Thirty years ago, Randy had met a girl in Detroit named Maria Valeska. He wants Alex to find Maria, claiming he has had a disastrous marriage and not much better life, and that Maria was the only person who ever really understood him. He tells Alex he feels his only chance to get his life back in order is through Maria, so he must find her.

Alex points out all the reasons why this is a stupid idea. Thirty years have passed, Maria most probably has married and has a family and will not appreciate the attentions or even a visit from an old lover. The chances of finding her, knowing only her name are remote, not to mention the fact that Alex doesn’t consider himself a real private investigator. Nonetheless, Alex being the compassionate sort of fellow that he is, agrees to help his old baseball buddy. Thus begins an adventure that Alex wishes numerous times he had never undertaken.

The Hunting Wind is the third of a series (following A Cold Day in Paradise and Winter of the Wolf Moon.), featuring Alex McKnight. Readers that have not read A Cold Day in Paradise would do well to read this one first. It is a good, solid book which does not require background from prior series entries to be understood or appreciated. In fact, the opposite is true. Having read A Cold Day in Paradise will invite a comparison of the two books. The Hunting Wind will suffer because A Cold Day in Paradise is so outstanding.

Although the plot is memorable, the story starts out slowly with much dialogue between Alex and Randy reminiscing about the old days when both dreamed of life as a major league player. For those with an interest in the national pastime there are some amusing scenes. Even a reader with little interest in the game will appreciate the clever dialogue, though Mr. Hamilton does little to develop his characters other than Alex (albeit I suspect he does this intentionally). As the search for Randy’s long lost love intensifies, so does the pace, and the plot becomes increasingly more complex and intricate.

The author’s real forte is his ability to convey a sense of place. One really gets a feeling for the climate in Michigan’s U.P. with comments such as “it is important not to take the snowplow off the truck in April for you will certainly still have use for it.” Also he mentions the complexity of reaching this outpost of civilization especially by plane, as indicated by the many inconveniently timed connections that have to be made to achieve this goal.

I have a soft spot in my heart for authors who choose a title with some significance. Mr. Hamilton has done this with The Hunting Wind. He tells us that the analogous word in the Ojibwa language means both hunting and north wind. Alex, in his quest to help Randy locate Maria will be like the wind coming out of the north as he makes his way down to Detroit. The Hunting Wind is a memorable book, even a keeper, although not quite as outstanding as A Cold Day in Paradise.

--Andy Plonka