Aud (it rhymes with "shroud" ) Torvingen is six feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes. She can restore a log cabin with antique tools or put a man in a coma with her bare hands. As imagined by Nicola Griffith in this ferocious masterpiece of literary noir, Aud is a hero who combines the tortured complexity with moral authority.

In the aftermath of her lover's murder, the last thing a grieving Aud wants is another case. Against her better judgment she agrees to track down an old friend's runaway fiancée--and finds herself up against both a sociopath so artful that the law can't touch him, and the terrible specters of loss and guilt. As stylish as this year's Prada and as arresting as a razor at the throat, Stay places Nicola Griffith in the first rank of new-wave crime writers.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

"Aud Torvingen is a classic noir hero. . . . .Griffith is a writer of considerable gifts. Her sentences shimmer, her powers of observation and description are razor sharp."—The New York Times Book Review

"With Stay, Griffith proves she can write crime fiction that stacks up more than favorably with the work of the best writers in the field.... Dennis Lehane, Andrew Vachss and James Lee Burke have each taken crime fiction to a new level and each has expanded the possibilities of the genre. Nicola Griffith is the next name on a very short list." —Tacoma News Tribune

"Sleek, sexy, and decidedly dangerous, Aud...is everything a suspense novel heroine should be." —The Advocate

"A noir thriller with a female protagonist who makes La Femme Nikita look like a Powerpuff Girl." —Details

"Griffith has a fine way with character and a sure talent." —Los Angeles Times

"Griffith's real genius is in her portrayal of the brilliant, though damaged, Aud, who embodies the traits of the mythical Norse berserker. . . . A finely nuanced, frightening plunge into the dark heart of an exceptional woman." —Village Voice

"Griffith's tautly balanced prose perfectly complements her heroine's erratic progress. . . . [She] skillfully links sensual details with emotional content, anchoring us firmly in Aud's brutal, beautiful world." —Seattle Times

“Stay is simply gorgeous—a powerful character study in the rough domain of mystery and adventure.” —Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina

"Griffith employs a crime thriller's page-turning audacity and hard-boiled heroine without succumbing to cheap genre clichés. Like the protagonist, the language has a steely snap to it. . . . Stay is a captivating read." —Out

“Aud, the protagonist of this novel, is an intuitive, old-fashioned sleuth who would do Elmore Leonard proud.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Griffith's prose is at once brutal and beautifully wrought. Stay has a central character both hard-boiled and a softie at heart, and momentum like a car wreck.” —San Diego Union-Tribune

Aud (it rhymes with "shroud" ) Torvingen is six feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes. She can restore a log cabin with antique tools or put a man in a coma with her bare hands. As imagined by Nicola Griffith in this ferocious masterpiece of literary noir, Aud is a hero who combines the tortured complexity with moral authority.

In the aftermath of her lover's murder, the last thing a grieving Aud wants is another case. Against her better judgment she agrees to track down an old friend's runaway fiancee--and finds herself up against both a sociopath so artful that the law can't touch him, and the terrible specters of loss and guilt. As stylish as this year's Prada and as arresting as a razor at the throat, Stay places Nicola Griffith in the first rank of new-wave crime writers.

In her second novel featuring six-foot, ice-blue eyed Aud Torvingen ("one scary, gorgeous creature, " "The Village Voice"), Lambda Award-winner Griffith proves herself to be nouveau noir's most ferociously gifted new practitioner.