Hard Light

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 classicGeneration 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.

ELIZABETH HAND is the author of fourteen cross-genre novels and four collections of short fiction. Her work has received the World Fantasy Award (four times), the Nebula Award (twice), the Shirley Jackson Award (twice), and the James M. Tiptree Jr. and Mythopoeic Society Awards. She's also a longtime critic and contributor of essays for theWashington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and the Village Voice, among many others. She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.