Review of Hard Light by Elizabeth Hand

Elizabeth Hand's Cass Neary series, at the structural level, doesn't poke its nose above ordinary. It's slow burn murder mystery through and through, a saturated genre if ever there were. Where the series gouges its mark is in Neary. Like boiling a frog, the reader slowly realizes they are bound to her vices almost as much as her virtues, and by default bound to the dubious circumstances spiraling around her. Not an archetype, she lives and breathes inner demons, her antagonism serving character and plot. It's that level of credibility which makes the series worthwhile and worth mention whenever the best neo-noir books are discussed. Let's see how third book in the series, Hard Light (2016), continues digging into Neary.

Generation Loss was set on the coast of Maine and Available Dark in Iceland. In the direct aftermath, Hard Light takes readers to London Penniless, Neary finds herself in a dive bar, looking for a means get home to the US. She runs into a goth singer, who takes her to a coke house, which gets her into an art party, which puts her in contact with strange prehistoric artifacts, which... takes the reader on yet another subtly evolving murder mystery that has both feet in a dark, personal reality. No spoiler, the manner in which Hand integrates the physics and chemistry of photography into murder mystery continues to astound.

Hard Light is everything described in the intro to this review, plus a little more. I get the feeling Hand writes a Cass Neary story when she has a story to tell, not when trying to meet publisher demand or pad her oeuvre. The stories flow one from another, and Hard Light flows naturally from Available Dark. If you want a short review of the novel: it's more goodness, no drop in quality.

Hard Light does a brave thing: it sets a murder mystery in the capital of murder mysteries: London (and beyond). Not only this, it also adds druids, barrows, and and archeology in ways that ring true to reality and the story (as opposed to cheap add-ons for eye kicks). It's a gambit that isn't a gambit given the quiet confidence the novel exudes, and delivers on.

In the end, Hard Light is an excellent evolution of Cass Neary. It feels like an organic, unforced extension to her story. Where some authors continue a series for commercial or financial reasons, Hand has a genuine, stand-alone story to tell here starring a character with a human soul. For people who have read the previous Neary books, it offers a deeper look into the character and a subtly satisfying story that never betrays the ground it's built on. Going to a beach, or need a late night lamp burner, try this.