“Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” ― J.K. Rowling
Flynn Ambrose is a man in mourning. Almost one year ago, Alan, the love of Flynn’s life died in a freak accident. Flynn didn’t want to keep going and after trying to end everything, his parents took over his care and put him in a psychiatric hospital. Eventually Flynn and his parents came to the “agreement” Flynn would be living in his Great Uncle’s house, cataloging all of his “treasures”. Flynn would take his medication, he would see his doctor, he would eat and sleep, and he wouldn’t harm himself. That was the agreement. Flynn was mostly keeping to the agreement, well, except for the sleeping, eating, taking medication and seeing the doctor. He was burying himself in the task of identifying the antiques and getting them ready for sale, when one of the items starts to reveal a scary secret. One night Flynn is scared out of his socks and when he runs out of his rooms, he literally runs into his neighbor.
Kirk Murdoch is a solitary type of man. Over the course of the story we learn that he is a former Army Ranger, a playwright, and he seems to have a bad case of PTSD. Kirk spends most of his time alone. He doesn’t want or need the company of other people. He writes, he tries to play the guitar and he works out…..a lot. All of this self isolation is about to come to an end when he runs into Flynn Ambrose one night on the stairs.
Flynn thinks he may be going crazy when he sees a ghost in a mirror. Because he is scared he may be going even crazier, he enlists Kirk to help him figure out if what he is seeing is real. Kirk does see the ghost, and this starts the two men on an adventure to find out who she is and what in the world she wants.
This story is something I have been looking forward to for a long time. I love Josh Lanyon’s work, and I didn’t realize how much I missed his writing until I was reading it again. His writing style and sense of humor comes through loud and clear in this story. Flynn’s story is a very sad one, and he seems to have given up on living. Kirk’s story has yet to be revealed in full but with three more stories on the way, I am sure we will get to know him just as well. There is no huge love story in this; I have a feeling this one will be a slow burn. Both of these men have some major healing to do, and I can only hope they choose to do it together.
I don’t think I have to sit here and wax poetically about the writing in this, but I will anyway. :) Josh Lanyon may have taken some time off, but his skills didn’t take any such vacation. Even in a novella he manages to paint a full picture of Flynn. We get the basic idea that he and Alan not only grew up together but were so in love that they hadn’t been with anyone else. They were soul mates and they were going to be together forever. I am so looking forward to the next story in the series because I can’t wait to get to know Kirk better; those are some deep waters in that man.
This new book is a homerun for Josh, and I can’t be any happier to have him back. So if you loved Adrien English, or maybe you got hooked on Holmes and Moriarity, then I think you will be as happy as I am to get caught up in Flynn and Kirk while they find themselves and each other.
Reviewed by: Jackie
You can buy The Haunted Heart: Winter here: 
:)
This sounds good !
It was very good Joelle. I went hook, line and sinker in the first chapter.