Table of Contents
Praise for Nicola Griffith and Aud Torvingen
Griffith is a writer of considerable gifts. Her sentences shimmer, her powers of observation and description are razor sharp.
The New York Times Book Review
Aud Torvingen is one of my favorite kick-ass, supercompetent, cool-headed, hot-blooded, semilegal girls.... She knows how to fight, kill, survive, and think. Salon
Griffith has a fine way with character and sure talent.
Los Angeles Times
Griffiths real genius is a portrayal of the brilliant, though damaged, Aud... a woman who loses herself in the beauty and balletic control of pure violence yet seeks salvation. The Village Voice
The sexiest action figure since James Bond, six blond feet of sinew, muscle, and bone. Shes also an ex-cop, a martial arts instructor, a master carpenter, and a private dick for hire. Shes beautiful, shes independently wealthy, shes in perfect shape: shes downright deadly. And sorry, guys: shes into girls. Seattle Weekly
[Aud] is sleek, sexy, and decidedly dangerous... everything a suspense novel heroine should be. The Advocate
Stay is simply gorgeousa powerful character study in the rough domain of mystery and adventure. It is also a courageous and frank portrait of grief, deeply complex and completely true. There was not one misstep, not one moment when I was not being pulled along hoping for some life-saving miracle. And when it happens, it feels realstubborn human nature doing what it does. Stay made me glad to read it.
Dorothy Allison
"A noir thriller with a female protagonist who makes La Femme Nikita look like a Powerpuff Girl. Details
"Griffiths tautly balanced prose perfectly complements her heroines erratic progress.... [She] skillfully links sensual details with emotional content, anchoring us firmly in Auds brutal, beautiful world. The Seattle Times
Griffith employs a crime thrillers page-turning audacity and hard-boiled heroine without succumbing to cheap genre clichs. Like the protagonist, the language has a steely snap to it.... Stay is a captivating read. Out
Aud, the protagonist of this novel, is an intuitive, old-fashioned sleuth who would do Elmore Leonard proud. Entertainment Weekly
Griffiths prose is at once brutal and beautifully wrought. Stay has a central character both hard-boiled and a softie at heart, and momentum like a car wreck. The San Diego Union-Tribune
Griffith switches genres and breathes life into an appealing heroine in this smoothly plotted pulse-slammer.... Readers will want to see more of Aud Torvingen. Publishers Weekly
Well-crafted, evocatively written and swift paced, The Blue Place is for devotees of classic, hard-edged detective tales.... But this isnt simply a thriller [but] an excursion into the more disturbing sides of psyches.... Ultimately The Blue Place is, as all good thrillers and all the best literary fiction are, a novel of quests and identity. Lambda Book Report
Griffith has already won herself Lambda and Nebula awards... and she seems destined to add to her laurels. The Washington Post Book World
A heroine who is a cold-blooded killing machine... but superfit, super-bright Aud is certainly one watchable sleuth and may win Griffith quite a following of less squeamish readers. Booklist
"The novel goes down like honey, full of the quirky detail that makes a good mystery great.... If pretty girls and danger dont grab you, the plot will.
Out
Griffith clearly challenges us to understand a radically atypicalor perhaps just typically ignoredaspect of the female psyche: the fine line between brutality and passion. She produces passages that provoke and startle... finely rendered observations. The novel soars. Auds blue placewhere women glow with the elated, bluish tinge of power rather than the black and blue marks of victimhoodis a peculiar and unsettling place indeed. The Womans Review of Books
Griffith proves she can write crime fiction that stacks up more than favorably with the work of the best writers in the field.... Dennis Lehane, Andrew Vachss, and James Lee Burke have each taken crime fiction to a new level and each has expanded the possibilities of the genre. Nicola Griffith is the next name on a very short list. The News Tribune
ALSOBY NICOLA GRIFFITH
STAY
THEBLUE PLACE
SLOW RIVER
AMMONITE
For Kelley, my queen
ONE
IF YOU WALK INTO A BAR AND THERES A MAN WITH A KNIFE, WHAT DO YOU DO ? Walk out again. If you can. In Atlanta it had been a kitchen, and a woman, and I couldnt.
Its a five-hour nonstop flight from Atlanta to Seattle. I had slept the first three hours, but I didnt want to sleep anymore. If you dont sleep, you dont dream. I pressed my forehead against the vibrating cabin window and stared down at the Rockies, visible only as winks of snow in the setting sun.
Next to me, Dornan stirred and put his guidebook facedown on his lap. He peered over my shoulder at the scenery below. His T-shirt was still very white and his eyes very blue, but his hair, just long enough to hint at waviness, was flat at the back. Looks like Mars, he said.
I nodded. There were places there where no one had walked. Perhaps one day I would go exploring.
Dornan leaned back. You missed dinner. It was unclear from his tone whether he thought that was good or bad.
I can eat when we get there.
I dont know, he said, and tapped the book on his lap. Ive been reading the tourist guide. The good restaurants mostly seem to shut at ten. Right around when wed be landing. Theres always room service.
You cant learn much about a city from a hotel room, and I needed to hit the ground running. My mother would arrive in two days. Lets talk about it when we get there.
Books were all well and goodId already read several histories, maps, and guides to Seattle since deciding on the tripbut I preferred somatic information to extra-somatic. I would know what I wanted to do when I smelled the air and tasted the water.
So, Dornan said. You havent told me much about the new bloke.
I didnt say anything.
Your new stepdad.
I looked at him.
Well, he is, technically. So whats the story? You havent even told me his name.
I opened my bagonce again I resented the nasty ripping sound of the Velcro flap, and missed the bag Id given awayand pulled out the report.
Eric Loedessoel, Dornan said, reading over my shoulder. Wait. He pulled back. You researched your stepdad?
It wasnt difficult.
Thats not... He shook his head.
I leafed through the list of sources: medical bills, brokerage accounts, limousine service, phone records, grocery bills, restaurant bills, and so on. Then the data itself. There was a photograph of Loedessoel taken last year in Washington, D.C., and a photo of his new wife, dated two months ago.
She was wearing a hacking jacket and turtleneck, a riding hat tucked under her left arm. I wondered what the photo opportunity had been, and why she looked happy. She hated horses. Her hair was dark honey streaked with grey, and cut in a soft, chin-length bob. It looked all wrong; my mother had had long hair for as long as I could remember. She had gained a few pounds. She looked younger and softer.
