Charles De Lint has a new book out this month for adult readers, The Mystery of Grace (it would work fine for older teens as well). It does not take place in De Lint's popular Newford setting and is a bit of a departure story-wise as well. There are no creatures seen out of the corner of the eye, no woodland fairies or crow girls or old world spirits. Grace is first and foremost about what happens when you die and even more so, when you fall in love afterward with someone who is still alive.

The Grace of the title is a woman who loves rockabilly music, tattoos, working on cars (she's customizes hot rods for a living) and her abuelo. His death has shaken her world and left her bereft. Grace is not the quitting type though and she is determined to continue to find joy and love in her friends, who are also her family. The problem is that there is an accident and Grace ends up dying and where she goes is not at all where she thought she would end up. It's not hell (thank goodness) but it's not heaven either. In fact it's her neighborhood - sort of. How everyone shows up there and why, and what they have to do to leave (because this afterlife is just not right) is one of the book's mysteries. The other is what on earth Grace is going to do about John.

John is alive and he meets Grace only after she is dead because true to form for De Lint, there is a way for the dead to revisit the land of the living. It's a little complicated and it involves Halloween (big surprise) but Grace gets through and meets John who is all kinds of sweet and cool and well - what would you do if this was your chance before you return to a very underpopulated neighborhood of dead strangeness? What Grace doesn't expect is to fall so hard for John or for him to fall so much for her.

From there the book follows two plots as Grace and her dead friends try to uncover the secrets of their world and John and his friends try to figure out how the heck they all met someone who was dead. You wonder if they will see each other again (there is another chance and John is determined to while Grace hopes - halfway at least - to avoid him) and what that might mean and also just what the hell is going on with afterlifeland. (There's a library and a record store though - so it's closer to heaven than hell in my book.)

I've been a fan of De Lint's for a long long time and have a special fondness for some of his Newford characters, Jilly in particular. Grace is a very compelling character although I think the music and cars are laid on a little thick. It's fine that she's into that kind of thing but it's a bigger part of the plot than I think is necessary. I got a good sense of who she was before she died (which is obviously very early on in the book) but it seems like De Lint didn't think I got her and wanted to keep showing who she was and that got a little old. I also struggled with the romance angle as they fall so hard so fast and, well, I'm all about the instant attraction but if someone just walked out and didn't leave a number would you really pound the pavement for weeks to find her? And would you know it was love? I guess it's that in most of his books De Lint develops his characters much more slowly. I almost felt like The Mystery of Grace was 50 or 100 pages short - it all comes on fast and furious and the characters fall for each other before the reader has a chance to fall for either one of them.

As to the larger mystery of the afterlife, well that is very well done and there are several supporting characters who shine in small but memorable ways. One thing I did really like about the book was that De Lint writes about faith - all kinds of faith - it literally becomes a battle between those who have faith, in everything from God to the Beatles or Darwin, and someone who does not. Here's an especially cool passage:

It really is all about the blood, I realize, my head filling with a wave of understanding that seems to come from somewhere outside of me.

Which is another way of saying that it connects us to God.

Don't think it's an overly religious book but there is a moment where everyone has to put what they believe in on the table and for Grace it's not Jesus so much as herself - her own flesh and her own blood. That's when I really started to love her and that's what made up for all the other bits and pieces that let me down a bit. The Mystery of Grace is not the strongest book Charles De Lint has ever written, but it's still a fine story which is a heckuva lot better than most titles out there today. As usual he gave me a bit to think about, and his fans will certainly enjoy this one just fine. I just hope that next time the story is a little bit longer.

[Post title is a quote from The Mystery of Grace.]