author of the Rizzoli & Isles series Tess Gerritsen
Fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful, with a startling heroine you'll never forget.... I've long been a fan of Elizabeth Hand's amazing books, and once again she proves why she is truly a writer's writer, her prose so glowing it makes all the rest of us jealous.
author of Eight Perfect Murders Peter Swanson
Picture The Maltese Falcon, but instead of a black bird, there's an ancient and mystic manuscript, and instead of a private eye with a code, there's an aging punk photographer amped up on booze and speed. Elizabeth Hand's genre mash-up is a dizzying ride.
BookPage (starred review)
A hair-raising, mind-bending trip… Exquisitely suspenseful, and the paranoia suffusing the story is very much of our present moment. The idea that any single source can make sense of everything happening around us is as alluring as it is dangerous [and] half of the mystery in The Book of Lamps and Banners is wondering whether Cass Neary will save us or take us down with her.
author of The Man Who Came Uptown George Pelecanos
Intense and atmospheric.... An inventive brew of postpunk attitude and dark mystery. Elizabeth Hand writes with craftsmanship and passion.
New York Times bestselling author of Paradox Bound Peter Clines
If Dan Brown wrote TheGirl With the Dragon Tattoo, you'd have something like Elizabeth Hand'sThe Book of Lamps and Banners. A tight, gritty page-turner that gnaws at your fingertips and gets under your skin — the best kind of addiction.
The Crime Lady Sarah Weinman
A propulsive exploration of obsession and addiction.
winner of the HorrorWriters' Association and W Ellen Datlow
With each new book, Elizabeth Hand's great creation Cass Neary grows more complex, and fascinating. She's tough, smart, f*cked up. And I love her. If you've been following her since Generation Loss, you already know all this. If you haven't, read this book.
author of These Women Ivy Pochoda
It's hard to imagine a more perfect novel than The Book of Lamps and Banners. In her fourth Cass Neary outing, Elizabeth Hand has delivered a startling book that is dirty, wise, aching, and almost magical. Hand expertly marries muscular prose to sophisticated detail, resulting in an enviably smart, fearless novel that conjures demons, evokes an immediate sense of place, and summons the surreal.
Mystery Scene
“Intense and hard to put down… Elizabeth Hand’s writing is crisp and vividly imagined.”
From the Publisher
Cass Neary is a tough, self-destructive character who still exudes compassion, courage, and love for the beauty and the pain of life—even more so because she recognizes its impermanence. Part The Club Dumas, part The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, all punk attitude and beautiful ache.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
author of Your House Will Pay Steph Cha
I love Cass Neary, the smart, messy, substance-abusing, death-marked ghost of punk. Her latest misadventure is vivid and haunting, braiding the ancient and occult with the unholy frights of the modern world. A thrill ride crackling with sulfurous brilliance.
New York Times Book Review
Cass Neary is a remarkable heroine. As with Sherlock Holmes, her power lies in the act of seeing what ordinary people cannot.”
author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin atth Paul Tremblay
The ancient manuscript at the center of The Book of Lamps and Banners is as kaleidoscopic, dark, and mysterious as Hand's amateur sleuth. This novel is a jaw-punch, written with a snarling grace. Cass Neary—the aging punk photographer living within darkest edges of our broken civilization-is my hero. And so is Liz Hand.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Cass Neary is a tough, self-destructive character who still exudes compassion, courage, and love for the beauty and the pain of life…Part The Club Dumas, part The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, all punk attitude and beautiful ache.”
author of The Child Finder Rene Denfeld
What a story! Powered by pure adrenaline and excitement, engrossing and yet human to the core—Elizabeth Hand has written a barn burner of a thriller. What a delight.
author of Dead Astronauts Jeff VanderMeer
I love Elizabeth Hand's Cass Neary novels — they're tough-minded, beautifully written, and unique. One of the best series out there.
Publishers Weekly
Enjoyable . . . The action hurtles toward an exciting climax on an island off the Swedish coast. That this adventure ends for once on a positive note for Cass, who so far has been living on an addict’s ragged edge, will please series fans. Newcomers will find this a good entry point.
Booklist (starred review)
A wild ride that defies comparison: pill-popping idealist Cass Neary’s obsessive hunt piles on teeth-grinding, story-propelling tension, and Hand’s gifted portrayal of subcultures seamlessly
links Cass’ past in New York’s ’80s punk scene, London’s rare-book dealers, and Odinist neo-Nazis.
author of Experimental Film Gemma Files
Brilliantly entertaining and surprisingly heart-wrenching . . . Pure triumph, from end to end.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-07-14
In a dystopian world of heavy fog, Nazi demonstrations, and a creeping virus, photographer Cass Neary searches for an ancient book that might have supernatural power.
Cass is a wreck. She’s lost her camera; she hasn’t heard from the love of her life, ex-con Quinn O’Boyle, in several days; and she’s jonesing for alcohol, speed, or anything else she can get her hands on. When she runs into rare-book runner Gryffin Haselton in London, he confesses that he’s about to make the sale of a lifetime to up-and-coming tech genius Tindra Bergstrand: a mysterious, arcane book that may have been written by Aristotle. Of course, things go horribly wrong: The middleman is murdered, and Cass and Gryffin escape only to be picked up by Tindra’s people. It turns out that Tindra wants the Aristotle text to scan into an app she’s developing that's supposed to heal the brains of people suffering from PTSD—but when Cass gets a glimpse of the Ludus Mentis app, she flashes back viscerally to the greatest trauma of her life. Reunited with Quinn, Cass is soon on the run, dodging neo-Nazis as they rally in London and following clues to a remote Scandinavian island, hoping that if she recovers the book it could pay her and Quinn’s way to a new start. Cass is walking wounded; still she views the world through the eyes of a true artist, an artist who feels the full weight of her calling. “Because what is a photographer,” she asks, “but a chooser of the slain, someone who decides who or what is destined for immortality?” Cass Neary is a tough, self-destructive character who still exudes compassion, courage, and love for the beauty and the pain of life—even more so because she recognizes its impermanence.
Part The Club Dumas, part The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, all punk attitude and beautiful ache.
