Jack, the Giant Killer

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Jack, the Giant Killer is a 1987 novel by Charles De Lint. It is an update of the classic Grimm's Fairy Tale, "Jack the Giant Killer," taking place in modern-day Canada.

The plot concerns a young woman named Jacky, depressed from a recent breakup, who gets drunk one night and witnesses a bizarre, otherworldly sight. A biker gang chase down and kill a dwarf by shooting lightning at him through a staff. The body of the dwarf soon disappears, as does a mysterious man who was watching from a nearby building. Jacky wonders whether she hallucinated the entire incident, except that she has retrieved one item: the dwarf's red cap.

When she returns to the spot a few days later, she discovers that donning the cap gives her the ability to see into the land of Faerie, a world of gnomes, giants, and other mythical creatures. These beings exist right within the modern world, living in the same places and traveling on the same roads, but most mortals are unable to see them.