BLUE DIABLO - Ann Aguirre

I love reading urban fantasy, especially gritty well-written UF. BLUE DIABLO fit the bill to the proverbial T!

Corine Solomon, the reluctant champion, is diggin' her quiet life as a pawn shop owner in Mexico City. She can feel the provenance of an item, know where it's going after it leaves her shop. It's definitely better than the life she ran from. That life was harsh, filled with people who only wanted her for her gift of finding missing persons.

Her ex walked into her shop one day and Corine knew her quiet life as she knew it was over, possibly forever.

Chance had luck wherever he went, good and bad both. The bad kind being when Corine walked out of his life, searching for quiet. Now he's found her again and he wants her to help find his missing mother, Yi Min-chin.

Corine is thrust back into the world of magick, ghosts, warlocks, astral projection, gun-runners, drug dealers...just pure-dee bad all around.

There is some good in there. My favorite characters are Chuch and Eva and Butch. They are unlikely warriors ready to fight the good fight.

I could identify with Corine's wounded heart nature. I like when the characters feel 'real' and all of these do. Good is shaded and reluctant, bad is uber bad and not always easily recognizable.

Five magic beans.....