The Whisper Man is a serial killer thriller with so much going for it, that I was absolutely hooked and read this over a few days in lockdown. This is one of my favourite reads so far this year, and I’m on a really good run of 5 star books at the moment.
The story follows a single father called Tom, whose wife Rebecca died a year ago, and so is left to raise their young 7 year old son, Jake. They need a new start, so move to the small town of Featherbank and into the local ‘scary house ‘.
Pete Willis is a seasoned detective with a troubled past, whose life has been taken up with the guilt from a twenty year old case involving The Whisper Man. Pete caught the whisper man and sent him to prison, but never found the body of the 5th boy Frank Carter killed.
When another boy goes missing, Pete is called in to help on the case, and we follow the investigation and everything that happens afterwards.
I absolutely devoured this book during baby naps, I loved it. It has thrills and chills and a twist in the middle that I didn’t even get a whiff of! It was great to have a twist that I didn’t see coming and I was so shocked, but it made perfect sense afterwards. I loved little Jake, he was adorable- bright, polite, friendly and funny. His dad, Tom, is trying really hard to do the best he can following his wife’s death, but always feels like he is letting Jake down in some way. He can’t connect and that is explored thoroughly throughout the book.
Pete is the ultimate reformed character. He used to be an alcoholic, and battles daily to resist the temptation to fall back into the abyss. So far he is succeeding. And as each hurdle comes up in the case, he has to fight those demons again and again. I was rooting for him the whole time. Every time he gets that bottle out of the cupboard, I really wanted him to put it straight back in there.
It wasn’t overly gory, there was atmosphere and suspense. The chapters were short and well written and I’m very much looking forward to another Alex North novel.
I would 100% recommend this to anyone looking for a scary suspenseful police thriller.
Happy reading, Becca x
The Beautiful Book Break 