Elizabeth Hand - Zeno Agency Ltd.

Backlist Plug: Elizabeth Hand’s CASS NEARY series…

Posted on Friday, June 16th, 2017

Today, we turn back the clock a few years, and spotlight Elizabeth Hand‘s cult-classic, critically-acclaimed Cass Neary duology: GENERATION LOSS and AVAILABLE DARK. The novels are published in the UK by Constable & Robinson. Here’s the synopsis for the first novel…

The secrets of small-town life can be more deadly than fist fights and dead junkies…

Cass Neary is not afraid of living on the edge. A photographer whose shots of New York’s punk scene in the seventies earned her fame, caché, and a cultish kind of cool, Cass has spent much of her life in the dark, watching and waiting. But thirty years later she is alone, adrift and falling rapidly into oblivion. So when an old acquaintance asks her to interview a fellow photographer — a notorious recluse who lives on an island off the Maine coast — she accepts.

There, she learns about a decades-old crime that is still claiming new victims — and comes to realise that her days of living dangerously are not over yet: amid this inhospitable hinterland, Cass comes to realise that her final shot might also be a shot at redemption.

The series has been described as ‘Patricia Highsmith meets Patti Smith’ and as a ‘mesmerizing literary thriller’. Here are some more reviews…

‘Cass Neary… makes Lisbeth Salander seem like a model of mental stability… Stunning.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘In the spirit of Stieg Larsson”s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… As the dark Nordic forest thickens, so does the plot. Larsson fanatics may be unable to resist.’ — New York Post

‘Pulsing with tension throughout… charged with its own chilling luminosity.’ — Washington Post

‘A brilliant sequel to Hand”s acclaimed literary thriller GENERATION LOST… Stunning.’ — Booklist (Starred Review)

‘Fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful, with a startling heroine you”ll never forget… Shimmers with gorgeous writing even as it scares the dickens out of you.’ — Tess Gerritsen

‘Intense and atmospheric, Generation Loss is an inventive brew of postpunk attitude and dark mystery. Elizabeth Hand writes with craftsmanship and passion.’ — George Pelecanos

‘A skin blistering crime novel as edgy and black as dried blood on a moonlit night.’ — Robert Crais

Elizabeth Hand’s latest novel, WYLDING HALL, was published recently by Open Road Media.

Zeno represents Elizabeth Hand in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of Martha Millard at Sterling Lord Literistic.

Aliette de Bodard and Elizabeth Hand Nominated for Locus Awards!

Posted on Tuesday, May 10th, 2016

The Locus Awards were announced last week, and we’re very happy to report that Zeno clients Aliette de Bodard and Elizabeth Hand have both been nominated!

Aliette de Bodard’s latest novel, THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS has been nominated for best fantasy novel. Published in the US by Roc Books, and in the UK by Gollancz, here’s the synopsis…

A superb murder mystery, on an epic scale, set against the fall out of a war in heaven

Paris in the aftermath of the Great Magicians War. Its streets are lined with haunted ruins, Notre-Dame is a burnt-out shell, and the Seine runs black, thick with ashes and rubble. Yet life continues among the wreckage. The citizens retain their irrepressible appetite for novelty and distraction, and The Great Houses still vie for dominion over France’s once grand capital.

House Silverspires, previously the leader of those power games, now lies in disarray. Its magic is ailing; its founder, Morningstar, has been missing for decades; and now something from the shadows stalks its people inside their very own walls.

Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen, an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction, and a resentful young man wielding spells from the Far East. They may be Silverspires’ salvation; or the architects of its last, irreversible fall…

Last month, THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS won the BSFA Award for best novel. In addition, Aliette’s THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS (Asimov) has been nominated for best novella, and THREE CUPS OF GRIEF, BY STARLIGHT (Clarkesworld) has been nominated for best short story — it also won the BSFA Award for best short fiction.

Elizabeth Hand’s WYLDING HALL, published in the UK by PS Publishing, has also been nominated for best fantasy novel. Here’s the synopsis…

After the tragic and mysterious death of one of their founding members, the young musicians in a British acid-folk band hole up at Wylding Hall, an ancient country house with its own dark secrets.

There they record the classic album that will make their reputation — but at a terrifying cost, when Julian Blake, their lead singer, disappears within the mansion and is never seen again.

Now, years later, each of the surviving musicians, their friends and lovers (including a psychic, a photographer, and the band’s manager) meets with a young documentary filmmaker to tell his or her own version of what happened during that summer — but whose story is the true one?

And what really happened to Julian Blake?

The Locus Award winners will be announced during the Locus Award Weekend in Seattle, between June 24-26th.

Zeno represents Elizabeth Hand in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of Martha Millard at Sterling Lord Literistic.

Short Fiction Watch: Ian R. MacLeod & Elizabeth Hand

Posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2014

In this instalment of Short Fiction Watch, we wanted to draw your attention to the 25th Anniversary anthology of BEST NEW HORROR. Edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, and published by PS Publishing, the collection includes stories by Ian R. MacLeod (1/72nd Scale) and Elizabeth Hand (On the Town Route).

Ian R. MacLeod is the author of many critically-acclaimed novels and short stories, including THE LIGHT AGES, THE SUMMER ISLES and WAKE UP AND DREAM. His most recent novella was THE REPARATEUR OF STRASBOURG, published by PS Publishing. His next book is the anthology FROST ON GLASS, due to also be published by PS Publishing next year.

Elizabeth Hand is the critically-acclaimed author of a number of novels. In the UK, Constable & Robinson most recently published GENERATION LOSS and AVAILABLE DARK. Here’s the synopsis for the former…

Cass Neary is on her way down, and almost out when an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer. When she arrives Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and she finds one final shot at redemption. Patricia Highsmith meets Patti Smith in this mesmerizing literary thriller.

The secrets of small-town life can be more deadly than fist fights and dead junkies . . .

Cass Neary is not afraid of living on the edge. A photographer whose shots of New York’s punk scene in the seventies earned her fame, caché, and a cultish kind of cool, Cass has spent much of her life in the dark, watching and waiting. But thirty years later she is alone, adrift and falling rapidly into oblivion. So when an old acquaintance asks her to interview a fellow photographer – a notorious recluse who lives on an island off the Maine coast – she accepts.

There, she learns about a decades-old crime that is still claiming new victims – and comes to realise that her days of living dangerously are not over yet: amid this inhospitable hinterland, Cass comes to realise that her final shot might also be a shot at redemption.

Patricia Highsmith meets Patti Smith in this mesmerizing literary thriller.

Zeno represents Elizabeth Hand in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the Martha Millard Literary Agency in New York.

Happy Publication Day (tomorrow) Elizabeth Hand!

Posted on Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

Congratulations to Elizabeth Hand, whose AVAILABLE DARK is published tomorrow in the UK by Constable & Robinson! It is the second novel featuring Cass Neary, and follows GENERATION LOSS. Below are the covers for both books (we think they look really great together)…

And here’s the synopsis…

As this riveting tour-de-force opens, the police already want to talk to the photographer Cass Neary about a mysterious death she was involved with previously, but before they can bring her in, Cass accepts a job offer from overseas and hops on a plane.

In Helsinki, she authenticates a series of disturbing but stunning images taken by a famous fashion photographer who has cut himself off from the violent Nordic music scene where he first made his reputation. Paid off by her shady employer, she buys a one-way ticket to Reykjavik, in search of a lover from her own dark past.

But when the fashion photographer’s mutilated corpse is discovered back in Finland, Cass finds herself sucked into a vortex of ancient myth and betrayal, vengeance and serial murder, set against a bone-splintering soundtrack of black metal and the terrifying beauty of the sunless Icelandic wilderness.

In this eagerly awaited sequel to the award-winning Generation Loss, Cass Neary finds her own worst fears confirmed: it’s always darkest before it turns completely black.

AVAILABLE DARK is a searing and iconoclastic crime novel, and preceding work GENERATION LOSS is generally considered an underground classic. In this latest installment, Hand sends our protagonist, Cass Neary into the shadowy world of crime in Scandinavia’s coldest corners.

‘A skin-blistering crime novel as edgy and black as dried blood on a moonlit night.’ – Robert Crais

‘Fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful.’ – Tess Gerritsen

‘Intense and atmospheric… Hand writes with craftsmanship and passion.’ – George Pelecanos

‘There’s a deadly beauty to her bleak rendering of the Nordic landscape.’ – New York Times Book Review

‘Elizabeth Hand takes us on a dangerous and drug-fuelled trip through a world of art-fetishists, death metal bands, and Nordic blood cults. This book disturbs and delights.’ – Paul Doiron, author of The Poacher’s Son

Elizabeth Hand is represented by Zeno in the UK & Commonwealth on behalf of the Martha Millard Literary Agency in New York.