The Blue Place
Science fiction writer Nicola Griffith, winner of the Nebula and Tiptree Awards,  proves that good writing transcends genre.The Blue Placeis a spare, cold suspense thriller--Norwegiannoir--with the kind of strong, enigmatic characters that made Griffith'sSlow Riversuch a great read. Aud Torvingen is a former cop, martial artist, and Scandinavian to the core. She stalks powerfully through the streets of Atlanta and the fjords of Norway in search of an art thief and killer. At first, she frightens us a bit, because she insistently imagines how easy it would be to kill almost everyone she meets. Having descended more than once into that dark, cold psychic realm wherein violence provides primal pleasure, Aud is constantly wary of her fellow human beings. But our fear turns to fascination as she finds herself falling in love with Julia, a smart, beautiful art dealer mixed up in the crime, and getting closer to finding the center of the danger in the icy north.As inSlow RiverandAmmonite, Griffith's attention is often on the bodies of her characters--their awareness of skin and muscle, sinew and bone suffuses the action. Griffith closely scrutinizes their deeper inner workings, their emotions and logic, as well. The story is tense and gripping, as a good thriller should be, but the best part ofThe Blue Placeis Aud's fascinatingly familiar search for self.--Therese Littleton--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.