. Although when I say joy, I mean something more like "the spirit of mindfulness." Like she is in the state of nowness that those of us who have begun to meditate recognize as the end result. The smells never stop. She takes an immediate physical, pleasure in... more like "awareness in"... breakfast, soil, humidity, playing pool, driving a car, taking a bath, getting stabbed, putting on a silk suit, glacier ice, fear, and on and on. The ending was fitting, and it should have been satisfying, but the fact that the fantasy was over was hard for me to handle. Now, the constant sense of mastery, of competence, that's just fictional fun, but the intensity of awareness of sensation, that I know I have access too, but am too lazy or afraid to drop into it for more than a few moments at a time, and this book reminded me of that fact like a blade to the ribs.

P.S. Aud kicks Lisbeth’s ass any day.

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via Black Crow Pr.

The Blue Place is a gritty 90s noir mystery novel with a kick ass main POV.
We follow Aud Torvingen a 6 foot ex cop who now works for herself as a PI. Aud has a wealthy background and uses this to overcome obstacles in her cases and results.
When Aud is walking past a house that suddenly goes up in flames, the woman she collides with approaches her with a case regarding a suspected forged painting that has a link to the explosion and murder of the man inside the house.
I really enjoyed peeling back the layers on Auds character and found her way of doing things interesting. This is book one in a series, so I can't wait to continue following her and Unearthing more about her character.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

11/2012 The last time I read this book I didn't register that there's a whole paragraph devoted to Hild of Whitby. This time, because I read Griffith's blog and I know she's working on a huge book about Hild, it leapt out at me and I grinned.

It's hard to write about this one without spoilers, because so much of it concerns how situations affect Aud, how her authentic self plays hide and seek, and how the events form the chains they do. The prose is spectacular throughout.

6/2009 I love this book, with its hard-edged and icy prose, with its omni-competent but emotionally stunted protagonist, with its heart-wrenching plot twists. It's brutal, but it's also somehow comforting for me. I adore Aud in all her complicated, buttoned-up brilliance. I love how Griffith leaves all the right doors open, all the right things unresolved, and how beautifully she writes. This book is like a really bad cut with an extraordinarily sharp knife- you have no idea how far it's gone in until much, much later.

[jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a muscular piece of fiction. aud torvingen is a tall norwegian-now-american ex-cop living in atlanta who currently does high-profile security work. because of some inheritance (don't remember the details) she doesn't actually need to work, but there is a dark dark side of her that is attracted to violence. she sublimates it by practicing and teaching karate, which she has elevated to an art and a lifestyle, without losing for a second the awareness of its deadliness. she also carves wood skillfully and gardens. and she spends long hours looking around her: birds, the atlanta humidity (she rides with the windows open and the heavy air swirling in the car), the lush vegetation, the flowers, the people crowding the downtown area. aud's physicality and the physical, sensual way she perceives the world and the humans in it are her most defining traits.

the darkness that engulfs aud is the subtext of this mystery, which touches nicely and informedly on the world drug trade, the enormously powerful mexican cartels, and the art smuggling world. aud's humanity is violent, ruthless, and cold.

until she meets julia, a customer who leads her gently away from her demons and her loneliness and helps her open up to kindness and light.

this novel, the first in a series, so far, of three starts off with a rather ham-fisted set up but turnS out really powerful, gripping, and penetrating. i found myself being more taken by aud's path to healing than by the crime plot itself, riveting though it is. i loved it.

[Zack · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem is that this book isn't sure what it wants to be. It bills itself as a novel of suspense, but there's no tension. Aud is so knowledgeable, so capable, that there's never any doubt how things will pan out.
The writing style leans heavily towards a bildungsroman, with heavy introspection and analysis rather than plot development.
Meanwhile, pages and pages are dedicated to character development that isn't relevant to the story; the editing process could use more work.
Aud as a character is also incredibly flawed; not as a person, because a flawed person makes for a good character, but as a CHARACTER, because she isn't believable. As mentioned above, she's too perfect. She knows people better than they know themselves, she can take out anyone with her bare hands, she solves the case for the police because they aren't as GOOD as her. Even her dialogue is flawed. A number of times, I found myself skipping back to see if I missed a quotation mark, because what she was saying just isn't how people talk.
It's a shame, because I really WANTED to like this book. I found it via a very good review, and Aud had such potential to be a powerful female protagonist. Her author let her down, though.

[Dide · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note to self- Never ever make a mistake again of reading a book in series without its beginning.
This book was quite a revelation to who Aud is and it got me to understand why i felt so unsatisfied when i read book 3. The author really has a way with her prose that romanticises the mundane, oddities and gruesome. On many occasions i wondered to myself how i have never viewed such object as described before or how shockingly surprising such normally gruesome description could be interesting.
Bottomline, the author's prose is amazing and this book has just reacquainted me on this Aud journey.

[Sharlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aud rhymes with shroud. Aud rhymes with proud.

Aud Torvingen is a hell of a character. She’s six feet tall of toughness, danger, ass-kicking, emotionally complex, Scandinavian blondness. A Norwegian expat living in Atlanta, Georgia, Torvingen consults for the police (she’s an ex-cop), works as a bodyguard, teaches self-defense, crafts her own furniture, tends her garden, and constantly thinks about the best way to kill someone.

And I lapped all this no-nonsense up. In a move uncharacteristic of me, I read my way straight through Nicola Griffith’s three Aud outings – The Blue Place, Stay, and Always. (Perhaps a new goal for 2012? Just read! That is, why save to savour? Why not savour now?!)

It is difficult to talk about the plots of these three books without spoilers. So essentially it’s a crime series. Not that Aud is a PI or anything, rather, these cases seem to sniff her out. So with most crime/mystery series, there are dead bodies and women of interest (both in terms of the case as well as romantic interest).

One of the biggest surprises that these books had for me were Griffith’s way with places. A very plenty surprise for an armchair traveler like me. Aud travels home to Norway. It is gorgeous. Griffith makes me want to visit.

“It’s a land that doesn’t compromise. It’s snow, ice and darkness in the winter; and endless midnight sun, bright meadow flower and sweet green grass for two months in the summer. Black or white. On or off. Yes or no. It explains some of the way you react to what life throws at you, the pragmatic immediacy, the readiness – you never forget that there are trolls in the hills.”

I was especially taken with Vigeland Park, filled with sculptures by Gustav Vigeland.

“‘Why do you suppose his work was so large?’ she said to herself as we descended the steps slowly. She stopped before the woman washing another woman’s hair. ‘It’s intimate, almost sexual, and yet quite ordinary. I suppose that’s what he was trying to say: everything is ordinary.’

‘He was saying everything in life is special. Every moment is a gift.’”

Griffith’s way with places makes me even want to visit North Carolina, a place that has not been on my list of must-sees. But she describes the woods in which Aud crafts her cabin so mesmerisingly, that I feel a desperate need to step outside, to stand under the shade of a big leafy tree (wrong season I know!), to inhale some fresh air.

“From the roof of my cabin I can see only forest, an endless canopy of pecan and hickory, ash and beech and sugar maple. Wind flows through the trees and down the mountain, and the clearing seems like nothing but a step in a great green waterfall. Even the freshly split shingles make me think of water. Cedar is an aromatic wood; warmed by the autumn sunlight of a late North Carolina afternoon, it smells ancient and exotic, like the spice-laden hold of a quinquereme of Nineveh. It would be easy to close my eyes and imagine a long ago ocean cut by oars – water whispering along the hull, the taste of spray…”

Hard as nails. I’m not sure if I’ve ever used that phrase before but it is exceptionally suited to Aud Torvingen (If there were a film version, I would imagine that Tilda Swinton would be quite suited to the part). But it’s not all about kicks and asses and ass-kicking, Aud is a character who grows, learns, develops, who eventually becomes a different person from the one you first imagine her to be. And yet she manages to stay true to herself. Aud is quite unforgettable.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a book and it fills a need you didn't even know you had.

The taxonomy of mystery books is a complicated one and not one I'm qualified to speak about. But my favorite mystery series are what, in my own head, I call "Big Man" books. It's a very specific sub-genre marked by a literal big man -- he's always big and always a man -- at its center. Think Travis McGee, Walt Longmire, and Spenser. What Jack Reacher wishes he could be.

Our hero is self-contained, tested and tempered. His moral compass is steadfast. The prose is by turns lush and spare, but always sharply observant. He's always well read, cultured, and insightful. He's an outsider, with an outsider's keen eye for human interactions. The setting is always vital and vibrant. The violence is elegant, brutal, and central to his appeal.

And the women are problematic.

If you don't understand why women in these books are problematic, then this isn't the review or the series for you. But if you do... oh, do I have some books for you.

Because as much as I love Big Man mysteries, as a woman reader, they can be hard to get through. As a woman, you have to turn off all feminism to enter these worlds because this type of book takes place in a man's world and violence is a man's business. Women can be lovers, trophies, clients, villains, but we are always outsiders, there at the author's sufferance.

Until I met Aud, I figured I'd never have a book that resolved the tension between my feminism and my love of Big Man mysteries. In fact, women are so inimical to the genre that it had never occurred to me to even imagine that such a book could exist! But Aud is a revelation. She moves with the same grace and muscularity, the same beautiful violence, through the world. She's a big woman and a keen observer of humanity and otherwise very very like the Big Men books. Just... a woman. And that makes a remarkable difference.

Griffith came to my attention because of the exceptional Hild which was luminous and dense. I don't know why I assumed Hild was a first book but I did. But these earlier books are just as lovely, if dramatically different. The keen observations are the same, though, and the detailed nature writing. (If you think nature writing in the middle of a murder mystery sounds weird, allow me to commend Craig Johnson's books to you.) The prose is less dense, faster and more transparent, but still lovely.

And there are women in this world! Fully realized women with depth and grace and motivations! It's exceptional!

It's not flawless. She hits a few notes too hard, too often. And Aud is young enough to lack some of the self-awareness that marks a mature Big Man. But it's a first book for the character and Spenser and Walt grow, too. I'm very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

[Saga Söderback · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only got about a quarter into this. I was not enjoying it, finding it a real slog, and I eventually figured out why: I think the main character would have looked down her nose at me. Seriously, it's kinda ridiculous, but I was thinking that she would have been disgusted to know I was reading about her. She had such an air of superiority. I'm sure there's some backstory, some bad event in her past that made so her so distant and harsh, but, you know, at no point did I ever care to find out. Also, the tone of the novel too was stylized in an odd way: to be frank, it read like a novelization of a lesbian version of a mid-'90s late night Cinemax "erotic thriller." Perhaps in translation, too.

And, a personal note for others like me: there are a lot of brand-name products called out in this book. Some people like this because it adds realism; personally, I find it distracting. The author's best efforts couldn't sell enough Saabs to keep them here, sadly.

[Christine Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have rather read this book from another character's perspective, or done with less cockiness. It felt like reading lesbian erotica. This sort of fantasy lesbian who kicks ass and works outside and with furniture and who can also look bangin' in a cocktail dress... plays pool, could have any woman, has a bunch of money... yadda yadda. It's like someone's private sexual fantasy that they decided to make into a novel. Also very 90's dated. Even in spite of that, once I started to feel the tension building with the romance, and the parts in Norway were just so beautiful, I got into it and finished it in a couple of days. The end was painfully beautiful. I almost wish that the first half of the book had the same energy as the last half, so I could have taken it more seriously all the way through.

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am hit or miss with Griffith but I know she’ll write like a dyke, which is food for the starving; so I’ll follow her into genres I don’t often go.

Mostly I am here for Aud Torvingen and violence: Griffith makes her unabashed, unapologetic in her enjoyment of violence, as well as her conviction in its validity as a tool.

Griffith’s physicality and materiality as a writer, her turn for practical knowledge, well serves Aud’s hyper-competence. If I wrote Aud she’d be a frightful power fantasy but Griffith can get away with it.

I still can’t bring myself to care about the trappings of drug cartels and rich people’s parties, but the author calls this a character work first; you can expect a fine attention to craft, too, and a love of simile.

It is *alive* with competent women.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever wanted to either be or date a six-foot tall Norwegian lesbian who knows 100 different ways to kill a person? Then is this ever the book for you! Aud is wealthy, sophisticated, intelligent, strong and quick-thinking. She is emotionally distant from everyone around here, but when Julia, a beautiful young art dealer, asks her for help, Aud can't help but be drawn in. This book feels very much like wish-fulfillment: Aud is a superhero character, larger-than-life. Unfortunately for me, I've never either wanted to be or date Aud, and her lack of moral accountability makes me uncomfortable, but I can see how this book could be extremely cathartic. Griffith is also a skillful writer, who manages to create some truly beautiful moments -- both in her descriptions of place and landscape, and in her evocation of emotion. I found this book compelling and enjoyable, even though it didn't really feel like it was for me.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up after finishing "Slow River" by the same author. It is first in a series and I have just finished the first two ("Stay" is next). Nicola Giffith has created a character that I would love to see on the big screen. Aud (rhymes with loud) is such an over-the-top heroine in this noirish read that I actually LOL a few times at her skillset and attributes: tall, strong, smart, wealthy, confident, complex. An ex-cop turned body guard, glacier climber, furniture maker, skydiver, self-defense EXPERT. So. Much. Fun.


Summer readin' having a blast...
Summer readin' happens so fast...

[Tom Mooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This is a solid throwback thriller that was first published in the late 90s, and now getting its first UK release. For a novel from that period, it has aged remarkably well and some of the plotlines must have seemed pretty edgy at the time.

The protagonist Aud is a proper hardnut, one of those thriller stars who is closer to a superhero than a human. She very much reminds me of Jack Reacher or Atlee Pine.

The story itself is complex and relatively compelling, though there's not a huge amount of suspense and the final twist isn't that interesting or convincing, but the weaknesses are made up for with the good quality writing.

Where The Blue Place very much excels is in sense of place. Griffith's Atlanta is as affectionately and interestingly drawn as Connelly's Hollywood or Lehane's Boston.

One of those culty noirish novels that you sense has had an impact on a lot of writers who have stumbled across it. I liked it a lot.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Blue Place" (Aud Torvingen #1) is ripe for the Masterpiece Theater series on BBC. "Stay in this world. Stay alive inside. Promise me."

[Dearbhla · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you read that a series of books are “brilliant and heartbreaking and made of awesome sauce and everybody should read them but go into them blind or you won’t get their full impact” (MartinWisse on Metafilter) well then you simply have to give the first book a try, don’t you?

Well, I did and I have to agree with MartinWisse after just reading the first book in the series. In The Blue Place we are introduced to Aud Torvingen, an ex-police officer, the daughter of a Norwegian diplomat and an American father. Someone who grew up in England but is so very Norwegian. A woman who knows danger and violence and who always plays to win.

I just loved this book. Aud is such a great character. I’ve skimmed through a few reviews on Goodreads1 and I just can’t get over how many people dismissing this as a “lesbian romance”, I mean, yes Aud is a lesbian. And there is romance, so both of those words are accurate and true. But would you usually describe James Bond as a straight romantic hero? I mean, he always gets the girl, doesn’t he? And that aspect is usually quite important in the story. But we never do, do we? Straight male authors who pursue a romantic storyline never get dismissed as just a romance. So why do so many people seem to do that when it is a female lead?

I will allow that this is more of a character study than a plot driven thriller or mystery. But I am perfectly fine with that. More character than plot is a plus for me. Your reading may vary.

I loved it and will be reading the sequel soon.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

...The Blue Place is quite a dark novel with a very dramatic ending. The novel wraps up the mystery part of the story nicely but it is clear that on a personal level we're not done with Aud. She, it would seem, has a few challenges remaining and if will be interesting to see how she goes on after the events in this book. The novel is quite different from the novels by Griffith I have read so far. It shows her versatility as a writer, something I greatly appreciate in her work. For readers who start out with her science fiction it may be a bit of leap but if you don't confine yourself to reading one genre, you could do worse than give this book a try. I greatly enjoyed it and Griffith has piqued my curiosity about the next volume. Perhaps I'll come back to this series later in the year.

Full Random Comments review

[Megan]

The Blue Place was the first lesbian mystery novel I ever read. Unfortunately, that was too long ago to say much about it now, but I know I found it too violent for my taste. Aud is a shoot-first, shoot-later kind of gal. I have no desire to read the sequels, although Griffith's SF adventures are very enjoyable.

Note: This athor is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW! What a story. While reading, I received quite the education about Atlanta, Oslo, art and to some extent the thought process behind murder and possible weapons. Lots of information and detail. Different from the typical lesbian story, which in my opinion is a good thing.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Setting: Atlanta, Georgia & Norway; modern day.
At the age of 29, Norwegian-born Aud Torvingen retired from an elite unit in the Atlanta Police Department and now operates as a security provider and bodyguard for those in need of such services and also trains new police recruits in self-defence. For Aud, violence is almost second nature and she doesn't suffer fools gladly!
Out on a run one evening, she collides with a woman running in the opposite direction and is tempted to commit an act of violence. She refrains from doing so but, at that very moment, a house behind her explodes in flames - and the woman has disappeared. Later questioned by police about her presence near the explosion, she becomes aware that the house was that of a noted art historian and expert - but that also a large quantity of drugs was found in the garage, which survived the fire. Then the young woman, Julia, approaches her for her help in finding out who was behind the explosion - that was also intended to kill Julia only she was late arriving at her appointment.
As Aud and Julia investigate what has been written off by the police as the result of a drug war, they uncover corruption, art forgery and money laundering which puts both their lives at risk.
Now in a relationship, Aud and Julia flee to Norway, where Julia has a business meeting, having provided the police with their evidence - but assassins follow them and Aud's survival skills are tested to the limit....
Really enjoyed this book and absolutely loved the characters; great storyline and settings too. Aud reminded me of one of my favourite literary characters, Lisbeth Salander from the Dragon Tattoo series, and like Lisbeth she was skilled in kicking ass and other nefarious activities such as breaking and entering and dealing with alarm systems! The ending was not unexpected for me but I was hopeful it wasn't going to end as it did. Very keen on getting hold of the next book in what I believe is a trilogy - 9.5/10.

[Vigasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I had the ending of this novel spoiled before I've ever started to read this. Normally with such a huge spoiler I wouldn't even bother to read a book. But I heard that a main character is half-scandinavian and that a part of the book takes place in Norway, so I decided to give it a chance.

And it was worth it. I liked this novel. Especially exactly the part that takes place in Norway. I loved descriptions of the land and legends. Yeah, I love scandynavia and I love reading about it, and spending time with Aud and Julia made me fall in love a little more in the area.

I think Aud is a great character. She is strong and independent, but she isn't typcal cold bitch. She may seem this way at first, but when she finds she is in love with Julia, she gives herself to it fully and freely. Deep down she is very caring and very protective person.

The prose is great and emotional, but the whole novel I think is hard to define correctly. It is tagged as suspense, but there isn't really, it is a romance, but not a cheesy romance. I'd call it an exoploration of character with some mystery and a love story.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much more than expected. I wanted a mental palate cleanser, a well-paced story that I could glide through with relative ease. This fit the bill and more. Nicola Griffith is a great storyteller whose prose is as beautiful and haunting and the icy Norwegian landscape. And, in Aud Torvingen, she has crafted a fantastic character - maybe a little too fantastic but, who cares, she was an intriguing woman to follow. It isn't a perfect book but surely what I needed in the moment.

[charlotte, · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rep: lesbian mc