3.5 Stars

An intriguing and satisfying thriller which was chilling and atmospheric and really well written.

A great read for the winter nights as this is a creepy and chilling tale.

Still devastated after the loss of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake move to the sleepy village of Featherbank and looking to make a fresh start.
But this is a community with a dark past as Fifteen years previously a twisted serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys, The Killer was known as the Whisper man. As Jake and Tom settle into their new lives, the disappearance of another young boy comes back to haunt the community.

A book with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader interested some I bought into and others I had a little more difficultly believing.
However, I did like the story and the characters were well drawn and this was one of those novels that keeps you guessing right to the end.

My thanks to Penguinr and randomhouse for the opportunity to read this one in return for an honest review ( )

Great story, very engaging. ( )

I've had this book on my Amazon book list forever......I finally got it.....I wished I had read it sooner.

Perfect pacing, believable characters, spine tingling events, suspense.......its all here. The ending was dynamic!

Well done Mr North!! 5 🌟 ( )

Tom Kennedy is a novelist who has not written much in the ten months since his wife, Rebecca, suddenly passed away. Adding to Tom's misery is the fact that he has difficulty communicating with his only child, seven-year-old, Jake. The boy is imaginative and loves art, but he is a loner, can be sullen, and is still healing after losing the mother he adored. In an effort to start fresh, Tom buys an odd-looking house in a place called Featherbank which, it turns out, is probably not the best choice for this depressed pair. Jake enrolls in school, but his odd behavior (he speaks to imaginary friends) and lack of social skills make him the target of bullies. As if this is not upsetting enough, this town is notorious for being the site where a serial killer, Frank Carson, kidnapped and killed five boys twenty year earlier. Only four of the bodies were recovered. Frank, who is in prison, is an unrepentant sadist who is proud of his macabre crimes.

“The Whisper Man,” by Alex North, sticks closely to the conventions of its genre. A six-year-old, Neil Spencer, walks home from school alone, and disappears before he reaches his destination; the aforementioned serial killer, Frank Carson, seems to know more than he is willing to reveal to the authorities; and fifty-six-year-old DI Pete Willis, a recovering alcoholic, has disturbing memories that gives him no peace. Tom Kennedy, meanwhile, is trying to earn Jake's trust so that they can attempt to rebuild their broken family.

Alas, the book's pace is sluggish, the revelations are foreshadowed before they are divulged, and the predictable conclusion is disappointingly flat. In addition, this work of fiction has a supernatural element that is never fully developed. "The Whisper Man" lacks the suspense, depth, and originality that might have made it a memorable thriller. Still, Alex North effectively and poignantly conveys the idea that the failure of fathers to bond in a wholesome manner with their sons can have long-lasting and tragic consequences.
( )

What a debut book! This was a BOTM selection and I'm so glad I chose it.

Tom and his 7 year old son, Jake, move to Featherbank to escape the sadness of their previous house after Tom's wife (Jake's mom) passes away suddenly. Several years earlier, a young boy was kidnapped in Featherbank by the Whisper Man, who whispers outside the home of the victim to lure them out. The Whisper Man is caught and in jail serving his sentence.

Shortly after Tom and Jake move there, another young boy is abducted. Did The Whisper Man have an accomplice or is this a copycat? Detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis are investigating the newest abduction but Pete is still haunted by an earlier case involving The Whisper Man because one of the boys' bodies has never been found.

And then Jake starts talking to an imaginary friend who tells him a poem about The Whisper Man and then Jake starts hearing whispering outside his window..... ( )

Interesting story did not see the twists coming, but at the same time this pulled on my heart stings. ( )

[b:The Whisper Man|41940236|The Whisper Man|Alex North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541864083l/41940236._SY75_.jpg|63202631]
Do Not Read in Bed but Definitely Read it!
Thank you to NetGalley for my digital arc of this standout novel. I have never read a book that has given me the creeps while I enjoy it as much as this has. The story has such a scare and spook factor Alex North is a genius with words. The story surrounds Tom and his son Jake. In the tale
Tom and his young son Jake, move into a sleepy village in search of a new start after the death of Tom's wife. But Tom moves into a place called Featherbank and he moves there because his son picked out a strange house from the internet. Featherbank has a dark past where, fifteen years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys. The killer was finally caught and put behind bars. He is known locally as The Whisper Man. Shortly after Tom and Jake move in another boy goes missing and the whispers begin again. If you are thinking the original Whisper Man…. Frank Carter is the Whisper Man, incarcerated in prison, reveling in his notoriety and reputation, playing mind games with 56-year-old DI Pete Willis, the man who caught him. Despite the emotional cost, Pete has persevered through the years, visiting Carter in prison, in the hope of a clue to where the body of a victim, young Tony Smith, can be recovered so his grieving parents can at least achieve a small measure of peace. I loved that Tom is a struggling writer in this novel and that the fractured relationship with his seven-year-old son makes this even creeper. Tom’s wife Rebecca was the one that was close to Jake and while trying to navigate a new life in a new town just adds to the story.

While Alex North’s Goodreads page states that this is his debut novel his writing style will make fans quickly. Alex North's writing is addictive, hooking the reader immediately, with its themes of fathers and their challenging relationships with their sons, grief, and loss, amidst a background of a child killer running rampant in the town it is a perfect read. There are twists and turns and well-written characters that make this easily a one day read. Five Whispery Stars! I cannot wait to see what his 2020 project is going to be like. ( )

This book left me a changed person! I have always been the cautious type: scared of my own shadow, yet strong in ways that people would not imagine, like hearing gunshots in my neighborhood and trying to run down a suspicious group of children in the road to demand answers. But this book plays and preys on my worst fears that when I am alone and vulnerable, unable to sleep in the dark, the question: Am I really safe? OH, BOY! Trying not to give any spoilers, but ghosts that reveal information, people with demons in their past, a flat out demon in real life, and a traumatized boy who ends up being a demon, too, provides a lot of thriller moments in this book. This is the first book I have ever read by Alex North. I now understand the fascination with his books. I think the disclaimer should be made if you are too fragile, sensitive, scared of the dark, you might either want to read this early in the day, small blocks of reading, or not at all. For people who LOVE to be scared to death and love constant drama, THIS IS YOUR BOOK! It has made me more sympathetic of the roles of detectives and private investigators who not only see nightmarish things in the line of duty but how much of sadness and burden it is when a crime is not quickly resolved. I know for a fact that I will never look at butterflies the same way again. And all the "whispering" in the story still freaks me out. It wasn't only The Whisper Man or schoolyard children repeating the Whisper Man chant that added to the suspense. This book had umpteen thriller moments. No matter where you stopped and started, the suspense kept on and on. I liked the way the loose ends of the story were all tied up in the end, but I have never read an ENDING that was yet another CLIMAX of the book! And it is overwhelming the many emotions I as the reader felt as disgust, fear, hate, the satisfaction that justice was served, but sometimes feeling guilty because if the past hadn't been so horrible, the present wouldn't have been so horrible. A special shoutout to the character that was fascinated with death, caught up in the storyline, but not really part of it. He was creepy! His obsession with death made my skin crawl! Alex North has a talent for weaving random images in the story that usually bring smiles to people, and turning them into something sinister, like art murals. I bet I could go back and re-read this book several times and see something in a different light, or pick up on something that was a clue that I had missed the first time. This book would be perfect for a book club, as I think most would WANT to talk about it after reading it. It provides interesting and provocative discussion. I have a few questions in my mind: Did Detective Pete really think that his own father hugged him in the end? Also, was The Whisper Man a pedophile, or possibly an abused boy who just cracked into abnormality? To me, those were the only 2 questions in the end that bothered me. ( )

2.5 stars

Loved the short chapters, they were the perfect length!

This book was more murder mystery/thriller than the horror I was expecting. ( )

This had good plot, and some fun tense moments, but the voices of the characters got muddled together for me, and I wasn't always sure who I was following. It's a good quick thriller though, with several different eras colliding as crimes are uncovered and repeated in present day. ( )

So good!
Kept me guessing, I was really racking my brain for who could have been behind this.
Loved it!!! ( )

definitely not my normal read......found it very difficult to get through ( )

Creepy thriller involving child kidnapping that perhaps could spread decades. ( )

An easily-read thriller with a solid premise. After a one-two punch of cornball twists at its midpoint it ultimately finishes weaker than it started. ( )

A creepy, interesting read. The characters were well developed and the plot hummed along nicely. The only thing that seemed a bit off to me was the pace, seemed a bit slow at the beginning and then rushed at the end. But overall, really enjoyable. ( )

I might have to think about this rating for a little while. I liked it, but it wasn’t as intense or twisty as I was hoping for. It was more just really sad. ( )

While reading this I couldn't help but think of The Shining as well as Silence of the Lambs. Well written and paced to perfection this is creepy, engaging and evocative. To quote the poem," If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken. If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home. If your window is left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass. If you're lonely, sad and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you..."

This tells the story in a nutshell though the father son relationship elements play into it with an unusual twist. Highly recommend this to those who enjoy creepy books! ( )

3.5. Nothing spectacular but it was fun. ( )

Spooky and terrifying and a fabulous read. Twists that will blow your mind. I had to reread a few times to make sure I had just read that right !! Terrific writing job! 5 stars ( )

I can't help it, I am seduced by book covers - and I LOVED this one. The story was ok. Not bad, just not my genre of choice, so I can't really say if it was great or not. The ending... the very ending... was good. Otherwise, I just sort of though it was ok, but as I already said, not a genre I read much of.

3 1/2 stars. The first half of THE WHISPER MAN rated 3 stars, the second half 4.

The mystery in this book is good. Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake are learning how best to live since Rebecca, Tom’s wife and Jake’s mother, died. So they decide to move to a house that will not remind them of Rebecca, especially Jake’s memory of his mother's body at the bottom of the stairs. It is their move to that particular house that involves them in the mystery of the whisper man.

In the city where Tom and Jake have moved, the whisper man has taken the lives of several young boys. The body of one of the boys killed 20 years ago has never been found.

The whisper man of the 20-year-old crimes has been found and is now in prison. But he seems to have had an accomplice, although he will not say so or indicate who it is. Is this other whisper man now coming for Jake?

Even though this mystery is good, I did not find it spooky, as other reviewers have, and the first half of THE WHISPER MAN is not thrilling and too easy to put down. Mysteries and thrillers should be unputdownable books. ( )

I am not able to recommend this book, because of its overbearing masculinity. Author, main characters, etc. Also, prominent police presence from the second chapter. Since I am a bookseller in a justice-oriented store, and my blog is similarly themed, this book is not a good fit for either. ( )

The best thrillers for me are those where you cannot tell from the outset whether the principal characters will survive the ordeal presented by the book more or less intact, either physically or psychologically. The author has to make us feel connected to the characters, to want them to come through safely - but at the same time to allow for the possibility that they may not.

I think having an innocent child in the mix makes this harder, since really, what kind of book (other than in the horror genre) ends with a sweet kid falling prey to an evil villain? In that case, there has to be more than one adult protagonist so that we have plenty of characters and options to worry about and mull over.

And Alex North does a good job at that, with a series of slow reveals about true identities and relationships, and an ongoing question as to whether certain events might be truly supernatural in nature. That's one of the strengths of the book, setting up situations that are seemingly inexplicable in any other way than otherworldly intervention. The ending is interesting, in that there is a conventional conclusion (which I found a bit weak), followed by a final scene that is far more interesting.

I'd say [b:The Whisper Man|41940236|The Whisper Man|Alex North|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541864083l/41940236._SY75_.jpg|63202631] is an above average thriller, especially on the grounds of tight plotting. Good editing could probably have reduced that length by 10% without harming the story, but compared with much of the bloat we see these days, that's not bad.

FWIW, I don't think the narrator added anything to the audiobook. There was a certain blunt coarseness to his voice that was a bit (IMO) inconsistent with the main character, who is supposed to be creative and troubled, and was once a sensitive child. Oh well. I doubt that anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers will be disappointed with this. ( )

I enjoyed it ( )

I wish he could have ratcheted up the tension one more click and expanded the stories of some of the characters to make it overall more compelling, but I really enjoyed this mystery. It oozes of atmosphere and would probably be more enjoyable closer to Halloween. Not that I would classify it as horror, but there is plenty of creepiness in it. I'm looking forward to his future books. ( )