Great thriller, with a slight supernatural aspect to it. Although I found it a tad predictable, it still kept my interest and kept me reading. I almost gave it 4 stars but the last chapter really got me and broke my heart a bit. I don’t want to give anything away but there was a lot of emotion packed into that last short chapter. ( )

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. ( )