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Starred review from November 28, 2011
Hand has described Cass Neary, the protagonist of 2007’s Generation Loss, as “your prototypical amoral speedfreak crankhead kleptomaniac murderous rage-filled alcoholic bisexual heavily tattooed American female photographer.” It’s to the author’s credit that Neary, who almost makes Lisbeth Salander seem like a model of mental stability, engages rather than repels in this stunning sequel. Neary, whose crowning professional achievement is a book of photos aptly entitled Dead Girls, is still suffering from the events depicted in Generation Loss that made her a suspect in a Maine homicide. Norwegian collector Anton Bredahl, an admirer of Dead Girls, 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. Agent: Martha Millard.

February 1, 2012
A moody loner heads to Helsinki and beyond, while murder and general creepiness follow. Photographer Cass Neary likes to live under the radar. Despite some early fame, she'd rather keep to her New York grunge corner, with periodic forays out to meet up with her longtime dealer (of drugs, not art). When Anton Bredahl, a collector of obscure art, contacts Cass to have her verify the authenticity of some prints, the job takes her all the way to Helsinki, where she meets with middleman and photographer Ilkka Kaltunnen to confirm that his product is the real deal. Ilkka doesn't just have a set of prints to check, but a whole room full of mysterious and beautiful photos. These aren't your standard point-and-shoots; they're morbid and macabre scenes of death, almost like stills from a snuff film. Cass can appreciate them, but she starts to grow suspicious of why Anton might want to spend so much on these pictures. Instead of getting involved in what is clearly someone else's problem, Cass hightails it to Reykjavik to locate her old love Quinn. Somehow, finding him enfolds her further in the creepy world she thought she left behind in Helsinki. Yet another author tries to capitalize on Stieg Larsson's Scandinavian success. But this entry from Hand (Illyria, 2010, etc.) reads more like a grotesque fairy tale gone wrong.

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January 1, 2012

Hand's latest novel picks up right where Generation Loss leaves off: hungover and with a fresh scar beside her eye, washed-up punk photographer Cassandra Neary runs from a possible manslaughter charge to Finland, where a sleazy collector of disturbing photographs wants her to authenticate a pending purchase. After Cass confirms that the stunningly beautiful but macabre photos are legit, the photographer is murdered, and Cass takes off again. Fueled by crystal meth and Focalin, she looks for Quinn, her first love, in Reykjavik, where he survives by selling classic vinyl LPs and disposing of bodies for Russian mobsters. Quinn is also mixed up with a group of Odinists who are heavily into black metal music and Norse mythology, and Cass is soon caught up in a dark, twisted tale. VERDICT The millions who devoured Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy will not flinch at Hand's dark subject matter. Like Lisbeth Salander, Cass Neary evokes sympathy and admiration despite her tough exterior. Given the public's current fascination with gritty Nordic crime fiction, expect this novel to break out onto best sellers lists. [See Prepub Alert, 8/21/11.]--Christine Perkins, Bellingham P.L., WA

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Starred review from January 1, 2012
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. Wanted by police for questioning about a death in Maine, she welcomes the opportunity to leave the States to evaluate some photos in Helsinki for a collector. A cult figure for her earlier photography book, Dead Girls, Cass is stunned by five photos of fresh corpses posed to represent Finnish folktale figures and taken by a renowned former fashion photographer known for the flashes of light in his work. But when she goes on to Iceland, on the track of the lover of her teens, Quinn O'Boyle, death seems to follow her, as she learns of the murders of those with whom she associated in Finland. Cass, like this book's readers, sinks deeper and deeper into the darkness of the unforgiving Nordic winter and the surrounding events, with their throbbing undercurrent of metal music and encroaching atmosphere of old Norse religions. A flash of incandescence counters final threats of death, and the all-encompassing darkness is leavened by a glimmer of hope. Stunning.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)