Book Review: THE WIND IN MY HEART by Douglas Wynne

THE WIND IN MY HEART by Douglas Wynne (Crystal Lake Publishing, January 15, 2021 release date) Kindle Edition, 129 pages. ASIN # B08RG5TNRK. 

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

 Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast.

Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991 and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama.

The police attribute the killings to Chinatown gang warfare. Miles–skeptical of the supernatural–is inclined to agree. But what if the monster he’s hunting is more than a myth?

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

“Snow in my bones . . . beast in my blood . . . wind in my heart.”

Horror noir? Supernatural sleuthing? Dark detective fiction? Hard-boiled psycho-analysis?

It's difficult to slap a label on this novella. THE WIND IN MY HEART is many things, but most important is that at its' core this is a very compelling read. I'm a fan of what Crystal Lake Publishing is doing, and come to each new read with certain expectations. Although if they publish more works like this one, I'm inclined to think of them as less of a house of horror and more of a producer of dark fiction. 

Like all hard-boiled detective stories, this is told in first person narration by private investigator Miles Landry, even more of a hard-luck case than most. He wanders into the same dark mysterious alleys that were once inhabited by gumshoes like Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade, but with a difference. Although, I can easily envision the three of them swapping stories over a stiff drink.

Steeped in Buddhist philosophy and tantric rites, the murder trail in THE WIND IN MY HEART also serves as an exploration by Landry of a society and culture that was previously mysterious to him. As he studies the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, he becomes further and further immersed into the beliefs of reincarnation and the possible manifestation of a displaced monk as the reincarnation of deity Yamantaka, Lord Of Death. The police and media have dubbed the serial killer as The Chinatown Monster, as the brutal murders are centered within the Chinese drug gang society of New York City, circa 1991.

Landry always seems to be one step behind the Chinatown Monster, and runs into conflicts with the local police force as well as the Buddhist officials at the Diamond Path Dharma Center, who hired him to try and solve the case before a scheduled appearance in NYC of the Dalai Lama. 

While Wynne planted some subtle clues throughout the story I was surprised by the twist ending. 

"Poison prayer got stuck in my mind, like a bad seed caught in a wheel. . . dropped here and took root.”

This is a great story to re-read, to savor and reflect on.

I received an advance review copy of this novella in exchange for an honest review.