42. Charles de Lint - Greenmantle

Alice (Ali) Treasure has moved around more times than she cared to remember ever since her mother, Frankie, left her abusive husband. Now, Frankie won the Wintario Lottery which gave her enough money to purchase the old home she grew up in and renovate it. This way, she hoped that Ali would finally have some stability in her life. Unfortunately, Frankie's ex, an abusive drug dealer named Earl, has discovered her windfall and plans on taking it from her to help finance a big drug deal. What Earl doesn't know is that Ali and Frankie have befriended their neighbor Tony, who turns out to be a former mafia hitman who is on the run after being falsely accused of murdering his padrone. After Earl's first attempt to get the money from Frankie, he recognizes Tony and reports his location to the family. Now, Frankie and Ali, as well as Tony are in deep trouble.

What none of them know, is that deep in the forest behind Frankie and Tony's houses, is a small village, hidden from view where the Old Religion is still being practiced and Mystery lives. The only clues that Ali and Tony have is beautiful piping music coming from the forest and a mysterious wild girl named Mally who pops up.

From what I've read, this is one of de Lint's earlier books and it was still pretty good. De Lint does a great job at creating lively and vivid charactes and beautiful scenery that I can easily picture in my head as I read. The book does focus a lot on the Mystery, a Pan-like sort of being that the little village worships. It was a nice pagan story intertwined with the main story. I really liked this book and would recommend it, but I still think his more recent books are better.