Always [Hardcover]

Nicola Griffith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2007

Aud Torvingen is back-contemporary fiction's toughest, most emotionally complicated noir hero returns to teach a new round of lessons in hard-hitting justice, and to confront new adversaries: her own vulnerability and desire.

The steely shell of Nicola Griffith's seemingly indomitable protagonist Aud Torvingen appears to be cracking. The six-foot-tall fury (who proved in The Blue Place and Stay that she can kill you as easily as look at you) is shaken by the shocking consequences of the self-defense class she's been teaching, and her investigation of what seems to be run-of-the-mill real-estate fraud is turning out to be more than she bargained for.

Always brilliantly intertwines the dramatic episodes of Aud's class with the increasingly complicated investigation that introduces Aud to the limits of self-reliance, and to the scary and beautiful prospect of allowing oneself to depend on other people. What emerges is a thrilling, thoroughly engrossing novel that imbues Griffith's "classic noir hero" (The New York Times Book Review) with an emotional complexity that far exceeds the boundaries of the genre, and will push Griffith to her well-deserved place at the front rank of new-wave literary crime writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Griffith's intense third thriller to star Aud Torvingen (after The Blue Place and Stay), the stylish half-American, half-Norwegian lesbian ex-cop and self-defense teacher is still grieving over the shooting death of her lover, Julia, a year earlier. Also distraught over a recent violent incident involving one of her self-defense students, Aud welcomes the chance to leave Atlanta, accompanied by her friend, Matthew Dornan, to visit her ambassador mother, Else, in Seattle. There sabotage of a TV pilot in production that's been receiving OSHA and EPA complaints disrupts their vacation. Adding romantic tension is Victoria "Kick" Kuiper, a caterer and former stuntwoman, to whom both Aud and Matthew are attracted. Aud's ace investigation reveals political and environmental chicanery, but more importantly, leads to a surprising lesson about love. Lucid prose and great self-defense lessons are a plus. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Yowza! Griffith's six-foot-tall, cropped-haired heroine Aud Torvingen is back, flying to Washington since she has inherited her father's holdings and must deal with a Seattle real-estate manager who is robbing her blind. She also needs to see her wealthy, diplomat mother and meet her new stepfather. Interspersed are flashbacks of the women's self-defense class she'd taught back home in Atlanta--with unforeseen and deadly results. Griffith deftly parallels the two narrative threads that comment on and complement each other, creating a synergy of action and adrenaline for one of crime fiction's toughest yet most sensual lesbian detectives. Griffith's writing is smart and crisply detailed as she smoothly orchestrates a plot that delivers Aud to the soundstage for an independent film. There, production problems raise her suspicions of sabotage, confirmed when the coffee urn is spiked with a drug cocktail of Ecstacy, magic mushrooms, oxycodone, angel dust, and speed, nearly killing Aud and various crew members. Fist-slamming physicality is beautifully balanced with raised emotional stakes as Griffith dares to take her lethally forceful heroine to a new level. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; 1ST edition (May 3, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594489351
• ISBN-13: 978-1594489358
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm English and live in Seattle with Kelley Eskridge, also a writer. I love writing. I love hearing from readers. Contact me on my blog, http://asknicola.blogspot.com or through my webpage www.nicolagriffith.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After the stinging "Stay," where do we go from here?, June 4, 2007

By 

A. Andersen "angelsslayer99" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Always (Hardcover)

Nicola Griffith's latest foray into the adventures of Aud Torvingen, independently wealthy ex-cop, is a tightly paced yet contemplative thriller. To call this novel a "thriller" is actually a misnomer, I would more class it as a character study in crime fiction clothing.

Following the events of STAY, where Aud grieved for her lover Julia, Aud returns to readers about seven months later less emotionally paralyzed and ready for business. In this novel, the business is to leave Atlanta for Seattle and meet her new stepfather and mother for the first time as a couple, while investigating the real-estate fraud of a warehouse turned movie studio she owns. She also falls in love with the enigmatic caterer Kick.

Griffith's writing is as crisp and sharp as ever. She has relaxed into Aud's character and the result is comfortable and familiar. The novel alternates between present day Seattle and past Atlanta, where Aud taught self-defense lessons. The two timelines merge seamlessly, and the self-defense chapters are extremely vivid and compelling. I found myself trying out a proper fist as I read them. At times, I enjoyed the self-defense chapters more than the present day storyline. Griffith's descriptions were so detailed and comprehensive that I had no trouble visualizing the women in their lessons.

I was delighted to spend more time with Aud, but I have a few quibbles. Personally, I loved STAY deeply and grew used to, even attached to, Aud's intense and explosive grief. In this novel, we find her emotional state much closer to "normal," ala the icy superhero we first met in THE BLUE PLACE, but Julia's death has caused her to be more open to love and more vulnerable.

That character shift, from sharply realized grief to growing acceptance, is a little jarring. I would have appreciated a little more acknowledgment of Julia as Aud encounters her new love interest, a few lines to show that Aud still carries Julia with her even as she moves on. But that's a fault of picking up seven months after STAY's close. Grief, and time, changes everything.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Precisely crafted language, August 7, 2007

By 

F. Lorien Patton "To see clearly is to know b... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Always (Hardcover)

Nicola Griffith is an author whom I read, not because her characters are layered and fascinating (though they are,) nor because the pacing and plotting are tight and well muscled (though of course they are,) but simply because there is a beauty, an elegant simplicity to her words as they flow together on the page.

Aud does with body and motion what Griffith does with phrasing and timing: strike precisely, cleanly, with just the correct amount of force to achieve the desired result. Whatever that result might be.

"Always" does not disappoint in this regard. As lean and lithe as a predator, it gives the impression of being simple stream of consciousness narrative. You live in Aud's thoughts as she does what she does, without apology, without explanation (unless she is explaining it to herself.)

What is completely hidden is Griffith's hand, invisible in the face of the work itself. The underlying structure, the bones of the work, endless hours of exertion... of putting your soul on the page for anyone to see, to touch.

This is a masterwork, well worth the price of admission.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Always, May 18, 2007

By 

greenegret (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Always (Hardcover)

As ever, I adore Nicola Griffith's work.

I won't spoil the plot, but one of the best things about this set of books is watching Aud change and grow over time. She's had an eventful few years, and several things begin to move into position so that she can begin a new phase of life - I love that the author left things as beginnings instead of making them endings. This book is quite obviously a chapter in Aud's life instead of a close-ended tv episode - things continue to influence her in this book that began before, and things that begin here will continue or resolve later.