The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton Reviewed by Steve Rudd

This is the fourth thriller of Steve's that I've devoured with a heady, stance-steady vengeance. He really does reside in the top drawer of American-based thriller writers, living in New York but writing about the state in which he was raised… the often cold and bleak Northern state of Michigan, near to the border with Canada. The previous three novels that I've read of his (with those being Winter Of The Wolf Moon, A Cold Day In Paradise and the stunningly conceived Blood Is The Sky masterpiece) have followed the pursuits of private eye Alex McKnight as he gets involved in some pretty unsavoury investigations.

The Hunting Wind is no different, with this brilliant novel also focusing on the misfortunes of McKnight, who can never keep away from deep trouble in his line of work. Indeed, being a P.I. is a murky job - but someone's got to do it...

This time round, McKnight agrees to help an old friend called Randy (who he hasn't seen for thirty years) to track down a lost love, but Randy soon ends up mysteriously shot, and thus the plot - as they say - thickens like a paltry pea souper. One of the most compelling aspects of Hamilton's distinctive style of writing is the way that he sets such interesting characters into places that he also brings to life with vivid detail. In this novel, McKnight and Randy first head to Detroit, a city that is brought to life in all its run-down depravity. The novel later switches to the small town nature of Orcus Beach, where you sit around and you drink, and you think about all the mistakes that you've made.

But such a fleeting sense of self-pity never dominates the tone for long, with The Hunting Wind triumphing as yet another top quality thriller novel that can both violently pack a punch, yet can still woo you with its glimpses into human kindness and tenderness when the mood suits like puss in boots. ISBN 0-75284-606-X (first published in 2001 by Orion)

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