Hard Light: A Cass Neary Crime Novel

Award-winning, genre-spanning author Hand uses her worldbuilding skills to spin a new Cass Neary story (after Generation Loss and Available Dark). This time the photographer and adventuress is roaming the streets of London, experiencing both high (in every sense of the word) and low society. Hand writes about both sides of the lane expertly, dispensing art, photography, and rock music tidbits throughout the narrative. We see Cass soften just a little and even grudgingly accept "new" technologies such as smartphones and digital photography, but fans of the edgy, druggy, rough-and-tumble antiheroine will not be disappointed—she's still got plenty of attitude. Quinn, her long-lost outlaw lover, has sent her to London on a sketchy passport, promising to meet her there. When he doesn't show, Cass's street instincts kick in and she bunks with a ragamuffin singer (think Amy Winehouse) and meets her spooky friends. Cass's nosing around lands her in hot water with an art (drug) dealer and then the race is on. Running from danger, she encounters former groupies, witchy hermits, scary street people, a lost underground film, and a possible protegée. Quinn even appears briefly, though he is more a MacGuffin than character in this story.