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Available
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Publication
Riverhead Hardcover (2007), Edition: 1ST, Hardcover, 480 pages
Description
From cult phenomenon to award-winning literary sensation, "the sexiest action figure since James Bond" (Seattle Weekly) returns in an exhilarating new thriller. It doesn't matter how well trained you are, how big, how fast, how strong; there will always be someone out there bigger or faster or stronger. Always. That's what Aud Torvingen teaches the students in her self-defense class. But the question is whether Aud really believes this lesson herself-and if not, what it will take for her to learn it. Aud has trained herself to achieve a fierce, machine-like precision, in hand-to-hand combat as well as life. But in Always she is abruptly confronted with the limits of her own power. Her self-defense classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined.… (more)
Media reviews
User reviews
LibraryThing member ShellyS
Third book in the Aud Torvingen trilogy. Previously, Aud, a one-time cop and now investigator, fell in love with Julia, only to lose her to a bullet. After mourning her lost love, Aud is ready to move on with her life, but of course, nothing is easy. In this book, two stories are told concurrently,
The film is being sabotaged and in trying to discover why, Aud uncovers a real estate scam. This book is the longest of the three, partly to cover the two storylines and partly because there is so much detail in this, almost a day-to-day, hour-to-hour accounting. The writing is crisp, the characters fully realized, and Aud is at her best when showing some vulnerability, especially in her reunion with her diplomat mother and meeting her mother's new husband. But her budding romance with one-time stuntwoman turned caterer, Kick Kuiper, could be jeopardized by Kick's secret.
Okay, that doesn't sound like much, but forget the plot. It really isn't as important as the journey Aud is on as she learns more about herself, how to rely on others, comes to terms with her mother, and somehow, without realizing it, starts to actually fit in and socialize for the first time in her life, it seems. Aud is a tough female character full of flaws and she's the heart and soul of this book. I enjoy spending time with her and wouldn't mind seeing a fourth book.
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one in the recent past when a tragic event mars the self-defense class she's teaching in Atlanta that shakes her confidence, and the present, when she checks out some property she owns in Seattle and drags her friend Dornan along, where they encounter the movie crew that is renting Aud's warehouse.The film is being sabotaged and in trying to discover why, Aud uncovers a real estate scam. This book is the longest of the three, partly to cover the two storylines and partly because there is so much detail in this, almost a day-to-day, hour-to-hour accounting. The writing is crisp, the characters fully realized, and Aud is at her best when showing some vulnerability, especially in her reunion with her diplomat mother and meeting her mother's new husband. But her budding romance with one-time stuntwoman turned caterer, Kick Kuiper, could be jeopardized by Kick's secret.
Okay, that doesn't sound like much, but forget the plot. It really isn't as important as the journey Aud is on as she learns more about herself, how to rely on others, comes to terms with her mother, and somehow, without realizing it, starts to actually fit in and socialize for the first time in her life, it seems. Aud is a tough female character full of flaws and she's the heart and soul of this book. I enjoy spending time with her and wouldn't mind seeing a fourth book.
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LibraryThing member sumariotter
I like this author but this book is not my favorite. It seems too much as if it is about the author, for one thing. Not that there's anything wrong with that...but unlike in previous books where Aud (the main character) was definitely a fictional creation, in this book I keep noticing the parallels
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between her and Nicola Griffith. I do really like all of the information about self-defense in this novel (the character teaches a class.) As a mystery and a love story I find it lacking. Show Less
LibraryThing member satyridae
11/2012. This time, I paid more attention to the self-defense chapters. Maybe some of it will stick. I enjoyed the Seattle setting a lot, since I've now been to Seattle enough that I recognized many of the places. Mostly, though, I just love Aud.
6/2009. I'm more than half in love with Aud
6/2009. I'm more than half in love with Aud
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Torvingen. In this, Griffith's third book about her, she's a bit more human. Almost fallible. Clueless when it comes to one particular woman. The plotting is taut, the dual storyline engaging, and the characters very strong. A gripping, well-written and ultimately hopeful book. Show Less
LibraryThing member bunwat
At the end of each of the Aud Torvingen novels I'm left sort of wrestling with how to rate and being unsure. The thing is, Griffith's prose is absolutely lovely. Her novels have a real sense of place, she brings you along into the sights and smells and sounds of a locale, the color of the light and
Also, "strong female characters," is becoming a sort of tired pro forma check list that books have to meet, but ... well there's no life to it, its a limp french fry of a given. But not here. When Griffith writes strong female characters they aren't cartoon girls who kick ass in a perky fashion, they are ferociously real people with needs and confusions and wisdom and foolishness and they don't whine, and they don't blame other people for their problems, and it hurts when they fall down, and its hard work to get up again.
And then. And then you'll have a character that for whatever reason the author isn't interested in, and that character is just a place holder. Which is just glaringly odd stood up against all the other fiercely real people milling about.
But most of all, the books fall down on plot. I'm not even sure I mean that they fall down, because I sort of weirdly like the plots. But they are rambling affairs, like a kid wandering around picking things up and putting them down again. We'll get pages and pages of fascination with the particular mechanics of some industry - how movie stunts are staged, or what Norwegians eat for lunch. And then a major plot development will get two paragraphs.
The weird thing is, I kind of fall in love with the idiosyncratic weirdness of it. One thing these books are not are paint by numbers slick genre fiction that ticks off all the boxes - murder on page three, dectective introduced page four, etc. etc. They are very determinedly their own weird little birds. And I kind of like that!
Fact remains, this is a novel in a genre that places a premium on plotting and pacing, and the plotting and pacing here are just kinda goofy. Endearing as I find that, I think its still a flaw.
So once again I am left wrestling. I kind of want to give this book three stars and five stars simultaneously. But I don't want to give it four. Because where it is good its better than four, and where it doesn't work its worse. And I'm not willing to put it in a blender.
One thing is for sure. I am going to continue to read Nicola Griffith.
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the way the traffic moves and how it feels to be there. Characters that she cares about are sharp, clear, economically drawn with just the right collection of telling details, like a pen and ink sketch that captures the person better than a photograph. Gorgeous.Also, "strong female characters," is becoming a sort of tired pro forma check list that books have to meet, but ... well there's no life to it, its a limp french fry of a given. But not here. When Griffith writes strong female characters they aren't cartoon girls who kick ass in a perky fashion, they are ferociously real people with needs and confusions and wisdom and foolishness and they don't whine, and they don't blame other people for their problems, and it hurts when they fall down, and its hard work to get up again.
And then. And then you'll have a character that for whatever reason the author isn't interested in, and that character is just a place holder. Which is just glaringly odd stood up against all the other fiercely real people milling about.
But most of all, the books fall down on plot. I'm not even sure I mean that they fall down, because I sort of weirdly like the plots. But they are rambling affairs, like a kid wandering around picking things up and putting them down again. We'll get pages and pages of fascination with the particular mechanics of some industry - how movie stunts are staged, or what Norwegians eat for lunch. And then a major plot development will get two paragraphs.
The weird thing is, I kind of fall in love with the idiosyncratic weirdness of it. One thing these books are not are paint by numbers slick genre fiction that ticks off all the boxes - murder on page three, dectective introduced page four, etc. etc. They are very determinedly their own weird little birds. And I kind of like that!
Fact remains, this is a novel in a genre that places a premium on plotting and pacing, and the plotting and pacing here are just kinda goofy. Endearing as I find that, I think its still a flaw.
So once again I am left wrestling. I kind of want to give this book three stars and five stars simultaneously. But I don't want to give it four. Because where it is good its better than four, and where it doesn't work its worse. And I'm not willing to put it in a blender.
One thing is for sure. I am going to continue to read Nicola Griffith.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2007
Physical description
480 p.; 9.1 inches
ISBN
1594489351 / 9781594489358
Local notes
OCLC = 507
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