Some twenty years ago, Charles de Lint showed me that modern fantasy wasn’t all quest novels and pseudo-fairytales. I’ve been a big fan ever since, although not so much of the Newford stories that dominated his work during the 90s. De Lint introduced me to urban fantasy, a sort of hybrid interweaving of the magical creatures, cultures and abilities from traditional fantasy with a contemporary, often real-world, urban setting.

Set in the American Southwest, The Mystery of Grace features Grace, a young, tattoo-covered, Latina gearhead, named after Our Lady of Altagracia.  A tattoo of Grace’s mother near her left collarbone is set where it can keep an eye on the one of Our Lady on her shoulder, and vice versa. Her right leg proclaims her fondness for the Ford Motor Company, legacy of the  abuelo (grandfather) who taught her to love classic cars and hot rod culture. Grace is a tough, engaging, totally unique heroine, and a great person to spend some story time with.

Her life runs mainly between her work at Sanchez Motor Works and her beloved Abuelo, with occasional branching out to a few close friends and favorite places. When Abuelo dies, Grace takes up smoking again, triggering an event that changes everything else in her life. The cover blurbs carefully avoid saying anything about that change, so I’m not going to play spoiler by telling more, but in classic urban fantasy fashion it shows Grace that there’s more to the reality around her than the familiar things she’s used to and the familiar way she’s looked at them. Dealing with this new reality is terrifying and challenging, with Grace trying to puzzle out new limitations, new abilities, new people and new ways of being. But it also creates the opportunity for Grace to meet John Burns, the love-at-first-sight perfect man for her. Problem is that John and Grace both come with serious baggage, while the same change that created an opportunity for them to meet also means that the meeting occurred exactly too late. Even if they can sort all that out, there’s still the question of why Grace is there in the first place and how long she’ll stay, which may make it all moot. The ending of this tale of love, loss, and redemption shows that the heroine isn’t the only grace caught up in mystery.

De Lint writes compulsively readable stories with reach-out-and-touch-them vividly real settings and characters you care deeply about as people, but there’s also food for thought. The real magic here isn’t the altered reality Grace finds herself in, it’s the way she perceives it and deals with it, works through what it might mean and changes it even as it changes her.

Highly recommended.