Windmill Bluff

By: Michael Hartnett

Narrated by: Steven Gillen

The old psychiatric tower has been blown to bits, and FBI agents quickly determine that the suspect with the most plausible answers is a brilliant liar: Robbie DeFonte, a young YouTube star whose family chronicles are steeped in the darker history of the sprawling mental facility. A massive wind farm erected around the ruined psychiatric center buildings becomes central to a lurid tale that transports back a century earlier to unearth a legacy of hidden weapons and lost lives.

As Robbie offers his testimony to Agent Chen, he reveals tunnels below the long-abandoned facility, a dead body found down there in a military uniform, and the toxic remnants of large-scale uranium shipments. Through the lives of his grandfather, the Colonel who ran both the psychiatric center and the elaborate munitions depot, and his grandmother, who uncovered many secrets as a young bride, Robbie spins a yarn that takes the listener back to FDR's clandestine programs and pushes ahead to a wind farm fraught with danger and hope.

Windmill Bluff is a masterful tale that mines America’s turbulent past to fuel its blustery future.

©2024 Black Rose Writing (P)2024 Black Rose Writing

Critic reviews

“Windmills, ghosts, psychiatric ward, uranium, domestic terrorism—rollicking and deep. Only Michael Hartnett.” –Joe Edd Morris, author of The Lost Page

Windmill doesn't blow

Windmill Bluff is the first novel I have read from Michael Hartnett. I was aware he writes clean simple stories complicated with many layers. He did not disappoint here. When you are done you may feel you read more than one novel.

This story follows a young man’s account, Robbie Defonte, of everything he knows and it's backdrop is a psychiatric hospital that has been shut down and abandoned for some time until a wind turbine farm is built on the grounds.

It seems everyone is or could use the help of that psychiatric hospital as we wind our way back and forth through the history of the grounds. At times I wondered if I was stuck in an insane asylum with the others or perhaps stuck in the mind of one crazy person, but the characters in Windmill Bluff are endearing and ones you will want to root for.

Hartnett uses eloquent prose to bring the reader in for a closer look, seldomly telling you everything all at once, much like our protagonist Robbie. His lack of description at times was purposeful and it works.

I encourage you to give this story a read, but give it your full attention so you do not miss anything. There is plenty there. I give this story five turbines.