A Blue Place
I don’t normally enjoy lesbian novels or crime novels, but I believe I’ve found an exception in Nicola Griffith’s “A Blue Place.” The main character, Aud Torvington, is an ex-pat Norwegian, a 6 ft. lesbian ex-cop detective with “eyes the color of cement.” Aud is strong, enigmatic and a little frightening. She uses all her tools-her mind, her body and also her affinity for “a blue place,”-the place inside us where violence and emotion both live. Here’s the book:
“Successful art broker Julia seeks Aud’s protection during a high-risk operation involving international drug cartels and money laundering, and Aud, excited by the danger and by Julia, agrees to provide it. What unfolds is a doubly suspenseful tale in which arson destroys evidence in a deadly game of double-dealing, blackmail, fraud, and murder, and the erotic chemistry between the two women builds and boils.”
I’m sure the author has some Viking genes–perhaps even from Snorri Sturluson. When I was reading the various reviews the stories of Aud were reminiscent of Icelandic sagas. I wonder if I shouldn’t put the book off for winter..if the story would feel better read or heard in a dark house, with just a fireplace for light?
The author, Nicola Griffith, was born in Yorkshire, England. Her novels (Ammonite, Slow River, The Blue Place, and Stay (the sequel to The Blue Place) have won several grants and prizes, including the Nebula, Tiptree, and several Lambda awards. She is also the co-editor of the Bending The Landscape anthology series. She lives in Seattle with her partner, writer Kelley Eskridge.
