This Given Sky

by James Grady

A haunting short story about friendship and loss in small-town Montana

Jake, Steve, and Thel are inseparable. The trio scampers through the narrow streets of Shelby without giving thought to the rest of the world. Then Jake’s life changes the first time he goes up in a plane: That ride in a battered old Mustang P-51 teaches him that no one but pilots can know true freedom. He joins the Air Force and comes back to Shelby when he’s on leave. Steve and Thel stay behind, making lives in the tough heartland town in Montana. Though farther apart, they remain a group—and will stay that way, whether they live or die.

55 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

James Grady is a longtime author of thrillers, police procedural and espionage novels. He graduated from the University of Montana School of Journalism in 1974. During college, he worked for United States Senator Lee Metcalf of Montana as an staff member.

From 1974 - 1978 he was an investigative journalist for the famous muckraker Jack Anderson. Best known as the author of Six Days of the Condor , which was adapted to film as Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford in 1975.

James Grady has gone on to write almost a dozen more novels in the thirty-eight years since Six Days of the Condor was published.

In the past James Grady has written under the pseudonyms of James Dalton and Brit Shelby.

Reviews

[Suz · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were so many weird punctuation mistakes in the version I was reading that I was never quite sure if I was reading a real story or a Wattpad fanfiction.