The Given- Vicki Pettersson

The Given Vicki Pettersson Harper Voyager, May 27 2014, $14.99 ISBN 9780062066206 In Las Vegas, angel-human Grif Shaw reads the Tribune story on the accidental shooting death of septuagenarian Barbara McCoy. In 1960, as he died from a knife to the gut, McCoy said “Both Shaws got what they deserved”; which led Grif to assume his wife Evie died when he did. Now the P.I. knows Evie survived his death and still lives. Although he realizes he has hurt badly his current love reporter Kit Craig with his obsession to find his spouse, Grif planned to interrogate McCoy before she died in a shooting accident. Meanwhile Kit uncovers an ugly nursing home plot while Grif knows why he was murdered. With Kit’s help, Grif investigates the rest of his personal mystery, but a horde from beyond willing to kill him try to thwart him from succeeding in learning the truth. The third Celestial Blues romantic urban fantasy (see The Taken and The Lost) is a terrific, twisting and taut thriller starring a hard boiled 1950s detective with a soft boiled heart and his loyal beloved reporter teaming up on his cold case murder. With a somewhat convoluted but exciting storyline, fans will appreciate this entry as the Bible says “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”; but not in the way Grif (or readers) anticipated. Harriet Klausner