#113. SLOW RIVER By Nicola Griffith

Published : 1995
Pages : 321
Overall Mark : 9/10

She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. Lore Van Oesterling had been the daughter of one of the world’s most powerful families... and now she was nobody. Now she has to hide. Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her to reinvent herself. And now Lore worked for her.

NICOLA GRIFFITH (1960-)
Nicola Griffith is a British science-fiction author, editor and essayist. Griffith graduated from the Michigan State University Clarion science fiction writing workshop, in 1988, and has won the Nebula, the James Tiptree, jr, the World Fantasy and four Lambda Literary Awards. Although born in Yorkshire, she now lives in Seattle, in the USA.

VERDICT
This starts off very slowly, and goes back and forth explaining the main protagonist’s motivations which felt a little unnecessary at first, but eventually this becomes very engrossing and has some nice twists that you really don’t expect. This doesn’t really have that much of a sci-fi feel to it, but mystery and thriller fans will get a kick out of this look at the future of industrial espionage.