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    The Mystery of Grace
    The Mystery of Grace
    The Mystery of Grace
    Ebook349 pages4 hours

    The Mystery of Grace

    By Charles de Lint

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns, just two weeks too late.

    Altagracia – her friends call her Grace – has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder, she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it'll never wash out. Grace works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling.

    Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is all her world -- from the little grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes ("cigarettes can kill you," they tell her, but she smokes them anyway) to the record shop, to the library where Henry, a black man confined to a wheelchair, researches the mystery of life in death – but she's got unfinished business keeping her close to home.

    Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business – he's haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He's never stopped feeling responsible. Like Grace in her way, John is an artist, and before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go.


    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 17, 2009
    ISBN9781429978545
    The Mystery of Grace
    Author

    Charles de Lint

    Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.

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    Reviews for The Mystery of Grace

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    • 4/5
      Altagracia Quintero, Grace to her friends, is a lover of classic cars--specifically, classic Ford cars. She works at Sanchez Motors customizing hot rods. She's a fan of rockabilly music, and has enough tattoos to make those unacquainted with her believe at first glance that she's a tough, scary, gang member.

      John's an artist, doing commission work for his friends' company while pursuing his serious art independently. He's a melancholy and somewhat solitary young man, still coping with his grief and guilt over the death of his younger brother, when they were still children. When he and Grace meet at the local music hall on Halloween, he's immediately attracted to her, and she to him. Before the night is over, John and Grace are well on the way to being in love.

      Unfortunately, Grace has been dead for two weeks.

      Grace died when she was shot by a strung-out junkie robbing the local grocery when she stopped in to buy a pack of cigarettes. After death, she woke up in a very odd afterlife, a tiny pocket universe which reproduces her apartment building, the Alverson Arms, and a few blocks around it in each direction. Everyone who dies within those few blocks winds up in this pocket universe when they die. There's no way out, except for two "free trips home" a year, on Halloween and May Eve. On those two nights, they can, if they choose, return to the living world from moonrise to sunrise. The people who knew them before, though, won't recognize them, and at sunrise, they find themselves back in the Alverson Arms world.

      In alternating voices, John's and Grace's, we learn the story of their romance, John's struggles with the discovery that he's in love with a ghost, and Grace's discovery of the nature of the Alverson Arms world and her struggle to set things right. This story is truly a stand-alone, unrelated to anything de Lint has written before, but if you've enjoyed his gentle, lyrical telling of tales whose characters have to confront their own character strengths and weaknesses, as well as a world more complex than they were prepared for, you'll enjoy this.

      Recommended.

      I borrowed this book from a friend.
    • 3/5
      It wasn't what I was expecting, but maybe I had my hopes too high. But there were a lot of things that were weird about this book, and not really in a good way.First of all, there's Grace. She's not bad. She's interesting because of her interests, though when I try to think back on it I can't really remember her personality. She likes cars and rockabilly and has a lot of tattoos. What are those tattoos? Well, there are descriptions of two of them, but the rest... She's just a heavily tattooed girl. It's mentioned so much and she has the recurring problem of people looking at her warily because of her tattoos, but we don't get to know what they all are? Frustrating.The world that Grace finds herself in isn't quite believable. If they're completely self-contained, why do they still have food and showers and stuff? Where does the water come from? Maybe it's stupid, but the world just didn't seem to have enough detail. It didn't seem real, though I guess you could argue that it's not supposed to.John. Stereotypical. Hovering over the line between creepy and devoted. His friends, like Grace, are defined primarily by their interests while delving into their personalities isn't anywhere. Nina is the go-getting girl, also into wicca. Danny is the gamer nerd who can't get a girl. Wes is gay. Okay.The plot. It was interesting. I genuinely didn't know how it was going to resolve itself, so at least there really was a "mystery" in here. But it was kind of all over the place, like it didn't know what it wanted to be. The romance was there of course, though just as a instant-connection-deep-love kind of way. Then there's the whole mystery of the dead world. Suddenly there's a witch, with absolutely no foreshadowing at all. There's some stuff about faith. There's some stuff about a mother's love and Grace's family issues.The book just wasn't long enough to actually investigate all of these things. They popped in and out of the story, making it feel disconnected and a little confusing.It's weird though, because normally I like Charles de Lint and his books aren't so scattered. Not sure what happened to this one. It's a shame because the cover and concept are really cool.
    • 3/5
      I finally finished reading de Lint's Mystery of Grace. My thoughts on it can pretty much be summed up in a disappointed sigh. I didn't like it much and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that it wasn't set in Newford or that none of de Lint's signature characters were even mentioned. That doesn't bother me. What does bother me? This book's protagonist is dead. And I don't consider that to be a spoiler in the least because even though it's only barely and very vaguely hinted at in the blurb (you wouldn't catch it until after you knew), you find it out within the first twenty pages of the book. This bugs me because I don't like reading about dead people (doesn't interest me, not my thing) and I wouldn't have picked it up and bought it if that had been out in the open.So that's my bias from the get-go, but beyond that, I think it could've been written better. I still love Charles de Lint, but it seemed like we didn't get to really know these characters very well. The main character was fairly well written, even likable, but her love interest wasn't really and the villainess (who doesn't actually appear until about 3/4 of the way through) was kind of flat to me. She had proper motivation for being evil, sure, but it wasn't fleshed out enough for me to believe it.That's pretty much all I got for this one.
    • 4/5
      Grace is of Mexican descent, is a mechanic, and is covered with tattoos. John is a really nice guy, an artist. When John and Grace spend a night together, they seem to be super-connected. Imagine John’s surprise when Grace literally disappears from his bathroom the next morning! I’d like to say more about the book (much more is revealed in the second chapter), but the big reveal is not mentioned in the blurb about the book, so I will keep it to myself (but you can see it based on tags if you look; don’t look if you don’t want to see!).The chapters were told from alternating points of view. I really liked this. Really good urban fantasy (which de Lint is so good at!). I liked both main characters and I liked Grace’s world and the friendship she made with Conchita. The mythology/superstition was interesting, as well.
    • 4/5
      The Mystery of Grace is a perfect de Lint novel. It has fully fleshed out characters I really cared about, the author's familiar treatment of spirit worlds and the ordinary people who encounter them, and the easy-going voice I've come to love over the years. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who hasn't yet read a de Lint novel. It does differ from his others in that the spirit world in this book is a limbo where people are trapped after they die. There aren't any of his usual fairies or dream boyfriends, but the heart and style are de Lint at his best.
    • 4/5
      3.5-4.0 stars

      I enjoyed this short novel, but found it hard to categorize since it crossed so many subgenres. Ghost, spirits or spiritwalkers, a smidgen of Native American shamanism, a pinch of paganism (Wiccans at the Witches' Ball no less), Catholic saints, a peculiar Purgatory, existentialism, a dangerous delusional mother and a surprising touch of redemption wrapped in tattoos. Oh, and a brief romance kindled after the protagonist's death. Trust me, it sounds strange (it is strange), but de Lint delivers.
    • 2/5
      This was not comparable to the rest of de Lint's fiction. I think his best work is in his short stories, although I really do like some of his novels (Someplace to be Flying, for example). But this just doesn't compare. It was an easy, quick read, and not so bad that I didn't finish... but it wasn't very satisfying.
    • 5/5
      That summary has some beautiful writing itself, as there are major things that happen at the start of the book that are delicately phrased there. I am grateful that the summary tread so lightly, as the book completely surprised me with where it went and what happened from there.There is a love story, but the book isn't a romance by any means. The true focus is on the mystery around Grace: what happened to her and her neighbors, why, and how to resolve it--if it can or should be resolved. If you have read any of de Lint's work before, you know he's a master at setting mood. The setting here may be the dusty desert southwest, but it has the full creepy vibe of his fog-filled Newford. Much of the tension is from the setting, because the book itself isn't action packed. Not many big things happen. Even so, I was completely engrossed by the book. The ending may have been a bit low key, but it still worked. There's also a horrible twist near the end that made me yelp out loud and then gnaw my lip in worry.The Mystery of Grace is indeed mysterious, and beautiful, and frightening. I'm keeping this one on my shelf.
    • 3/5
      quickie synopsis: Grace's ghost slowly evolves into the fullness of her name. This is a light, whimsical read for a lazy day with a beautiful ending that wraps itself around you like a long lost hug. If you've never ventured into the fantasy world of Charles de Lint then this is a good beginning. warning: there were several holes in the plot I overlooked because I liked the concept and the ending.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book. I've read quite a few de Lint books and for those looking for a continuation of de Lint's faerie themes then of course, they will be disappointed. I was able to relate to the characters and theme and didn't find it boring or slow. Maybe its because I'm from the southwest and the descriptions were people and places that were similar to what grew up with. Maybe for the subject matter. In any case, I absolutely loved this book.
    • 5/5
      Every time I read a book by Charles de Lint I'm reminded how much I enjoy his work. This is a rather unusual ghost story. I find de Lint's work to be rather sweet, even when tackling very harsh subjects, and this book fits that pattern for me.I loved the character of Grace. Life hasn't been easy for her, but she's found her own path. Many people looking at her find her tattoos to be off-putting, but to her, each has a meaning, and is a celebration of her life. She and her mother were never able to connect. Her mother wanted her to find a nice lawyer and settle down, and Grace wanted to be doing something herself. Thanks to the strong bond she forged with her grandfather, she found her calling in working with old cars.At first, I thought the story would equally belong to John, since the book starts with him and his ill-timed meeting with Grace. Although he's an interesting character as well, the story belongs to her.Grace's world is wonderfully built. I think it draws from several mythologies, but most of it is new to me, and I don't know how much is directly from de Lint's imagination (I think most of it is). Wherever it originates, it is fantastic to explore it with Grace, as she tries to understand its secrets.This is the first time I've tried one as an audio book, and I'm quite pleased to find they work well in this format as well. The narrator did an excellent job. de Lint has a very nice rhythm and flow to his words that drew me in even further, since I don't like to take the time to appreciate the language when I read in print.
    • 2/5
      **Some mild spoilers ahead**On the front of this novel, Alice Hoffman is quoted as saying “No one does it better.” That’s not true. A lot of people do it better. Alice Hoffman, for example. Or Robin McKinley. Or Neil Gaiman. Altagracia "Grace" Quintero is a self-described gearhead covered head to toe in tattoos, and she gets pissed when people judge her for her ink instead of her character. She loves classic hot rods (which she rebuilds), rockabilly and surf guitar, and Ford Motor Company (and she's a bad MoFo with a FoMoCo tattoo running down her leg to prove it). It's not important that you remember any of these things because she'll repeat them, over and over again. Oh, but other than her referring to her grandfather as "abuelo", you will have to remember that she's Mexican-American, which begs the question as to why this was important, unless it's so that de Lint can show off his limited and stereotyped surface knowledge of Mexican culture and the American Southwest. He must have watched a special on the Travel Channel. Grace has just met the man of her dreams--John. Sure, he's pretty straight-laced and doesn't have any ink, but what he lacks in body art, he more than makes up for in . . . well, I'm not sure. It's just one of those "eyes locked across the crowded room" scenarios that lead to them going to bed together. But here's the problem for Grace: she's dead. Yup, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies, groundhogs are bringing her mail, she has shuffled off this mortal coil. She's only allowed two passes back to the real world each year (Halloween and May's Eve) and, wouldn't you know it?, she doesn't meet her true love until she's all corpsified. Ain’t death a bitch? The rest of the novel is about these existence-crossed lovers trying to figure out how to be together. John, as he waits for the months to pass by, develops a stalkerish interest in—you guessed it—classic hot rods, rockabilly and surf guitar, and FoMoCo. Grace, as she waits, decides to rebuild a car in the afterlife. The afterlife Grace finds herself in isn’t heaven or hell, but seems to be a purgatory where people who die within the area in which Grace lived cross over, along with the building in which they died. So the landscape is constantly shifting, but everything else is pretty much just like life. The dead play cards, read books from the local library, listen to music at the local record shop, and basically wait for their two “get out of jail free” passes back to earth.So what was my problem with this novel? Oh, there were so many. Weak characterization; long, tedious passages (the afterlife has never been so boring); conversations that offer shortcuts to exposition; and the fact that the last 1/3 seems to belong to a totally different novel. Some plotlines are just dropped altogether (for example, John just disappears off the page part of the way through the book after de Lint has spent so much time developing this relationship upon which the entire plot seems to hinge). This may be my first and last de Lint novel as I have the sneaking suspicion that the best thing about his novels is the cover art.
    • 4/5
      The premise: ganked from BN.com: In a major new novel, Charles de Lint mingles Native American, Hispanic, and Celtic magic to invoke a world where classic hot rods and surf guitar mingle with brujeria and angry ghosts -- and where on nights when the barrier between the worlds is thin, the living and the dead can touch.Prolific Canadian fantasist de Lint returns to adult fiction with a supernatural love story set in the American Southwest and an odd afterlife. Following her death, auto restorer Altagracia "Grace" Quintero awakens in a timeless realm inhabited by her recently deceased neighbors. Briefly returned to our world during Halloween night, Grace falls in love with John, a young artist, and he returns the feeling even when he discovers her condition. As the obvious pun in the title indicates, this tale of attachments formed and relinquished is also about belief and hope. De Lint doesn't endorse any particular religious system, but he writes passionately about the individual's ability to discover an effective personal magic. The story develops through comforting, warm compassion to reach the inevitable, mostly satisfying solution.My RatingWorth the Cash: Okay, so this book is a tricky beast, so I want to be clear: if you've never, ever, EVER read Charles de Lint before, this isn't the best place to start. It's definitely not his best work (says the reviewer who's read two books by him total, including this one), and if you really want to get a feel for why people love this author so, you need to look elsewhere. My first Charles de Lint title was Someplace to be Flying and I loved it, so I recommend that if you're wanting to try de Lint, you can start there and be fine. I'm fine! The Mystery of Grace, but any other standards, is a good book. Not great, but good. The problem is that because Charles de Lint wrote it, there's a higher expectation, so a good book by any other standards becomes, OMG-WHAT'S-WRONG by de Lint standards.My issues came from the fact that everything felt a little washed out, and that may have been intentional given the subject matter, but while I enjoyed all the details and learning everything I could about these characters and their world, I never really connected. The book didn't leave me dying to read more de Lint, whereas Somplace to be Flying did. I never really know Grace as a person, only as what her interests define her as. Which, for the record, is interesting. I also wish the love story had played a stronger role through-out the book. That's one of the reasons this book appealed to me so, was this doomed love story, but once it wraps up, it wraps up, and I wish it'd had more impact. At any rate, de Lint readers may find themselves underwhelmed, but who knows, maybe new readers will be enamored. But if you ask me, there are better places to start with this author, especially if you want to see what the hype is about. Personally, I can't wait to start the Newford series from the "beginning" with all of the short stories, because this felt more like an appetizer to the real deal. Ah, food for my analogy! The Mystery of Grace is to Someplace to be Flying as a hamburger is to a filet mignon. How's that work? :)Review style: Much discussion will be had on whether or not this is a smart place to start reading de Lint if you've never read him before. We'll also talk about the story's construction, whether or not it should've been a novel or a collection of short stories, and examine the love story that sort of drives the book. There will be spoilers, so don't click the link below to the full review unless you don't mind being spoiled. Everyone else, feel free. Comments and discussion are most welcome!REVIEW: Charles de Lint's THE MYSTERY OF GRACEHappy Reading!
    • 3/5
      I have read a ton of Charles de Lint books and really loved his Newford books. I was eager to read one of his more recent novels. This book is okay but lacks a lot of the magic of his Newford books and is pretty slow at certain parts. I listened to this on audio book and the audio book was very well done.Grace is a very tattooed gearhead that enjoys working on cars with her grandfather. When her grandfather dies she recedes some from her friends and by some strange fate ends up getting shot in the local grocery store. After getting shot she wakes up in her apartment where an old woman is standing over her letting her know she's dead. Grace is in a kind of in between place where the people who die in a six block area surrounding her apartment find themselves, kind of a limbo. They can return to the "real world" twice year. While back in the real world Grace meets someone special, and while yearning to see him again she struggles to solve the mystery of why the souls are trapped in this limbo.Grace and all of the other characters introduced are likable and believable. They are all kind characters, except for the obvious "bad guy", and all strive to make the most out of their lives in limbo. The idea of having a location have this kind of limbo-world for souls is interesting and creative and de Lint ties it to a lot of mexican/native american mythology.My biggest problem with this book is the pacing. It takes too long for Grace to get to limbo and once she is there it takes too long before she actually does something. I understand de Lint was trying to give us a sense of boredom that Grace experienced and convey the passage of time, I just wish he would have done it in a way that didn't bore me as a reader.SPOILER ALERT (although I tried to make it as non-spoiler as I could)Also there are some things that happen in the plot that seem to happen for basically no reason. For example John, the guy Grace meets has some premonition about not seeing her again. After that he is pretty much cut out of the story. I mean Grace doesn't even mention him a ton after that, which is odd considering her attachment to him. Then when her friend in limbo mentions that a Juan (John) is needed to break the evil spirit you expect John to play into it somehow...only he doesn't. After a while I began to wonder why John's story was even included. Really besides the catalyst it provides to make Grace gain thecourage to fight the evil spirit, he doesn't ultimately play that big of a part in the story.SPOILER ENDAt the end of the book you kind of feel let down. There is all this build up and then not much ever happens. The main storyline is resolved, but not in a way that surprises or in a way that is ironic.Overall, a creative idea but definitely not the most magical of De Lint's works. The pacing is poor and some parts are just plain boring. If you are interested in reading de Lint and are a newcomer to his works I would recommend Moonheart and Spiritwalk (or basically any other book of his) over this book.
    • 5/5
      It's hard to say which of de Lint's books are favorites because I love everything he writes so much; but if I had to choose a favorite or two, Grace would be right at the top. 
    • 3/5
      This was an impulse buy which I read most of in one sitting and then didn't come back to for two weeks (because I was packing and moving, not because I didn't want to). My impression of it may have suffered because of that, but I don't think so. I loved the setting here (American Southwest, with a lot of the mysticism, mythology, and culture arising from the book's Hispanic characters), and the premise had promise (the main character finds herself dead and trapped in a strange afterlife which she is sure isn't quite right), but the whole book just read flat. The pacing seemed off (even before my putting it down for a long time), I never quite warmed fully to Grace (though, intellectually, I like her), and even though I think I see what de Lint was going for, I was left with a decided "And? So?" feeling in the end.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of John and Grace who meet just two weeks too late. Grace is a hot rod chica who has almost as much ink as she does sass. John is an artist carrying around a heavy burden from his past. They meet on Halloween night and it's amazing. It's instantaneous, and meaningful, and... brief because when dawn comes Grace disappears. This is a story about two people in love, but it is so much more than a love story. de Lint has woven myth and magic and faith and saints and sinners into a complex tapestry of life and hope.
    • 5/5
      A new book by Charles de Lint for me is always a delight. I’ve been a fan of his for over 15 years, buying and reading anything he releases with a completist’s zeal. He has this ability to create people I want to meet and worlds I want to immerse myself in. It has been this way from his first book I read and remains true to this day. The Mystery of Grace is another Charles de Lint masterpiece: strong characterisation grounded in a believable landscape (no matter how strange that landscape maybe!) It is essentially a story of love and of mortality - bleeding (literally) into death. Gripping and as ever highly readable.
    • 4/5
      A fine, if bittersweet, book. What happens when you are dead? Nobody knows. In 'The Mystery of Grace', Charles de Lint writes a book of hope. Religion is apart from it - the book neither affirms nor denies any belief, but does posit something beyond death. All choose to believe in the possibility of this on their own; but the book assumes the possibility, and takes it from there.Grace is a young hispanic woman who, tragically, is shot and dies. She wakes in the same place, but the only people she sees are others who have died in the vicinity. They all inhabit the area, but know not why. An endless existence with the other dead, all of whom sense that their life is less than life, and wonder if this can be what was really intended. Grace brings something to these people, and helps them find the answer they are looking for. The book makes no grand pronouncements about what comes after - indeed, it denies all knowledge, even through the last page. But it is a book of hope, and a book that warms the heart.I thought some parts of the plot were not especially relevant and so perhaps it meandered a bit. Those parts did add variety to the story and had value that way, but the lack of directness detracts from the story. There are two important story lines, both of which must be resolved. One of them is doomed to end sadly, but he finds a way to resolve it as best it can be resolved, which isn't so sad after all. And the other is a major point of tension towards which the story directs itself, but it takes its own sweet time getting there. Still, I was never bored; and was very glad to have read it.Another superb story by Charles de Lint.
    • 4/5
      This was one I honestly wasn't sure I was going to keep reading, because it starts out with a one night stand. Normally de Lint's books don't have that much sex in them and it kinda startled me to have it be the opener of the book! I kept going though, and ended up very intrigued by the concept behind the book.Grace is a hard core girl, she is covered in tattoos, but it's because they each have personal meaning not simply because it's trendy. She also discovered at an early age that she loved cars, and more specifically, restoring and working on classic cars. So instead of wearing makeup and doing all the things her mother would expect, she took shop, and grew up to become a mechanic.Now Grace has died, but instead of going on to whatever reward awaits her, she's stuck in a limbo world that's centered around the apartment complex she lived in. She's not the only one stuck in this world, and each person is dealing with it differently. Some simply sink into apathy and sleep, other's find ways to occupy themselves, and still others are convinced there is a way out if they only look hard enough. Grace and one of her new friends become convinced that there is a way out of their predicament. The story takes a lot of twists and turns, and oh did I mention? There's a heart breaking love story as well!
    • 3/5
      I finally finished reading de Lint's Mystery of Grace. My thoughts on it can pretty much be summed up in a disappointed sigh. I didn't like it much and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that it wasn't set in Newford or that none of de Lint's signature characters were even mentioned. That doesn't bother me. What does bother me? This book's protagonist is dead. And I don't consider that to be a spoiler in the least because even though it's only barely and very vaguely hinted at in the blurb (you wouldn't catch it until after you knew), you find it out within the first twenty pages of the book. This bugs me because I don't like reading about dead people (doesn't interest me, not my thing) and I wouldn't have picked it up and bought it if that had been out in the open.So that's my bias from the get-go, but beyond that, I think it could've been written better. I still love Charles de Lint, but it seemed like we didn't get to really know these characters very well. The main character was fairly well written, even likable, but her love interest wasn't really and the villainess (who doesn't actually appear until about 3/4 of the way through) was kind of flat to me. She had proper motivation for being evil, sure, but it wasn't fleshed out enough for me to believe it.That's pretty much all I got for this one.
    • 4/5
      I have been wanting to read a de Lint book for quite some time and happened upon "The Mystery of Grace." I simply couldn't put it down. As a modern fantasy, it was a bit outside the genres I normally select from and I am so pleased that I took the chance. This book speaks on many levels and is one that I will be thinking about for quite some time.
    • 5/5
      An amazing book. I came across it by accident at my local library. I dont usually choose a book based on the cover, but as I was walking by a case of new novels it stood out. I decided to check it out. Wow, I couldnt put it down. I enjoy a good love story, but I was shocked at how much I liked a love story where the woman falling in love is dead. Charles de Lint really put great detail in this book. He is a great storyteller. I plan on reading Dingo next and Im excited about it.
    • 4/5
      This haunting love story by fantasy master de Lint, will keep readers involved from beginning to end. Grace, a young Hispanic woman living in the SouthWest, lives for her hot rods, and her late abuelo (grandfather) who taught her everything she knows about rebuilding old cars. After his death, Grace feels lost and depressed, and makes the fatal decision to start smoking again. Then, too late, she meets the love of her life.
    • 4/5
      This book is about death, friendship, and faith. A mysterious date leads to strange revelations but a little bit of faith keeps all the characters on the red road. Absolutely fabulous book Charles De Lint is a wonderful story teller.
    • 5/5
      There is a blurb on this book by Alice Hoffman. She said "Nobody does it better".I don't usually put much stock in these author blurbs, but I have to say that I agree with this one. I don't remember how I found Charles De Lint, but I am grateful that I did, because as Ms Hoffman says, nobody does it better. This is the story of Grace. It is a story of live and love and faith, or the loss of it. It is a story of friendship and commitment and death. Most of all, it is a story that reminds us, as do all of De Lint's books of the magic within us all. Grace with her tattoos and her grease and her family, the good and the bad,, is each one of us. Grace is more aptly named than you might think at first look. Grace learns to open her heart wider than she ever believed that she could, and see truth. This is yet another must read in a long line of must reads by this magical author.
    • 5/5
      Unlike most of de Lint‘s urban fantasy, this takes place in a desert southwest city named Solana. Grace is a classic car/ hot rod mechanic and three weeks too late she meets and falls in love with John at the Solana Music Hall. Like all of de Lint's work, it is about people whom I am delighted to get to know, people I'd love to have a beer (or whatever) with, who make the world (again, equivocal here) better for being in it. This brand new novel is required reading for those who already love his work, as I do, or have never read of him. His books will make your heart glad.” I remember telling Conchita that I had no magic, but… I realize that‘s not true… We just don‘t pay attention to it. Every time we fix something that‘s broken whether it‘s a car engine or a broken heart, that‘s an act of magic. And what makes it magic is that we choose to create or help, just as we can choose to harm. But it‘s so easy to destroy and so much harder to make things better. That‘s why doing the right thing makes you stronger.”

    Book preview

    The Mystery of Grace - Charles de Lint

    Altagracia Grace Quintero

    Abuelo—my grandfather on my father’s side—always liked to say, if you’re going to do something, do it the best you can. Do it like it’s the last thing you’ll ever get to do, the one thing by which you’ll be remembered when you’re gone. It doesn’t matter if it’s pulling somebody out of the river or replacing a set of spark plugs. What’s important is that you make it count.

    I remember when my father first left us, Mama didn’t want anything more to do with Abuelo. She got a divorce and became a Convertino again. My brother Tony took her maiden name, too, but I stayed a Quintero—not out of any loyalty to Papa, but out of respect for Abuelo. He was such a sweet old man, as loving and loyal as Papa hadn’t proved to be. Tony never warmed to him—he saw too much of Papa in him, I suppose—but though she came to regret it, Mama let me visit with him whenever I wanted.

    Abuelo was seventy-eight when Papa left us. He lived another ten years, and he lived those years well. I never met another person so present in the moment, giving whatever occupied him his undivided attention. You could think it was because he was old, but I don’t think that was it. It was just how he lived his life—how he’d always lived it.

    I wasn’t so good with giving the present moment my best, that first winter after Papa was gone.

    I was in my final year of high school, wishing I was a cheerleader, but for all the wrong reasons. I wasn’t exactly brimming with school spirit, and I didn’t really care to stand on the sidelines when it came to sports. I just wanted to be popular, or at least accepted, but it was my curse to be average. Not fat, not thin. Not pretty, not ugly. Just . . . average. The kind of person who always fades into the background of any social gathering. I remember thinking that even being stupendously grotesque would be an improvement, because at least I’d be noticed.

    It was only when I stopped trying so hard that things changed for me, and Abuelo had his hand in that, too.

    He lived and breathed cars. Abuela had died years ago—so long ago that I barely remembered her—and after Abuelo retired, he devoted his time to rebuilding a junked 1929 Model A Ford in his garage. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent working on that car with him. I think we did everything but the engine build, window glass cutting, and the front seat upholstery.

    It’s such a sweet ride, painted a classic hot rod primer red. It’s got the bigger ’32 Ford Flathead V-8, ’46 Ford truck brakes, and we had to do a two-and-a-half-inch chop and shortening of the rear to accommodate a ’32 Ford rear gas tank, but otherwise we went the traditional route from front to back. I hate it when gearheads mix styles too much. What’s the point of a custom restore if you can’t still see the original lines? Because that’s what it’s all about. You find the line.

    You take something Detroit built and you make it better. Trim it, stretch it, get rid of all the unnecessary stuff.

    Find the line.

    That’s why Abuelo’s Model A is so sweet. He found the line. We did. And when I understood—when we were done and we stood there looking at this beautiful thing that we’d made from an old junker— there was nothing else I wanted to do after that.

    Working on the Ford in Abuelo’s garage led me to taking shop at school, and that was where Mama started to have her regrets. She realized I wasn’t her good little Catholic daughter anymore, meeting the world in a pretty dress with perfect hair the way I had at my confirmation.

    Gracie, she’d say, girls don’t work in a garage. No boy’s ever going to want a girl who knows more about cars than he does.

    She was wrong about that. I was the only girl in shop, and I’m the only girl mechanic at Sanchez Motorworks where Abuelo got me a job. The boys like it that I’m not a pretender. I’m my abuelo’s granddaughter. I live and breathe classic cars and the whole hot rod culture that goes with it. The rockabilly music, the lowriders, the tattoos and all. My mother gave up on ever marrying me off to a lawyer or a doctor after I got my first tattoo, on my left shoulder. It’s of my namesake, Our Lady of Altagracia, and we’re talking a serious tat here—none of your butterflies or Chinese ideographs that could say any damn thing and you wouldn’t know. No, this is a full shoulder, color portrait of the saint.

    Abuelo smiled when he saw it. Back in his day, only the real tough chicas got tattoos. Now anybody with a few dollars and the time can get one done. But I don’t care. I don’t care how trendy it is, I just like skin art, even if it is a little like crack. Getting them becomes addictive. These days I forget how tattooed I am until I see myself naked.

    Tattoos, Abuelo once said, are the stories in your heart, written on your skin.

    He should know. He had a half dozen of his own, including a portrait of Abuela on his chest, right above his heart.

    Abuelo’s funeral was three weeks ago, which is what’s got me to thinking about all of this. I’ve been going through old pictures of him, looking for one that I can have put on my skin the way I got a portrait of Mama after she died. The one of her is on the left side of my chest, just under my collarbone so that she and Our Lady of Altagracia can look at each other and keep each other company.

    Abuelo was eighty-eight when he died. He still lived on the East Side in that little house of his with the big garage on the side, and he still worked on cars. The latest project was a ’50 Ford coupe—Abuelo always had a fondness for the Ford Motor Company, and I can still remember his big grin when I got FoMoCo tattooed down my right leg. It’s in a loose, loopy red script, with a stick of lipstick in a flourish at the end as though it had been written with the lipstick. I’d been helping him out on weekends, and we’d just finished chopping the top on the way to giving it that killer fastback stance those old Fords carry so well. We had plans to head over to a swap meet on the weekend, hoping to trade for a grille and front bumper—the ones on Abuelo’s coupe were trashed. Knowing he wasn’t such an early riser anymore, I called him on the Friday night to find out what time he wanted to leave.

    I got worried when there was no answer. I’d bought him a cell a few months ago, and made him promise to keep it charged and clipped to his belt, so I knew that he’d answer if he could.

    I don’t think I ever made such good time crossing the city as I did that night. I’m just surprised I didn’t get pulled over. I pushed that old Fairlane of mine to the limit, changing lanes, jumping lights, doing anything I could to get out to his house on time.

    But I was too late.

    I found him in the garage, under the Ford coupe, a wrench in his hand.

    Next to holding court in a corner booth at Chico’s, a shot of tequila in hand and his compadres gathered around, this is how he’d have wanted to go out. Though he’d probably be pissed that he wasn’t going to see the coupe up and running again.

    I sat there on the concrete floor and cried for a long time before I was finally able to call 911.

    There was no one else to make all the arrangements. I had no idea where my father was—if he was even still alive—and there was no other family around. Maybe there were some cousins back in Mexico, but I didn’t know any of them and Abuelo never talked about the people in his old life before he immigrated here. Abuela was long gone. Tony lived in Italy now, working for some architect. He didn’t even come home for the funeral. When I called to tell him that Abuelo had died, he actually said, I didn’t know he was still alive.

    I know they’d never been close, but still. That was harsh.

    The long and short of it was that Rodrigo Quintero was laid to rest on a cool, overcast autumn day with only one member of his immediate family in attendance, which would be me. Though I don’t mean to imply that I was the only person there. It might have been the middle of the week, with the weather offering up a grey day to suit my mood, but San Miguel Cemetery was filled with people for his funeral.

    My best friend Vida Ortiz stood beside me at the graveside— looking gorgeous in a tight black dress, her dyed blond hair subdued by a veil. My boss, Shorty, and the rest of the guys from Sanchez Motors were there, along with the gang from Chico’s, members of the local hot rod club, and all kinds of people who normally I’d only see at car shows and rallies and swap meets. Outside the cemetery, Mission Street was lined with vintage cars for blocks in either direction. Getting here, we’d been like a parade following the hearse—it didn’t hurt that the hearse itself was a rebuilt 1930 Nash 480 Special Six that a friend of Shorty’s had lent us for the day.

    Abuelo would have loved it, though he’d probably have preferred the hearse to be a Ford.

    After the ceremony, we all went back to Chico’s, filling the parking lot and the streets around the taquería with customs and classics. Vida organized all of this. She might play the part of the dumb blonde when she’s posing for photographers at the car shows in her vintage outfits, but she’s been running a successful tattoo shop for ten years and you don’t stay in business that long being dumb. She’s the most organized person I know.

    As often happens at Chico’s, after a couple of hours an impromptu jam started up in one corner featuring a mix of mariachi and rockabilly. At one point, Shorty got up and sang one of Abuelo’s favorite songs: Big Boy Groves’s version of I Gotta New Car with its litany of the problems that buying a new Caddy caused him. And of course it’s got that classic last line about how the next time he gets a new car, it’s going to be one that he can afford, and when he says afford, he means "a

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