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Isaiah Coleridge #3.5
The Wind Began to Howl
Laird Barron's acclaimed crime saga makes a triumphant return in The Wind Began to Howl, an all-new story set after the events of Worse Angels. A seemingly benign case gradually pulls mob enforcer-turned-PI Isaiah Coleridge into a chilling mix of music, movie magic, mayhem, and madness.
This time, Coleridge's dark journey forces him to confront a brutal For some who try to escape the past, there is no way out.
"Hardboiled and trippy at the same time, The Wind Began to Howl by Laird Barron is a twisted ride through the darker recesses of the mind complete with conspiracy theories, ex-government operatives, movie madness, and possibly a portal into another dimension."—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
"Isaiah Coleridge hits back hard in this bare-knuckle novella that's equal parts Hollyweird fiction and conspiracy-laden Catskills noir."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
This time, Coleridge's dark journey forces him to confront a brutal For some who try to escape the past, there is no way out.
"Hardboiled and trippy at the same time, The Wind Began to Howl by Laird Barron is a twisted ride through the darker recesses of the mind complete with conspiracy theories, ex-government operatives, movie madness, and possibly a portal into another dimension."—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
"Isaiah Coleridge hits back hard in this bare-knuckle novella that's equal parts Hollyweird fiction and conspiracy-laden Catskills noir."—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
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First published May 16, 2023
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406 people want to read
About the author
Laird Barron
174 books2,850 followersLaird Barron, an expat Alaskan, is the author of several books, including The Imago Sequence and Other Stories; Swift to Chase; and Blood Standard. Currently, Barron lives in the Rondout Valley of New York State and is at work on tales about the evil that men do.
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
August 3, 2023
Laird Barron is one of those authors for whom I will drop everything else I am reading when his most recent work pops into my mailbox. I had been tracking the shipment on this one for what feels like weeks, and it is here, at last!
The latest installment of the Isaiah Coleridge series follows Barron’s mob goon-turned P.I. on what should have been a simple missing person gig: a film-maker has been trying to license a piece of music from a band, but when time comes to sign the contract, the musicians seem to have vanished. Isaiah is tasked with finding them and getting them to sign, but this little game of chicken gets weird fast. It is a Laird Barron novella, after all…
Barron’s mastery of the noir genre is incredible, from the one-two punch-style of his prose to the eeriness of his characters and settings: his love of the genre and his wild, extremely weird and dark imagination make for a powerful cocktail that I gulped down greedily. As usual with his books, I flipped the last page wondering why it isn’t longer.
There are subtle nods to the previous novels and to Barron’s other works, but also to works by some of his friends (John Langan, in particular: if you don’t know his books, check him out!), I loved stumbling on each wonderful little Easter egg.
A must-read for fans of this amazing writer!
The latest installment of the Isaiah Coleridge series follows Barron’s mob goon-turned P.I. on what should have been a simple missing person gig: a film-maker has been trying to license a piece of music from a band, but when time comes to sign the contract, the musicians seem to have vanished. Isaiah is tasked with finding them and getting them to sign, but this little game of chicken gets weird fast. It is a Laird Barron novella, after all…
Barron’s mastery of the noir genre is incredible, from the one-two punch-style of his prose to the eeriness of his characters and settings: his love of the genre and his wild, extremely weird and dark imagination make for a powerful cocktail that I gulped down greedily. As usual with his books, I flipped the last page wondering why it isn’t longer.
There are subtle nods to the previous novels and to Barron’s other works, but also to works by some of his friends (John Langan, in particular: if you don’t know his books, check him out!), I loved stumbling on each wonderful little Easter egg.
A must-read for fans of this amazing writer!
March 13, 2024
So great to get more Isaiah Coleridge. Such a fantastic character. However, the case he tackles never felt overly compelling or urgent, and goes a bit overboard on the strange and trippy supernatural vibes and hallucinations.
October 27, 2025
I don’t write reviews.
And I don’t believe in coincidences.
“One must consider the myth of coincidence. The grand theater of existence is subject to probabilities, random variances, chaos and caprice and yet, a great hidden hand plucks the strings, orchestrating, controlling.”
This was the best of the Isaiah Coleridge stories yet. I enjoy when art and the occult come together. (I don’t think they’re ever separate). Elizabeth Hand had success with the supernatural in the world of photography in her Cass Neary series as well. As Isaiah rolls towards his ultimate destiny, things are getting proportionately weirder and more interesting.
“I believe in redemptive acts and sand castles, both of which amount to nothing, but assuage the emotional necessity to fill space with action.”
Book 9 - Laird & I Will Follow: A Laird Barron Retrospective
And I don’t believe in coincidences.
“One must consider the myth of coincidence. The grand theater of existence is subject to probabilities, random variances, chaos and caprice and yet, a great hidden hand plucks the strings, orchestrating, controlling.”
This was the best of the Isaiah Coleridge stories yet. I enjoy when art and the occult come together. (I don’t think they’re ever separate). Elizabeth Hand had success with the supernatural in the world of photography in her Cass Neary series as well. As Isaiah rolls towards his ultimate destiny, things are getting proportionately weirder and more interesting.
“I believe in redemptive acts and sand castles, both of which amount to nothing, but assuage the emotional necessity to fill space with action.”
Book 9 - Laird & I Will Follow: A Laird Barron Retrospective
July 19, 2024
My head hurts.
2 1/2 Confusticated Stars
2 1/2 Confusticated Stars
June 11, 2023
Great book! Wish it was longer. Everything I love about Barron’s writing is present here, and it’s always nice to spend more time with Coleridge and Lionel, the dynamic duo of the Catskills. 🙂 Looking forward to more!
July 4, 2023
After a three year wait, following 2020’s Worse Angels, Isiah Coleridge is finally back. It’s a novella that almost didn’t happen, twice-over, if fate and timing had been crueler. As Laird Barron notes in the book’s Acknowledgments, he fell gravely ill while writing this story at the tail-end of 2022. Following its completion, Barron collapsed and was rushed into surgery in January 2023 to, according to a GoFundMe set up to help him cover medical expenses, treat a mass on his lungs. His recovery is ongoing months later. The release of The Wind Began to Howl was slated and, fortuitously, arrived just before the recent blow-up at New Leaf Literary (you can read more on that at The Mary Sue) and their split from Barron’s literary agent, Jordan Hamessley. Needless to say, we’re lucky that Barron is still with us, as is his ex-mobster thug turned PI, Coleridge.
This time around, Coleridge is hired by a film director to track down a pair of indie musicians in order to secure license to use a piece of their music in his latest film, the titular The Wind Began to Howl (“Catchy,” Coleridge says of the film’s title). In the grand tradition of PI noir investigations, what at first blush sounds like a simple job grows increasingly complex.
Read my full review on High Fever Books at https://michaelpatrickhicks.substack....
This time around, Coleridge is hired by a film director to track down a pair of indie musicians in order to secure license to use a piece of their music in his latest film, the titular The Wind Began to Howl (“Catchy,” Coleridge says of the film’s title). In the grand tradition of PI noir investigations, what at first blush sounds like a simple job grows increasingly complex.
Read my full review on High Fever Books at https://michaelpatrickhicks.substack....
June 26, 2023
Apparently written before a medical crisis and now with the proceeds of sale going to his recovery, Barron returns to his ongoing series with a shorter novella about trying to find some musical prodigies who are wrapped up with forces of ill intent.
Though, as a former employee of the State Department, I found the implication that another former employee was a combat badass to be highly unbelievable (most are shlubby nerds there) the rest of the weirder elements of the tale are well integrated into the more subtle-weird of the Coleridge series. Though it does seem that the general trend is to increase the bizarre in each entry in a gradualist way. The overall tone is something akin to the movie Mandy. That movie, I content, was itself a sword and sorcery movie disguised as a modern set horror/action flick.
What I love about Barron, and what makes him one of my favorite living authors, is that he does this contemporary sword and sorcery thing (so do I, but I have yet to bother publishing my fiction as of this time) that really gets the proper liminal space between genres.
Though, as a former employee of the State Department, I found the implication that another former employee was a combat badass to be highly unbelievable (most are shlubby nerds there) the rest of the weirder elements of the tale are well integrated into the more subtle-weird of the Coleridge series. Though it does seem that the general trend is to increase the bizarre in each entry in a gradualist way. The overall tone is something akin to the movie Mandy. That movie, I content, was itself a sword and sorcery movie disguised as a modern set horror/action flick.
What I love about Barron, and what makes him one of my favorite living authors, is that he does this contemporary sword and sorcery thing (so do I, but I have yet to bother publishing my fiction as of this time) that really gets the proper liminal space between genres.
July 26, 2023
Ripping little novella continuing the story of Isaiah Coleridge. Further bridging the gap between that series and the rest of Barron's bibliography. Always pumped for more in any of his worlds, and this was a nice little punch of adrenaline. I'm definitely glad Laird came out of his rough patch and continues to deliver us some of the best horror fiction this side of 2000!
May 21, 2023
Isaiah is back! Somewhat worse for wear, somehow once again drafted into a chthonic misadventure, playing it by ear and getting a bit more rough treatment as a result.
I'm in for the ride, I want to see where this goes.
I'm in for the ride, I want to see where this goes.
May 22, 2023
Like coming home again. I didn’t realize how much I missed Isaiah Coleridge and this story had a lot of throw back moments to the trilogy. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Such great characters.
December 3, 2024
I’ve had this book on my TBR for far too long and with how wonderfully kind and supportive Laird’s always been, it’s a bit shameful I didn’t get to it sooner.
In my defense, my Kindle has like 5000 books on it and my TBR continues to grow taller and taller (well, digitally, but you know what I mean!) with no end in sight.
Not too long ago, I read (and loved) Barron’s ‘The Croning,’ but I’m more of a tried-and-true horror reader, and that fell within that category nicely. I’m not a huge fan of crime fiction, of noir type stuff and having never read any of Barron’s Isaiah Coleridge books, I wasn’t 100% sure how this one would hit, considering it’s listed as Coleridge 3.5.
But still, the synopsis sounded intriguing, and the cover art was phenomenal. Murano at Bad Hand Books keeps putting out fantastic work, and when you put Murano and Barron together, then surely it’s going to be a home run, yeah?
What I liked: The story follows our M/C, Isaiah Coleridge, former mob enforcer, who has now become a P.I., who gets hired to do what should be a simple job. A movie producer needs him to track down two ambient/black metal musicians and get them to sign the contract necessary so a snippet of their song can appear in a movie. The song is absolutely necessary for the movie and with that in mind, Coleridge sets off.
As I mentioned, normally, this wouldn’t be my bread-and-butter, but the writing really reminded me of Adam Nevill’s stunning ‘Lost Girl’ and Barron had me captivated in no time. It also helped that this focused on how these two brothers who made up the band, reminded me a lot of the crazy dudes who populated the PNW when I lived up in that area. Wolves in the Throne Room type folks, who live off the grid, make music that they believe will open portals, connect with Gods and help them see far into the future. The type of music that will literally let them walk through walls. (I should note, I met Wolves in the Throne Room once, and they were all really friendly, I’m just using them as an example of bands from that area who live in seclusion.)
As the story progresses, we find Coleridge partnering up with someone connected with the brothers and a few leads come through. Barron keeps the truth concealed really well and even a few times, when you are certain things are unravelling he laughs at the reader and takes it elsewhere.
The big reveal ending was fantastic and definitely left some questions unanswered, all for the betterment of the reader.
What I didn’t like: Now, obviously, this won’t be an issue with long time Barron/Coleridge readers, but for a new reader diving in here, I think it would absolutely help if I’d read the other books first, just so I was more familiar with the secondary characters that play a role in Coleridge’s life. Saying that, I was never lost nor confused and there didn’t appear to be any significant ‘inside’ info that I was missing out on.
Why you should buy this: I assume all Coleridge/Barron fans already have this on their shelves, but for those who don’t or for those looking for a great cosmic-horror/crime-fiction mash up, this one fits that bill perfectly. The inclusion of the band, their back story and the truth of what was going on will make every reader happy,. Count me as one who was very delighted with the reveal. And while I’m still on the fence over whether I want to make the plunge into the Coleridge series, this definitely pushes me closer to wanting to, than not.
In my defense, my Kindle has like 5000 books on it and my TBR continues to grow taller and taller (well, digitally, but you know what I mean!) with no end in sight.
Not too long ago, I read (and loved) Barron’s ‘The Croning,’ but I’m more of a tried-and-true horror reader, and that fell within that category nicely. I’m not a huge fan of crime fiction, of noir type stuff and having never read any of Barron’s Isaiah Coleridge books, I wasn’t 100% sure how this one would hit, considering it’s listed as Coleridge 3.5.
But still, the synopsis sounded intriguing, and the cover art was phenomenal. Murano at Bad Hand Books keeps putting out fantastic work, and when you put Murano and Barron together, then surely it’s going to be a home run, yeah?
What I liked: The story follows our M/C, Isaiah Coleridge, former mob enforcer, who has now become a P.I., who gets hired to do what should be a simple job. A movie producer needs him to track down two ambient/black metal musicians and get them to sign the contract necessary so a snippet of their song can appear in a movie. The song is absolutely necessary for the movie and with that in mind, Coleridge sets off.
As I mentioned, normally, this wouldn’t be my bread-and-butter, but the writing really reminded me of Adam Nevill’s stunning ‘Lost Girl’ and Barron had me captivated in no time. It also helped that this focused on how these two brothers who made up the band, reminded me a lot of the crazy dudes who populated the PNW when I lived up in that area. Wolves in the Throne Room type folks, who live off the grid, make music that they believe will open portals, connect with Gods and help them see far into the future. The type of music that will literally let them walk through walls. (I should note, I met Wolves in the Throne Room once, and they were all really friendly, I’m just using them as an example of bands from that area who live in seclusion.)
As the story progresses, we find Coleridge partnering up with someone connected with the brothers and a few leads come through. Barron keeps the truth concealed really well and even a few times, when you are certain things are unravelling he laughs at the reader and takes it elsewhere.
The big reveal ending was fantastic and definitely left some questions unanswered, all for the betterment of the reader.
What I didn’t like: Now, obviously, this won’t be an issue with long time Barron/Coleridge readers, but for a new reader diving in here, I think it would absolutely help if I’d read the other books first, just so I was more familiar with the secondary characters that play a role in Coleridge’s life. Saying that, I was never lost nor confused and there didn’t appear to be any significant ‘inside’ info that I was missing out on.
Why you should buy this: I assume all Coleridge/Barron fans already have this on their shelves, but for those who don’t or for those looking for a great cosmic-horror/crime-fiction mash up, this one fits that bill perfectly. The inclusion of the band, their back story and the truth of what was going on will make every reader happy,. Count me as one who was very delighted with the reveal. And while I’m still on the fence over whether I want to make the plunge into the Coleridge series, this definitely pushes me closer to wanting to, than not.
June 22, 2023
It's Laird Barron. Enough said.
May 16, 2024
3rd read: Definitely feels like the endgame of the Laird Barron universe is going to be a war between aliens and Satan with us caught in the middle. Give next Coleridge book plz.
2nd read: The way Laird's stories all link up is way cooler than the MCU, and Tom Mandibole is a way cooler alien than some shitty-ass Skrull. When is Nick Fury going to recruit Coleridge into the Avengers already?
Read 1: Pretty sure this book confirmed my theory that Tom Mandibole is Tom Bombadil.
2nd read: The way Laird's stories all link up is way cooler than the MCU, and Tom Mandibole is a way cooler alien than some shitty-ass Skrull. When is Nick Fury going to recruit Coleridge into the Avengers already?
Read 1: Pretty sure this book confirmed my theory that Tom Mandibole is Tom Bombadil.
May 18, 2023
I bought the Kindle version because I didn't want to wait on my signed copy to begin reading. This is classic Barron - fierce, gritty, and enough weird to keep me reading from beginning to end without stopping. Isaiah Coleridge is one of my favorite protagonists ever. Can't wait for the next Barron book to hit the shelves!
Read
July 22, 2023With THE WIND BEGAN TO HOWL, Laird Barron again seamlessly weaves noir, mystery, action, and cosmic horror into a delightful dark tale. More questions than answers await, but so does a rich, deeply satisfying novella. A true delight to revisit Mr. Coleridge and his motley "family."
Read
November 21, 2024How? Another Laird Barron book, another Isaiah Coleridge book.
Also: I finally read a book! I've been in a real reading doldrums for a while, hopping from book to book, skimming RPG books, etc. This was short and bitter enough to keep me going.
What? Isaiah Coleridge -- ex-mob muscle, current upstate NY PI, and almost step-dad to his girlfriend's kid -- gets hired by weird director to find weird musicians to get rights to one song for his new weird movie. But the weird musicians' dangerous and CIA-backed producer wants to stop Isaiah.
Yeah, so? I think I've said before that the Isaiah Coleridge novels mystify me from an industry perspective: Laird Barron is known as a writer of weird horror, but the first Isaiah Coleridge book is pretty much a realist mystery, and the second and third in the series get into weirdness. As a reader, that second book was a hurdle for me because I had to shift reading protocols (as Samuel R. Delaney puts it).
Thus, going into this, I was expecting: some heartfelt but complicated friendships between Isaiah and the folks in his life (the mob capo he sometimes works for... is also a movie lover; his wingman in PI work... is also pining after a woman Isaiah thinks is bad news; his girlfriend... isn't that big a part of this story actually); and I was expecting a lot of weirdness, which this story delivers. Those weird musicians might have access to hypergeometry (the Delta Green phrase for "magic"). I was also expecting a potentially bleak ending where Isaiah can't really solve the big problems, and without spoilers, yeah, that's what I got.
(Also, this book was written before but published after a big health crisis that Laird had; I haven't heard recently, after donating some money to a gofundme, so I hope and assume that he's doing better.)
Also: I finally read a book! I've been in a real reading doldrums for a while, hopping from book to book, skimming RPG books, etc. This was short and bitter enough to keep me going.
What? Isaiah Coleridge -- ex-mob muscle, current upstate NY PI, and almost step-dad to his girlfriend's kid -- gets hired by weird director to find weird musicians to get rights to one song for his new weird movie. But the weird musicians' dangerous and CIA-backed producer wants to stop Isaiah.
Yeah, so? I think I've said before that the Isaiah Coleridge novels mystify me from an industry perspective: Laird Barron is known as a writer of weird horror, but the first Isaiah Coleridge book is pretty much a realist mystery, and the second and third in the series get into weirdness. As a reader, that second book was a hurdle for me because I had to shift reading protocols (as Samuel R. Delaney puts it).
Thus, going into this, I was expecting: some heartfelt but complicated friendships between Isaiah and the folks in his life (the mob capo he sometimes works for... is also a movie lover; his wingman in PI work... is also pining after a woman Isaiah thinks is bad news; his girlfriend... isn't that big a part of this story actually); and I was expecting a lot of weirdness, which this story delivers. Those weird musicians might have access to hypergeometry (the Delta Green phrase for "magic"). I was also expecting a potentially bleak ending where Isaiah can't really solve the big problems, and without spoilers, yeah, that's what I got.
(Also, this book was written before but published after a big health crisis that Laird had; I haven't heard recently, after donating some money to a gofundme, so I hope and assume that he's doing better.)
October 8, 2023
The trend for the Isaiah Coleridge stories to get weirder and scarier continues!
This was a nice, creepy slow-burn.
I very much enjoyed it and look forward to more in this series.
This was a nice, creepy slow-burn.
I very much enjoyed it and look forward to more in this series.
February 16, 2025
Read this in one sitting, and I’m kicking myself for waiting so long.
June 3, 2023
This literally screams for a movie adaptation directed by Panos Cosmatos.
June 3, 2023
As Barron's private-eye series has gone on, it's gotten both weirder and more gnomically telegraphic in style, with "weirder" meaning both weirder and also "more like his other fiction," with the supernatural elements coming to the fore in the last novel. This one steps back a bit from that, with the weird-fiction elements of unclear reality. Do I buy Isaiah Coleridge as an actual person, a self-confessed bruiser who quotes Wallace Stevens and Maori folklore and samurai movies? I mean, no. As an idea for a detective, though, especially a detective in Laird Barron's cosmos, he's perfect. I can't imagine a typical mystery-fiction aficionado coming upon this and knowing what to make of it, but 3.5, I suppose, novels into this series, I'm along for the ride. I would also love someone to put together an atlas of weird upstate NY that combines Barron, John Langan, hell, Thomas Perry, and whatever Paul Tremblay stuff takes place there.
May 29, 2023
Barron is a favorite of mine and was able to lead me seamlessly from cosmic horror to detective/crime fiction and then back again with the Isaiah Coleridge stories. I finished this new installment in a day. The only disappointment was that it ended so soon, being a novella. It's so much fun to see the creep of Old Leech around the edges. I can't wait for more from Laird.
May 17, 2023
Read this is one sitting. It’s always such a pleasure to read Laird Barron.
April 25, 2024
Laird Barron is a horror writer at heart, so while the Isaiah Coleridge series began as detective noir with a half-Maori former mob enforcer trying to go straight as a private dick, each book has become a little creepier and stranger, flirting with the supernatural without quite crossing the line into urban fantasy. I said basically the same thing in my review of the third book, Worse Angels, where the villain almost turns into some sort of horror movie Big Bad. In book four, a shorter, novella-length installment that Barron wrote while recovering from a life-threatening illness, we don't quite get chanting cultists but we're getting ever closer to Things Man Was Not Meant to Know and I wonder if Barron will eventually just say fuck it and bring the darkness.
Coleridge is now trying to settle into some semblance of domesticity with his steady girlfriend Meg, her adorable son who's now adopted Isaiah as a father figure, his beer-swilling shotgun-toting lady-laying buddy Lionel, and his combat-trained dog Minerva, who is the Goodest Girl.
A movie producer wants Coleridge to track down a pair of musicians in upstate New York. They need their signatures on a release to allow the use of their tracks on some big budget film that's almost in the can, and for various contrived reasons involving Hollywood shenanigans they can't just switch out the soundtrack. Coleridge's mission: find the Barnhouse brothers, get them to sign the contract. Using whatever means of persuasion are necessary...
This sounds like a perfectly mundane case, but the Barnhouse brothers turn out to be weird hard-to-find auteurs with hidden cabins in the woods and for reasons that were never quite clear to me, a bunch of spook shops (as in, intelligence agencies, not the other kind of spooks) are also involved. Coleridge has run into these outfits before, and the implication is that he's getting in deeper with shadowy organizations besides his former bosses.
The climax is a shootout with betrayals and bloodbaths, which is how all Isaiah Coleridge books end, and a really weird set piece that could have come right out of a Delta Green module.
Laird Barron clearly likes this character and has stated he intends to continue the series, which is good because I'm enjoying them. Barron's writing is heavy and poetic, like Lovecraft but a little less purple and a lot more violent. That said, it sometimes gets a bit thick for the story, and I'm getting a little tired of being teased with the supernatural without actually seeing it.
Coleridge is getting older, he gets the shit kicked out of him in every book, and he's accruing a growing family of dependent side characters, and with the stuff he gets involved in, it seems like only a matter of time before things get ugly.
Coleridge is now trying to settle into some semblance of domesticity with his steady girlfriend Meg, her adorable son who's now adopted Isaiah as a father figure, his beer-swilling shotgun-toting lady-laying buddy Lionel, and his combat-trained dog Minerva, who is the Goodest Girl.
A movie producer wants Coleridge to track down a pair of musicians in upstate New York. They need their signatures on a release to allow the use of their tracks on some big budget film that's almost in the can, and for various contrived reasons involving Hollywood shenanigans they can't just switch out the soundtrack. Coleridge's mission: find the Barnhouse brothers, get them to sign the contract. Using whatever means of persuasion are necessary...
This sounds like a perfectly mundane case, but the Barnhouse brothers turn out to be weird hard-to-find auteurs with hidden cabins in the woods and for reasons that were never quite clear to me, a bunch of spook shops (as in, intelligence agencies, not the other kind of spooks) are also involved. Coleridge has run into these outfits before, and the implication is that he's getting in deeper with shadowy organizations besides his former bosses.
The climax is a shootout with betrayals and bloodbaths, which is how all Isaiah Coleridge books end, and a really weird set piece that could have come right out of a Delta Green module.
Laird Barron clearly likes this character and has stated he intends to continue the series, which is good because I'm enjoying them. Barron's writing is heavy and poetic, like Lovecraft but a little less purple and a lot more violent. That said, it sometimes gets a bit thick for the story, and I'm getting a little tired of being teased with the supernatural without actually seeing it.
Coleridge is getting older, he gets the shit kicked out of him in every book, and he's accruing a growing family of dependent side characters, and with the stuff he gets involved in, it seems like only a matter of time before things get ugly.
June 27, 2023
Review Summary: Laird Barron continues to improve the Coleridge series with each outing and this one feels like the author is having fun with the series. While you would partially need to know the series to understand every little thing that happens, this is actually a pretty good jump-in spot. For those readers who like mystery with a little bit of technical mystery, a lot of machismo, and a nice dash of odd mystery.
=== Review ===
I said that Worse Angels was my favorite Coleridge novel at the time of that review and now I would say that The Wind Began to Howl is the new contender (that's always a pleasant surprise since most series lose steam at some point). Why is this one my favorite? Well, it is pretty short and to the point and that is always nice nowadays where work and family make it harder to spend too long reading without regularly giving up sleep (I usually stay up to midnight or 1am just to read what I can and have to be awake again by 6am). I also really adore the theme of cursed music and movies in fiction. One of my favorite tropes.
Mostly, this novel feels a lot like Barron having fun. Coleridge is fairly fallible throughout but still punching. There's shout outs to music and movies and books. Folks like Howard and Lovecraft and Smith get direct references. Side characters are mostly entertaining. The band at the core of the mystery sounds exactly the the right sort of weird.
By the end, things get weird and then get Weird and nothing really makes sense and you have to do a lot of guess work and assumptions but people reading Barron for years should be used to that. If you hate odd out-of-the-box endings that drift into full on strange, you will likely hate the ending of this novel (novella? I don't know...) but even then you might still want to read it because weird-tinged hardcase crime novels are not that common and this is a good one.
Here's to the next one being my new favorite, as well.
=== Review ===
I said that Worse Angels was my favorite Coleridge novel at the time of that review and now I would say that The Wind Began to Howl is the new contender (that's always a pleasant surprise since most series lose steam at some point). Why is this one my favorite? Well, it is pretty short and to the point and that is always nice nowadays where work and family make it harder to spend too long reading without regularly giving up sleep (I usually stay up to midnight or 1am just to read what I can and have to be awake again by 6am). I also really adore the theme of cursed music and movies in fiction. One of my favorite tropes.
Mostly, this novel feels a lot like Barron having fun. Coleridge is fairly fallible throughout but still punching. There's shout outs to music and movies and books. Folks like Howard and Lovecraft and Smith get direct references. Side characters are mostly entertaining. The band at the core of the mystery sounds exactly the the right sort of weird.
By the end, things get weird and then get Weird and nothing really makes sense and you have to do a lot of guess work and assumptions but people reading Barron for years should be used to that. If you hate odd out-of-the-box endings that drift into full on strange, you will likely hate the ending of this novel (novella? I don't know...) but even then you might still want to read it because weird-tinged hardcase crime novels are not that common and this is a good one.
Here's to the next one being my new favorite, as well.
June 14, 2023
After re-reading Isaiah Coleridge #3: Worse Angels just before the release of The Wind Began to Howl, I felt certain of two things: One- Each of Barron's entries into the Coleridge chronicles surpasses the last, and Two - some serious shit was going to go down in Howl. Well, let me tell you, I was right on both counts!
Coleridge 3.5 may only be 188 pages, but it is a glorious 188 pages of the pure, undiluted Hard-Boiled psychodelica we've come to expect over the course of the series. Where Blood Standard began rooted in a considerably more recognizable reality, each successive volume blurs Coleridge's world with the Barron we know best from his short story collections. Here there be monsters, but as with real life, they are not easily delineated from regular old terrible people. Except, as we continue the over-arching story that really began to emerge in Worse Angels, we see just how strange Barron's fictional world is.
The thing that impresses me most here is Laird's ability to keep things hyper-real instead of just straight-up supernatural. Remember how it felt to watch the first season of True Detective or Fargo? That feeling that something malicious and timeless lurks just below the surface of the regular criminal dirtbags dogging the leads? Well, Laird has mastered that, and with The Wind Began to Howl, he's also mastered the art of slowly pushing those crossfaders so that what we think of as reality isn't really safe or nice or predictable anymore. It's a strange Universe, and I for one will feel a little bit less comfortable the next time I have to walk through the woods at night (a concern that, while not nearly as prevalent in my 40s as it was in my teens, can still rear its head from time to time on a wild and wolly night out in my old stomping grounds amongst the forest preserves of southern Cook County).
Coleridge 3.5 may only be 188 pages, but it is a glorious 188 pages of the pure, undiluted Hard-Boiled psychodelica we've come to expect over the course of the series. Where Blood Standard began rooted in a considerably more recognizable reality, each successive volume blurs Coleridge's world with the Barron we know best from his short story collections. Here there be monsters, but as with real life, they are not easily delineated from regular old terrible people. Except, as we continue the over-arching story that really began to emerge in Worse Angels, we see just how strange Barron's fictional world is.
The thing that impresses me most here is Laird's ability to keep things hyper-real instead of just straight-up supernatural. Remember how it felt to watch the first season of True Detective or Fargo? That feeling that something malicious and timeless lurks just below the surface of the regular criminal dirtbags dogging the leads? Well, Laird has mastered that, and with The Wind Began to Howl, he's also mastered the art of slowly pushing those crossfaders so that what we think of as reality isn't really safe or nice or predictable anymore. It's a strange Universe, and I for one will feel a little bit less comfortable the next time I have to walk through the woods at night (a concern that, while not nearly as prevalent in my 40s as it was in my teens, can still rear its head from time to time on a wild and wolly night out in my old stomping grounds amongst the forest preserves of southern Cook County).
July 6, 2023
Fair warning before my review: I haven't actually read any of the other Isaiah Coleridge books, so I feel like I lost some of the lore of various syndicates/organizations.
I said this in my review for The Stradivarius by Rae Knowles: mystery is my first love. Noir is very intrinsically bundled into it. When I realized this was a PI story, I got so goddamn happy, and resolved to finish the book in a night.
This novella follows Coleridge as he tracks down two eccentric music artists in order to get them to sign a contract to allow a director friend to use their song in a movie. However, there's more to the story than this. The story reminds me of "The King in Yellow," because the music they make is not something that is easily listened to--indeed nor is the movie that is made in its likeness.
Laird Barron has very efficient and witty prose. It makes for an incredibly fun read. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but writing action scenes can be *hard* for me. Barron crafts it artfully.
Even though I haven't read the other books, I was able to follow the story, and I think this is probably a good intro. It's short, creepy, and a wild ride. I'm definitely interested in checking out more. I will say I got slightly confused at the end when it seemed more references to former stories popped up, but it doesn't really affect your understanding of the plot.
Also: I would unironically die for Minerva.
Great job, Mr. Barron. I'm very happy that you healed so you could give us your masterpiece. May you stay healthy!!
I said this in my review for The Stradivarius by Rae Knowles: mystery is my first love. Noir is very intrinsically bundled into it. When I realized this was a PI story, I got so goddamn happy, and resolved to finish the book in a night.
This novella follows Coleridge as he tracks down two eccentric music artists in order to get them to sign a contract to allow a director friend to use their song in a movie. However, there's more to the story than this. The story reminds me of "The King in Yellow," because the music they make is not something that is easily listened to--indeed nor is the movie that is made in its likeness.
Laird Barron has very efficient and witty prose. It makes for an incredibly fun read. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but writing action scenes can be *hard* for me. Barron crafts it artfully.
Even though I haven't read the other books, I was able to follow the story, and I think this is probably a good intro. It's short, creepy, and a wild ride. I'm definitely interested in checking out more. I will say I got slightly confused at the end when it seemed more references to former stories popped up, but it doesn't really affect your understanding of the plot.
Also: I would unironically die for Minerva.
Great job, Mr. Barron. I'm very happy that you healed so you could give us your masterpiece. May you stay healthy!!
July 29, 2024
Esta novela corta es la cuarta entrega de la serie de Isaiah Coleridge, que por desgracia sigue inédita en castellano. Sigue la línea ya apuntada por las anteriores entregas de ir convirtiéndose en el centro de la narración del mundo ficticio creado por Laird Barron, sirviendo como guía para entrar en él.
En ese sentido es muy notable que funciona perfectamente como introducción al personaje y su mundo, contando con unos buenos resúmenes de su personalidad y lo sucedido al principio de la narración. Es cierto que hay bastantes referencias a las novelas anteriores, pero creo que sirven más bien para animar al que dude a la hora de leerlas y no para expulsarlo.
Un tema importante es que a estas alturas ya podemos suponer que se abandona el truco de simular que estamos ante novelas de serie negra convencionales. La serie de Isaiah Coleridge se mueve entre lo policiaco y lo terrorífico de manera magistral y construye un mundo que no es el nuestro pero se le parece mucho. Magistral como Barron nos habla de ese estado de Nueva York casi olvidado e ignorado de las Catskills, los pequeños pueblos, la violencia subterránea y los rednecks del norte.
Una muy buena novela corta que hace que uno quiera más entregas pronto y que desee que, ojalá, se publicaran en castellano.
En ese sentido es muy notable que funciona perfectamente como introducción al personaje y su mundo, contando con unos buenos resúmenes de su personalidad y lo sucedido al principio de la narración. Es cierto que hay bastantes referencias a las novelas anteriores, pero creo que sirven más bien para animar al que dude a la hora de leerlas y no para expulsarlo.
Un tema importante es que a estas alturas ya podemos suponer que se abandona el truco de simular que estamos ante novelas de serie negra convencionales. La serie de Isaiah Coleridge se mueve entre lo policiaco y lo terrorífico de manera magistral y construye un mundo que no es el nuestro pero se le parece mucho. Magistral como Barron nos habla de ese estado de Nueva York casi olvidado e ignorado de las Catskills, los pequeños pueblos, la violencia subterránea y los rednecks del norte.
Una muy buena novela corta que hace que uno quiera más entregas pronto y que desee que, ojalá, se publicaran en castellano.
June 30, 2023
Recently I had the privilege of reading THE WIND BEGAN TO HOWL, by Laird Barron. For such a swift read, it simply hasn’t left my head.
This is only the second book I’ve read so far from Barron; the first was the deeply chilling cosmic horror novel THE CRONING. After that book, I couldn’t stop talking about the prose, the unique sense of voice about it, the hard-edged eloquence. It excited me, realizing I’d found an incredibly masterful writer (not to mention it was in close proximity to my discovery of John Langan’s THE FISHERMAN, which became an instant cherished favorite). To say THE CRONING haunts me is an understatement.
Onto this one. I have to say first: I have a helpless love of classic cinema, especially old noir. Not too much time goes by in between viewings of Bogart films, among others. Plus, the Billy Wilder classic DOUBLE INDEMNITY is one of my favorites, and I consider it an influence on my own book The Family Condition.
It took maybe two pages for me to fall in love with the hardboiled voice and dialogue of THE WIND BEGAN TO HOWL. I could hear it vividly in my head the whole way through, accompanied by the metaphorical clinking of ice cubes against a glass, the drifting of smoke across the figurative shadows of Venetian blinds. (I say metaphorical and figurative to avoid the suggestion that this book is cliche in its evocation of genre). It had a classic feeling, rich in influence but distinct in its own voice. Made me excited to go back soon and properly explore the Coleridge trilogy, although as a newcomer I felt this one stands alone just fine.
As for the story, it feels like a brief journey through a maze in the foggy dark with a mere flashlight beam of illumination, interpersed with moments of mesmerizing poetry that left me grinning and shaking my head with pure appreciation and awe. That it’s such a hardboiled noir with a descent into something I’m unsure how to describe as anything other than dark, cosmic weirdness only cements it as a beautifully haunted thing to love, even more so for the sense of vulnerability beneath its biting edge.
I loved this book. I was already giddy about it being a signed copy, but only more so now that I’ve read it.
This is only the second book I’ve read so far from Barron; the first was the deeply chilling cosmic horror novel THE CRONING. After that book, I couldn’t stop talking about the prose, the unique sense of voice about it, the hard-edged eloquence. It excited me, realizing I’d found an incredibly masterful writer (not to mention it was in close proximity to my discovery of John Langan’s THE FISHERMAN, which became an instant cherished favorite). To say THE CRONING haunts me is an understatement.
Onto this one. I have to say first: I have a helpless love of classic cinema, especially old noir. Not too much time goes by in between viewings of Bogart films, among others. Plus, the Billy Wilder classic DOUBLE INDEMNITY is one of my favorites, and I consider it an influence on my own book The Family Condition.
It took maybe two pages for me to fall in love with the hardboiled voice and dialogue of THE WIND BEGAN TO HOWL. I could hear it vividly in my head the whole way through, accompanied by the metaphorical clinking of ice cubes against a glass, the drifting of smoke across the figurative shadows of Venetian blinds. (I say metaphorical and figurative to avoid the suggestion that this book is cliche in its evocation of genre). It had a classic feeling, rich in influence but distinct in its own voice. Made me excited to go back soon and properly explore the Coleridge trilogy, although as a newcomer I felt this one stands alone just fine.
As for the story, it feels like a brief journey through a maze in the foggy dark with a mere flashlight beam of illumination, interpersed with moments of mesmerizing poetry that left me grinning and shaking my head with pure appreciation and awe. That it’s such a hardboiled noir with a descent into something I’m unsure how to describe as anything other than dark, cosmic weirdness only cements it as a beautifully haunted thing to love, even more so for the sense of vulnerability beneath its biting edge.
I loved this book. I was already giddy about it being a signed copy, but only more so now that I’ve read it.
Read
August 14, 2023It's our man, Barron. This is my first of the Coleridge series and it was fun, I breezed through it. It's softer and lighter than the horror I've read from him (full disclosure, I think he's one of the greatest horror writers working) but all the characterization is a blast and there's some subversive stuff being done with the hard boiled detective fiction template. The protagonist is a great combination of tough and fallible, still formidable, though getting older. Wiser perhaps, but not above getting his ass kicked.
I'm not sure the main mystery was very intriguing, and the ending feels rushed, but I also know Barron took ill during the writing of it. I gave money to his get-well campaign, and Kelly (my wife) bought this for me as a birthday gift, with the funds also going to help with his hospital bills, I believe. Funnily, she bought a signed copy for me, but it came signed to her. Which made us laugh.
I'll always read anything by Barron, he's firmly etched in my heart. Would love to see something big and meaty from him in the future, but whatever he has to give, I'll take.
I'm not sure the main mystery was very intriguing, and the ending feels rushed, but I also know Barron took ill during the writing of it. I gave money to his get-well campaign, and Kelly (my wife) bought this for me as a birthday gift, with the funds also going to help with his hospital bills, I believe. Funnily, she bought a signed copy for me, but it came signed to her. Which made us laugh.
I'll always read anything by Barron, he's firmly etched in my heart. Would love to see something big and meaty from him in the future, but whatever he has to give, I'll take.
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