What do you think?
Rate this book
Cass Neary #3
Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel - Library Edition
As her passionately devoted fans know, Elizabeth Hand is a uniquely gifted storyteller. Readers were introduced to her iconoclastic crime novels, featuring offbeat photographer Cass Neary, in the underground classic Generation Loss, which was followed by the brilliant Available Dark .
In Hard Light , the third book in the series, Cass makes a remarkable discovery that could change our understanding of human history--if she lives long enough to share it.
As the story opens Cass arrives in London where she's arranged to meet her long-lost lover, Quinn O'Boyle. When Quinn fails to show at their rendezvous point, Cass meets the eccentric couple Mallo and Morven Dunfries. When Mallo catches Cass rifling his medicine cabinet in search of drugs, he threatens to turn her in to the authorities, then puts her to work as a runner for his illegal goods.
Cass makes a delivery to Poppy Teasel, a famous singer from long ago. Cass leaves Poppy's flat but returns a short time later to find the place ransacked and Poppy dead. Fearful she'll become the next victim, Cass goes on the run.
In Hard Light , the third book in the series, Cass makes a remarkable discovery that could change our understanding of human history--if she lives long enough to share it.
As the story opens Cass arrives in London where she's arranged to meet her long-lost lover, Quinn O'Boyle. When Quinn fails to show at their rendezvous point, Cass meets the eccentric couple Mallo and Morven Dunfries. When Mallo catches Cass rifling his medicine cabinet in search of drugs, he threatens to turn her in to the authorities, then puts her to work as a runner for his illegal goods.
Cass makes a delivery to Poppy Teasel, a famous singer from long ago. Cass leaves Poppy's flat but returns a short time later to find the place ransacked and Poppy dead. Fearful she'll become the next victim, Cass goes on the run.
Audio CD
First published April 19, 2016
29 people are currently reading
936 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Hand
186 books1,313 followersA 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 London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
January 1, 2021
With a voice resonant of Humphrey Bogart, Cass Neary continues her adventures in London. Here, rather than murder with music and photography, we have murder with film and artifacts.
I don’t usually read two books in a series one after another like this, I’m more likely to leave years in between. And at first I felt it was too much of the same atmosphere, the same voice, as Available Dark. But things picked up in the second half of this novel, mostly due to the friendship Cass Neary develops with a 13-year-old. In this relationship, we see Cass’ chance to redeem her former self while seeing the needs of the individual before her, and to try and offer this teen something lasting.
I’m planning to read Book 4 in the series, The Book of Lamps and Banners, released this September. But I may need a break from this world for a bit.
I don’t usually read two books in a series one after another like this, I’m more likely to leave years in between. And at first I felt it was too much of the same atmosphere, the same voice, as Available Dark. But things picked up in the second half of this novel, mostly due to the friendship Cass Neary develops with a 13-year-old. In this relationship, we see Cass’ chance to redeem her former self while seeing the needs of the individual before her, and to try and offer this teen something lasting.
I’m planning to read Book 4 in the series, The Book of Lamps and Banners, released this September. But I may need a break from this world for a bit.
May 31, 2021
In the first two books in the Cass Neary mystery series, 40-ish year old Cass preferred to live a life blurred by staggering amounts of drugs and alcohol. Such heavy addictions predictably meant she was involved with the most utterly depraved and insane people who normally inhabit the lower rungs of civilization, whether rich or poor. However, in 'Hard Light', book three in the Cass mystery series, we see a Cass who has almost pulled herself together. It appears that her adventure in the previous book gave her enough hope to focus on survival as a plan instead of fate.
Book one, Generation Loss, was the most morally shocking and hardcore of the three novels, and Available Dark was only a little less horrifying. But in this last book in the series, Cass is actually acting like a human being who was raised in a house instead of as if she had been chained up in a dog pen during her childhood. The only reason for Cass's lowlife choices is her addictions, despite that some awful things happened to her while wandering city streets alone and high.
We are told in the first book Cass has a rich father who still loves her. She could have had a good childhood if she had allowed it. He would willingly support her, but she has gone her own way since she was a teen. She became involved in New York's punk scene in the 1980's, after which she chose the career of a transgressive Art photographer. She had one book of Art photography published which made her famous. Her life disintegrated into drunken and drug-fueled criminality and other ugly misbehaviors from which she is yet unwilling to stop. Until now, her only reason to live was getting high. Then, in 'Available Dark', she met Quinn O'Boyle again, the lover who got away from her twenty years ago - when he went to prison.
Cass is wanted for questioning in two countries about a bunch of murders as this novel opens. She was sent to London under a false name by the love of her life, Quinn. He asked her to wait for him in London while he wrapped up some things in Iceland. Quinn gave her a name of a man to find, Derek Haverty, and a bar, The Gambrel, where Quinn would eventually look for her.
Cass is still drinking heavily and taking drugs, but she seemed much less high to me than in the previous novels. This is a good thing since things start going squirrelly as soon as she finds the bar. Quinn hasn't been in London for many years, so his contact information is out of date. Derek sold that bar which he had owned a few years before, but fortunately the new owners know where Derek moved. She finds Derek and his new bar in a bad neighborhood. She is fairly certain Quinn will track her down to this bar, because this is where Derek is, and both Quinn and Cass prefer the dirtier low-class bars that Derek runs.
She meets Krishna Morgenthal while waiting at the pub for Quinn. Krishna is good singer who is now also a drunk with a dead career. Krishna is willing to let Cass sleep at her flat since Quinn didn't show. Cass has no idea when Quinn will show anyway as he could not say when he would be able to come and get her. At the flat the next morning she meets Adrian Carlisle, a friend of Krishna's. They discover Krishna's stash of pills, which Cass wants to steal. Adrian tries to discourage her, but they talk and Adrian decides to show her around London. This eventually leads to a party at an apartment where a rich couple who could be possibly art smugglers live. Before long Cass is in the middle of something which leads to more murders.
We can only hope, gentle reader, Cass has not begun her final downspin into the ground. Did Quinn set her up or does he really love Cass? Will the police from what is now three countries catch up to her at last? Or will this new set of frenemies kill her first?
I think this offbeat dark noir mystery series should be read in order if you choose to start it, but you should not read it all if you are squeamish about truly wicked immoral killers. Cass is somewhat moral, but barely. Not kidding.
Book one, Generation Loss, was the most morally shocking and hardcore of the three novels, and Available Dark was only a little less horrifying. But in this last book in the series, Cass is actually acting like a human being who was raised in a house instead of as if she had been chained up in a dog pen during her childhood. The only reason for Cass's lowlife choices is her addictions, despite that some awful things happened to her while wandering city streets alone and high.
We are told in the first book Cass has a rich father who still loves her. She could have had a good childhood if she had allowed it. He would willingly support her, but she has gone her own way since she was a teen. She became involved in New York's punk scene in the 1980's, after which she chose the career of a transgressive Art photographer. She had one book of Art photography published which made her famous. Her life disintegrated into drunken and drug-fueled criminality and other ugly misbehaviors from which she is yet unwilling to stop. Until now, her only reason to live was getting high. Then, in 'Available Dark', she met Quinn O'Boyle again, the lover who got away from her twenty years ago - when he went to prison.
Cass is wanted for questioning in two countries about a bunch of murders as this novel opens. She was sent to London under a false name by the love of her life, Quinn. He asked her to wait for him in London while he wrapped up some things in Iceland. Quinn gave her a name of a man to find, Derek Haverty, and a bar, The Gambrel, where Quinn would eventually look for her.
Cass is still drinking heavily and taking drugs, but she seemed much less high to me than in the previous novels. This is a good thing since things start going squirrelly as soon as she finds the bar. Quinn hasn't been in London for many years, so his contact information is out of date. Derek sold that bar which he had owned a few years before, but fortunately the new owners know where Derek moved. She finds Derek and his new bar in a bad neighborhood. She is fairly certain Quinn will track her down to this bar, because this is where Derek is, and both Quinn and Cass prefer the dirtier low-class bars that Derek runs.
She meets Krishna Morgenthal while waiting at the pub for Quinn. Krishna is good singer who is now also a drunk with a dead career. Krishna is willing to let Cass sleep at her flat since Quinn didn't show. Cass has no idea when Quinn will show anyway as he could not say when he would be able to come and get her. At the flat the next morning she meets Adrian Carlisle, a friend of Krishna's. They discover Krishna's stash of pills, which Cass wants to steal. Adrian tries to discourage her, but they talk and Adrian decides to show her around London. This eventually leads to a party at an apartment where a rich couple who could be possibly art smugglers live. Before long Cass is in the middle of something which leads to more murders.
We can only hope, gentle reader, Cass has not begun her final downspin into the ground. Did Quinn set her up or does he really love Cass? Will the police from what is now three countries catch up to her at last? Or will this new set of frenemies kill her first?
I think this offbeat dark noir mystery series should be read in order if you choose to start it, but you should not read it all if you are squeamish about truly wicked immoral killers. Cass is somewhat moral, but barely. Not kidding.
July 29, 2021
I'm the ghost of punk, haunting the twenty-first century in disintegrating black-and-white; one of those living fossils you read about who usually show up, dead, in a place you've never heard of.
This series just gets me, every time. There's something captivating about Cass Neary and her (downward spiral?) journeys - the woman's a mess, but one you can't look away from. I would definitely recommend reading the series through in order, though you could live without it - I'd also recommend spacing the books out a bit. They can be a bit like reading sandpaper, it's a lot to read without a break.
As much as I enjoy the story in each of these novels, it's Cass I come back for; living palimpsest of hard knocks, both tangible and otherwise. It felt like it was all catching up to her a bit in this book - the mystery comes from a bygone era closer to her days than the present; she's worn out and running on a cycle of uppers and downers, though she seems to be running short of both; she's really and truly adrift and isolated from anything familiar, bar a brief stop with an old friend. Some of her spikes seem to be wearing down, leaving her a little more bark than bite.
The next book promises to be a little more direct, and I'm interested to see . It may take a while, but I'll definitely be back to this series before too long.
This series just gets me, every time. There's something captivating about Cass Neary and her (downward spiral?) journeys - the woman's a mess, but one you can't look away from. I would definitely recommend reading the series through in order, though you could live without it - I'd also recommend spacing the books out a bit. They can be a bit like reading sandpaper, it's a lot to read without a break.
As much as I enjoy the story in each of these novels, it's Cass I come back for; living palimpsest of hard knocks, both tangible and otherwise. It felt like it was all catching up to her a bit in this book - the mystery comes from a bygone era closer to her days than the present; she's worn out and running on a cycle of uppers and downers, though she seems to be running short of both; she's really and truly adrift and isolated from anything familiar, bar a brief stop with an old friend. Some of her spikes seem to be wearing down, leaving her a little more bark than bite.
The next book promises to be a little more direct, and I'm interested to see . It may take a while, but I'll definitely be back to this series before too long.
December 28, 2015
Goddamn brilliant book. 2016 will be hard pressed to publish a book that is as smart, thrilling, dark, and thought-provoking as Cass Neary's descent into the under-underbelly of British photography and avant garde art.
March 24, 2024
I don’t write reviews.
This wasn’t a great story. Many parts were repetitive of the previous volume, particularly, Quinn leaving Cass and not coming back, facilitating her ability to complete the last third of the adventure on her own. Cass kicked three people in the shins. She does a lot of drinking and drugs. She’s hungover. She goes through people’s belongings and gets caught. Blah blah blah.
The saving grace was the mention of the photographer, William Mortensen. I was shocked to find I had never heard of him, nor had I seen his work. Looking him up, I found a treasure. He was a one-man photoshop, decades before the use of personal computers. If you enjoy the photographic arts, please take the minute to check him out. Ansel Adams called him “the antichrist,” which I find terribly amusing.
Hand left behind a lot of what made the first two books interesting: the photography. As the story drifted, and I cared less, suddenly we find an old-style editing rig and the descriptions brought me back. This is the stuff that makes the series fun! Next, there was some talk of contact images and camera obscura. Lovely!
But seriously, I’ve heard enough about ruined, manic Cass. I’m pretty much over her self-destruction game. Hand could have used the reunion with Quinn to develop her character, but he’s another set-piece, another of Cass’ addictions. And how many times will she get injured near her eye? Obviously, the answer is, at the end of every adventure.
Note about the 4th: I started it and don’t believe I’ll be able to continue. It’s full of Hand’s warped political stupidity. People have really lost their minds.
This wasn’t a great story. Many parts were repetitive of the previous volume, particularly, Quinn leaving Cass and not coming back, facilitating her ability to complete the last third of the adventure on her own. Cass kicked three people in the shins. She does a lot of drinking and drugs. She’s hungover. She goes through people’s belongings and gets caught. Blah blah blah.
The saving grace was the mention of the photographer, William Mortensen. I was shocked to find I had never heard of him, nor had I seen his work. Looking him up, I found a treasure. He was a one-man photoshop, decades before the use of personal computers. If you enjoy the photographic arts, please take the minute to check him out. Ansel Adams called him “the antichrist,” which I find terribly amusing.
Hand left behind a lot of what made the first two books interesting: the photography. As the story drifted, and I cared less, suddenly we find an old-style editing rig and the descriptions brought me back. This is the stuff that makes the series fun! Next, there was some talk of contact images and camera obscura. Lovely!
But seriously, I’ve heard enough about ruined, manic Cass. I’m pretty much over her self-destruction game. Hand could have used the reunion with Quinn to develop her character, but he’s another set-piece, another of Cass’ addictions. And how many times will she get injured near her eye? Obviously, the answer is, at the end of every adventure.
Note about the 4th: I started it and don’t believe I’ll be able to continue. It’s full of Hand’s warped political stupidity. People have really lost their minds.
August 9, 2016
Elizabeth Hand just keeps getting better and better, and Hard Light is powerful evidence of her mastery in the noir field. The third novel about Cassandra Neary--after the groundbreaking Generation Loss and the edgy Available Dark--Hard Light brings Cass to England, where she immediately falls into a web of art, drugs, music, and madness. Our protagonist's motto might well be "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all," though often she's her own worst enemy, making the worst of a bad situation. Yet she commands our attention and holds our interest through her hard-nosed view on life and the people around her, her photographer's eye for detail in both landscape and character, and her street savvy survival skills. Hand's ability to balance plot and character while delivering beautiful exposition and thematic insights is a marvel throughout. Read this series. Read this book!
June 13, 2019
I did not particularly care for Cass Neary in Generation Loss, to the point where I audibly groaned when I opened this & realized I'd somehow picked up another book about her, but I pressed on and found myself not too terribly disappointed in the end. I find it ridiculous when characters drink constantly and take tremendous amounts of drugs yet are never fucked up and only have hangovers that last for a paragraph at best and certainly Cass remains so blessed in this chapter of her punk photographer's life, but Hand writes good London and such hilariously melodramatic denouements that I was able to let it go.
May 17, 2016
I read the second book in this series because Ms. Hand is a Maine author, one of my go-to choices. Then I read the first, which is set in Maine (yay!). When I saw this , the third in the series, on the shelf at the library, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.
I really enjoyed this book. A lot. Couldn't wait to finish it. Maybe I'm not quite as shocked about Cass Neary's failings and downfalls (klepto, druggie, alkie), a bit enamored with her deep-down humanity and amount of knowledge of the world and its history, and in agreement with some of her "who cares" attitude about people and situations.
This was a great story - half taking place in a cold, wintery contemporary London and the other half taking place out on the stormy English moors. Good mystery, great characterization, a really interesting delve into the underground music and film-making life of the 60s and how poorly it's all aged. More Cass Neary will be appreciated. She's really grown on me.
I really enjoyed this book. A lot. Couldn't wait to finish it. Maybe I'm not quite as shocked about Cass Neary's failings and downfalls (klepto, druggie, alkie), a bit enamored with her deep-down humanity and amount of knowledge of the world and its history, and in agreement with some of her "who cares" attitude about people and situations.
This was a great story - half taking place in a cold, wintery contemporary London and the other half taking place out on the stormy English moors. Good mystery, great characterization, a really interesting delve into the underground music and film-making life of the 60s and how poorly it's all aged. More Cass Neary will be appreciated. She's really grown on me.
July 23, 2016
When are they going to make a miniseries from the terrific Cass Neary series of dark thrillers? Maybe Charlize Theron is available.
October 5, 2020
You won't like Cass Neary she's an alcoholic,drug ravaged sexually immoral thief who lives on the streets or in squats with the dregs of society. Set in London mainly around the Camden Town area
and in Cornwall. The story revolves around stolen archaeological artefacts , 60s rock music, and the history of photography, with some interesting facts that are fitted into the plot, which makes the book a great read for anyone who loves photography.
But don't be put off, this is an amazingly complex murder mystery with an intelligent low life anti-hero and a finale set in the burned out grounds of a stately home underground in an ancient tomb.
and in Cornwall. The story revolves around stolen archaeological artefacts , 60s rock music, and the history of photography, with some interesting facts that are fitted into the plot, which makes the book a great read for anyone who loves photography.
But don't be put off, this is an amazingly complex murder mystery with an intelligent low life anti-hero and a finale set in the burned out grounds of a stately home underground in an ancient tomb.
May 9, 2025
Zero stars for plausibility, eleven stars for being a compulsive and fascinating read.
March 12, 2018
Så var det slut...
May 26, 2016
She's done it again. Elizabeth Hand never fails to draw me in, make me care about unlikeable people, and force me to look up at least three words while I'm reading. (She's the only writer still expanding my vocabulary with words like oneiric and pleach.) The Cass Nary novels are tightly plotted, super-focused, subtly haunted noir-ish murder mysteries with a reluctant detective who just keeps stepping into messes while searching for speed to pair with her whisky like foodies pair wine and cheese. Hand's interest in archaeology, 60s rock music, photography, tattoos, the grotesque, and ghostly horror permeate all of her work, and I enjoy it every single time. I can taste Hand's prose like Cass can taste people's damage, and like Cass, I can't keep away.
October 14, 2016
Read the other two Cass books (to be honest I read them multiple times while I was waiting for Hard Light to drop!) this book just solidified my girl crush on Elizabeth Hand. It is mindblowingly dark, smart, and full of heart. Cass is such a badass but in this novel we see a kind of tenderness that somehow makes her even MORE of a badass. Read and fall further under the spell.
April 22, 2016
The descriptions of photography and art are worth reading alone. I still don't know quite what to think about Cass, I think I like her. Regardless, I couldn't put this down, as per usual.
September 29, 2018
Well, hell. Another brilliant Cass Neary novel. This time the hard light takes us to a prehistoric dawn of photography, and to a particularly grim corner of the 60s art and music underground.
November 26, 2023
Original, gripping, and one of my favourite new authors this year.
March 16, 2016
Appalling, but simultaneously compelling. Cass Neary is a true anti-hero.
September 30, 2020
With a new Cass Neary novel out, I realized that I put book three off for so long. That was a mistake.
I’ve never enjoyed a misanthropic character more and I think in large part that’s because Elizabeth Hand is such a fantastic writer. She doesn’t make Neary more than it is, she’s an anti-hero plain and simple. But she knows how to write a hell of an atmospheric tale, with touches and nods to photography and the punk scene. I know little about either but the way she uses inside baseball details on both really enhances the story and makes Neary feel like a fully realized person.
I didn’t like book two as much as book one, though I liked both. This one is closer to book one. It follows a similar structure and while that might bother some folks due to repetition, it works here. Cass and her band of misfit characters make for a compelling mystery, where drug-induced existential dread follows on every page. At times, they read like a hardboiled tale, other times it’s like a horror novel. But Elizabeth Hand is able to pull beauty out of the horror. There are some scenes that she describes in a way that stimulates the imagination of the reader.
The conclusion was somewhat predictable, though I was genuinely surprised at who the killer was. Some of the motives didn’t make complete sense to me but I’m willing to live with that. This is another great addition in a great series.
I’ve never enjoyed a misanthropic character more and I think in large part that’s because Elizabeth Hand is such a fantastic writer. She doesn’t make Neary more than it is, she’s an anti-hero plain and simple. But she knows how to write a hell of an atmospheric tale, with touches and nods to photography and the punk scene. I know little about either but the way she uses inside baseball details on both really enhances the story and makes Neary feel like a fully realized person.
I didn’t like book two as much as book one, though I liked both. This one is closer to book one. It follows a similar structure and while that might bother some folks due to repetition, it works here. Cass and her band of misfit characters make for a compelling mystery, where drug-induced existential dread follows on every page. At times, they read like a hardboiled tale, other times it’s like a horror novel. But Elizabeth Hand is able to pull beauty out of the horror. There are some scenes that she describes in a way that stimulates the imagination of the reader.
The conclusion was somewhat predictable, though I was genuinely surprised at who the killer was. Some of the motives didn’t make complete sense to me but I’m willing to live with that. This is another great addition in a great series.
August 30, 2017
I love the way Elizabeth Hand writes about subcultures and the history of photography and music, and how she mixes them (both fictional and non-fictional facts) together to create the setting for an intriguing murder mystery. Especially in Generation Loss and Available Dark Hand's writing is so different from the more mainstream murder mystery/thriller writers, and you can see how her studying anthropology has influenced her writing. Cass Neary is an unordinary main character, an oldschool photographer who has turned into a thing from the past, but still an unapologetic female and hardboiled in many ways. But Hard Light didn't quite live up to my expectations, the setting isn't as mystical as in the previous books, Cass seems to be more lost herself. The supporting characters are good but that something special is missing. Hand has good puzzle pieces that quite don't fit together.
December 4, 2020
Elizabeth Hand har själv beskrivit Cassandra ”Cass” Neary som: ”Amoral speedfreak crankhead kleptomaniac murderous rage filled alcoholic bisexual heavily tattooed American female photographer”. Och ja, den beskrivningen är ”spot on”.
Handlingen skenar inte riktigt lika mycket som i de föregående böckerna och miljön och vad som händer är inte helt främmande för läsaren. Eller har jag vant mig?
Läs hela recensionen här: https://litteraturkvalster.wordpress....
Handlingen skenar inte riktigt lika mycket som i de föregående böckerna och miljön och vad som händer är inte helt främmande för läsaren. Eller har jag vant mig?
Läs hela recensionen här: https://litteraturkvalster.wordpress....
July 7, 2017
Sharp, artful, and beautifully demented. Cass Neary is the right kind of trouble.
May 10, 2019
4,5 stjärnor. Hela trilogin får naturligtvis 5!
November 7, 2020
Inte alls lika bra som Available Dark, men intressant på sitt sätt
July 16, 2023
My favorite Cass Neary so far. Not quite as violent as the one set in Iceland.
May 21, 2016
I received this book via a goodreads giveaway.
This is not a hard action book; it is a story, weaved from imagination, fitted into the form of true life.
This is the third book in the Cass Neary crime series; it is set in two distinctively different British backgrounds; London and an ancient, outlying area near the ocean. Although Cass Neary is not a detective, it is her skills of detecting that make the story most interesting.
The story opens with a brief explanation of why and how Cass made it into London where she is to meet up with the one man she has always loved, Quinn O’Boyle, after a 30 year separation. She has arrived using a passport that belongs to another female (no explanation as to how she really came to have it) while her own U.S. passport is carefully concealed. Quinn has given her instructions on where she should go and who she should contact for a place to stay until his arrival.
Cass locates both the location and finally the friends, whom she ends up staying with until Quinn arrives. He takes her to the apartment of a son, Cass never about, leaving her there the next day with instructions to be ready to travel to Greece when he returns in a few hours; but Quinn doesn’t return and Cass once again seeks out his friends.
Adrian, Quinn’s friend takes Cass to a party at the home of a mobster where she is caught rifling through the medicine cabinet for drugs. For her crime, she is sent to deliver a package, Adrian is to accompany her and guarantee her safe arrival back at the mobster’s home within a short period of time. Having passed that mission, she is given a second package that she is to deliver the following day.
The following day Adrian drops her at her destination where she meets a singer from the past and hears a tale she does not anticipate. Realizing that she left her scarf behind, she finds the woman dead, a needle stuck into her artery. Later she finds the mobster and his wife dead and ends up on the run with Adrian and another singer, taking her to the ancient countryside of Britain.
Is Cass on the run with the murderer? What happened to Quinn? Will she ever return to society or will her body forever be entombed in a cave in the moor?
This is not a hard action book; it is a story, weaved from imagination, fitted into the form of true life.
This is the third book in the Cass Neary crime series; it is set in two distinctively different British backgrounds; London and an ancient, outlying area near the ocean. Although Cass Neary is not a detective, it is her skills of detecting that make the story most interesting.
The story opens with a brief explanation of why and how Cass made it into London where she is to meet up with the one man she has always loved, Quinn O’Boyle, after a 30 year separation. She has arrived using a passport that belongs to another female (no explanation as to how she really came to have it) while her own U.S. passport is carefully concealed. Quinn has given her instructions on where she should go and who she should contact for a place to stay until his arrival.
Cass locates both the location and finally the friends, whom she ends up staying with until Quinn arrives. He takes her to the apartment of a son, Cass never about, leaving her there the next day with instructions to be ready to travel to Greece when he returns in a few hours; but Quinn doesn’t return and Cass once again seeks out his friends.
Adrian, Quinn’s friend takes Cass to a party at the home of a mobster where she is caught rifling through the medicine cabinet for drugs. For her crime, she is sent to deliver a package, Adrian is to accompany her and guarantee her safe arrival back at the mobster’s home within a short period of time. Having passed that mission, she is given a second package that she is to deliver the following day.
The following day Adrian drops her at her destination where she meets a singer from the past and hears a tale she does not anticipate. Realizing that she left her scarf behind, she finds the woman dead, a needle stuck into her artery. Later she finds the mobster and his wife dead and ends up on the run with Adrian and another singer, taking her to the ancient countryside of Britain.
Is Cass on the run with the murderer? What happened to Quinn? Will she ever return to society or will her body forever be entombed in a cave in the moor?
September 27, 2016
Five stars not because I find the book faultless but I also don't want to reduce the overall rating because of one problem in particular that I had. It concerns a part of the Cornish topography important to the story. Carn Skrijas was hard for me to build in my imagination; it came off as a lumpy, awkward adjunct to a more natural, though strange, terrain. I think it's mostly my own reading issue and might not apply to every reader.
The previews for the novel were misleading. I had an idea that we would see a kind of cozy London for awhile before things got too weird. But Cass Neary doesn't thrive in cozy places, and her presence tends to suck the coziness out of any environment she moves through. Generation Loss and Available Dark presented a few characters that were likeable, and places that you might want to visit at length, but Hard Light doesn't. The London of Hard Light feels worse than the gentrified New York where Cass lives. No beauty or other allure appears as an outgrowth of the city itself and an endemic corruption is one of its prime characteristics.
If anything, Cornwall is even more corrupt. The depraved activities from the past coat the pastoral setting with rot. Nothing to embrace in the countryside. As the ostensive thriller plot comes to a head, the characters reveal themselves as irredeemably tainted by events that they may not even have consented to, but end up colluding in all the same.
As I read I was struck by how little the book came off as an ordinary mystery, in which we are supposed to care who committed a specific evil deed. I only cared about the uncovering of mysteries in the relationships among the characters, and about how the complications affected Cass. And how she keeps reaping the whirlwind every place she goes. Hand is great at withholding details we don't necessarily need to know and creating allusive insights to areas we didn't even recognize were important.
I think Cass Neary is always going to move through Mysteries. Some of her most crucial ones are in no way close to resolution.
The previews for the novel were misleading. I had an idea that we would see a kind of cozy London for awhile before things got too weird. But Cass Neary doesn't thrive in cozy places, and her presence tends to suck the coziness out of any environment she moves through. Generation Loss and Available Dark presented a few characters that were likeable, and places that you might want to visit at length, but Hard Light doesn't. The London of Hard Light feels worse than the gentrified New York where Cass lives. No beauty or other allure appears as an outgrowth of the city itself and an endemic corruption is one of its prime characteristics.
If anything, Cornwall is even more corrupt. The depraved activities from the past coat the pastoral setting with rot. Nothing to embrace in the countryside. As the ostensive thriller plot comes to a head, the characters reveal themselves as irredeemably tainted by events that they may not even have consented to, but end up colluding in all the same.
As I read I was struck by how little the book came off as an ordinary mystery, in which we are supposed to care who committed a specific evil deed. I only cared about the uncovering of mysteries in the relationships among the characters, and about how the complications affected Cass. And how she keeps reaping the whirlwind every place she goes. Hand is great at withholding details we don't necessarily need to know and creating allusive insights to areas we didn't even recognize were important.
I think Cass Neary is always going to move through Mysteries. Some of her most crucial ones are in no way close to resolution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2016
This third book in Elizabeth Hand's series of dark thrillers with protagonist Cass Neary is perhaps the best to date. It's tense and exciting, and, unlike the second book, Available Dark, it's set in a milieu -- London and Cornwall -- with which many readers will be familiar, from other books if not from personal experience. Hand is inventive and imaginative, conjuring up (and then skewering) the damaged utopias of the recent past and superimposing them upon each other: the misguided freedom of the 1970s, the drug-fueled self-destruction of the punk generation, and the apocalyptic, technology-numbed nihilism of the present day. Cass Neary is an amoral anti-heroine with a heart of gold, who traverses these realms and brings light to their darkness almost entirely in spite of herself; she becomes more sympathetic in each successive novel, perhaps not least because she is surrounded by far less sympathetic characters. The book, like its two predecessors, is quite dark, but it has a satisfying, tightly constructed plot with some surprises (though others can be spotted from a distance). Reading Elizabeth Hand is always refreshing; she is a fine writer across genres, and I'm already looking forward to the 4th Cass Neary novel, which I hope won't be too long in coming.
October 31, 2016
There was so much to like about this mystery. Start with Cass Neary, sort of a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo of an older generation. She's a bit of a mess, with substance problems and a lack of direction, but there's still a kind of moral code, and a commitment to art there that redeem her. As the novel opens, she's trying to meet her boyfriend in London, but when he doesn't show, she crashes with a talented but messed up girl singer, and the company she keeps soon take her down a rabbit hole inhabited by aging rock and rollers, drug dealers, and underground film makers.
The second thing to love here are the framing events. I love a novel that shows me a convincing view of a field of endeavor that I don't know much about, and Hard Light completely does that for photography and underground film.
Third, the mystery is solid and well-paced, with a good balance of character development and plot twists.
Finally, I'll add the settings: tough London music bars, the grand but still skeevy homes of arty drug dealers, and the culmination in a creepy Cornwall manor house, once a hangout for rock bands and avant garde film makers, but now fallen on hard times.
The second thing to love here are the framing events. I love a novel that shows me a convincing view of a field of endeavor that I don't know much about, and Hard Light completely does that for photography and underground film.
Third, the mystery is solid and well-paced, with a good balance of character development and plot twists.
Finally, I'll add the settings: tough London music bars, the grand but still skeevy homes of arty drug dealers, and the culmination in a creepy Cornwall manor house, once a hangout for rock bands and avant garde film makers, but now fallen on hard times.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews