Stay: A Novel (Aud Torvingen) by Nicola Griffith

Aud Torvingen returns - against her better instincts - scarred, heartbroken, changed, but tougher and rougher than ever.

Raw with grief, Aud Torvingen wants nothing to do with the world. She is rebuilding a log cabin in the middle of the Appalachians, refusing the efforts of anyone who wants to reach her.

Until Dornan, Aud's only real friend, asks her to track down his runaway fiancée, Tammy. Aud has no love for or faith in Tammy, but she feels obliged to help - and first on the streets of New York City, and then deep in the woods of Arkansas, she finds herself up against Karp, a sociopath so artful that the law can't touch him. Fortunately, Aud has no love for or faith in the law, either - she prefers other tools.

But perhaps even more dangerous to Aud than Karp are Aud's own demons.

As arresting as a razor at the throat, Nicola Griffith's Stay is a ferocious masterpiece of literary noir, a stunning juxtaposition of beauty and brutality. In its pages Griffith fuses Aud's steely moral authority with a new, ever-evolving emotional depth.