The Whisper Man by Alex North

 

Writer Tom Kennedy hopes that the move to a new house will help his young son Jake overcome the trauma of finding his mother's body at home. When a young boy goes missing near their new home, locals immediately think about The Whisper Man, a serial killer who abducted children. However, the killer has been behind bars for twenty years.

The Whisper Man by Alex North is another of those books that has been sitting on my TBR for quite a while. Once again, it's the advent of a film being released that has pushed it to the top of the pile.

This is one of those books that absorbs you completely, I simply couldn't put it down. The opening pages, in which a young child is abducted, immediately set the scene. The sense of being watched and followed by someone unknown makes your skin crawl. As the story then cuts to Tom Kennedy and his son, the sense of creepiness continues and never lets up for the remainder of the novel.

Moving to a new home was meant to be a fresh start for Tom and Jake. The reason behind the move is slowly revealed and adds an emotional element to the storyline. What Tom doesn't realise is that the home he has chosen has connections to a notorious serial killer. These connections put the life of Jake in danger; there is one scene in particular that had me wondering if I could read on.

The big question is who is committing the crimes since the original killer was caught? For one of the detectives, Pete Willis, it's a case that he's never been able to forget. It is easy to empathise with Willis, a man who has lost his wife and now devotes everything to the job. He's never been able to find closure as one of the Whisper Man's victims has never been found. 

There is an almighty twist that I really didn't see coming, and it worked well in posing questions about memories and imagination, particularly in childhood. The identity of the antagonist wasn't as much of a surprise. However, the conclusion was one of those that has you holding your breath, wondering who is going to survive the nightmare situation.

Author Details

Alex North was born in Leeds, England, where he now lives with his wife and son. The Whisper Man was inspired by North's own little boy, who mentioned one day that he was playing with "the boy in the floor." Alex North is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name.