The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Available Dark, Elizabeth Hand

Available Dark

Elizabeth Hand

"Available Dark works well as a thriller, but it's Cass who makes the book extraordinary." -- Time Magazine

A searing and iconoclastic crime novel in which photographer Cass Neary, introduced in the underground classic Generation Loss, finds herself drawn into the shadowy world of crime in Scandinavia's coldest corners.


As this riveting tour-de-force opens, the police already want to talk to Cass about a mysterious death she was involved with previously, but before they can bring her in, Cass accepts a job offer from overseas and hops on a plane.


In Helsinki, she authenticates a series of disturbing but stunning images taken by a famous fashion photographer who has cut himself off from the violent Nordic music scene where he first made his reputation. Paid off by her shady employer, she buys a one-way ticket to Reykjavik, in search of a lover from her own dark past.


But when the fashion photographer's mutilated corpse is discovered in Finland, Cass finds herself sucked into a vortex of ancient myth betrayal, vengeance and serial murder, set against a bone-splintering soundtrack of black metal and the terrifying beauty of the sunless Icelandic wilderness. This is where Cass's worst fears are confirmed: it's always darkest before it turns completely black.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Small Beer Press
  • Publish Date: Sep 7th, 2021
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.50in - 0.90in - 0.75lb
  • EAN: 9781618731906
  • Categories: CrimeMystery & Detective - Amateur SleuthMystery & Detective - Women Sleuths

About the Author

Hand, Elizabeth: - Elizabeth Hand is the author of more than fifteen novels and collections of short fiction, including four novels in her Cass Neary series. Her work has received multiple Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, and Nebula Awards, as well as the James M. Tiptree Jr. and Mythopoeic Awards. She's a longtime critic and contributor of essays for the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Boston Review, and the Village Voice, among many others. She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.

More books by Elizabeth Hand

Book Cover for: A Haunting on the Hill, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Curious Toys, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Generation Loss, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Hokuloa Road, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: The Book of Lamps and Banners, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Errantry: Strange Stories, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Hard Light, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Ghosts: Recent Hauntings, Neil Gaiman
Book Cover for: Expediente X. Enfrentate Al Futuro, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Bewere the Night, Holly Black
Book Cover for: Fire., Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: The Lost Citadel Roleplaying Game, Elizabeth Hand
Book Cover for: Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories, Jeff VanderMeer
Book Cover for: Rock on: The Greatest Hits of Science Fiction & Fantasy, Pat Cadigan
Book Cover for: Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire, Lawrence Block
Book Cover for: Season of Wonder, Elizabeth Hand

Praise for this book

"Available Dark works well as a thriller, but it's Cass who makes the book extraordinary. It's rare to find a strong female character - especially a middle-aged one--who likes sex and drinking and drugs and doesn't feel the need to apologize about it. Eight pages into the book she's offered some crystal meth. She takes it. Why the hell not? Neither she nor the narrator blinks. There's nothing coy or exhibitionistic about it, it's just who she is."--Time Magazine


"Buy this book!"--Darcey Steinke, author of Suicide Blonde


"Tense, compelling, and beautiful."--Christopher Farnsworth, author of Blood Oath


"Available Dark is dark stuff indeed. . . . ​This book disturbs and delights."--Paul Doiron, author of The Poacher's Son


"I hate modern fiction; it usually sucks. Available Dark is the exception to my rule. It is wonderfully depressing---the locations, the characters, the mood, the murders. It's so well written, it reads true. I can think of no higher compliment."--Legs McNeil, cofound-er of Punk magazine


"In this brilliant sequel to Hand's acclaimed literary thriller, Generation Loss (2007), Cassandra Neary, "a burned out, aging punk with a dead gaze," who subsists largely on alcohol and speed, confronts darkness nearly beyond her comprehension. . . . A flash of incandescence counters final threats of death, and the all-encompassing darkness is leavened by a glimmer of hope. Stunning."--Booklist (starred review)


"Norwegian collector Anton Bredahl, an admirer . . . offers Neary a tidy sum to fly to Helsinki to give her opinion on some photos he's thinking of purchasing. She finds herself blown away by the photographer's technique, notwithstanding the grim subject matter--corpses. The bloody aftermath of the assignment places Neary in grave danger as she confronts a significant figure from her past. The scenes of violence advance the plot while helping the reader to understand Hand's uncompromisingly compromised main character."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)