The Whisper Man

By Alex North

Any book with a spooky children’s nursery rhyme is sure to get the blood pumping, no?

The Ugly Truth:

What do you do when a book has sooooo much potential the first 60% and then flops in the last 40%? Cry, no other answer. Alex North’s The Whisper Man spooked me to no end in the first half of the tale. A series of young kids being kidnapped and murdered? Unresolved past traumas? Struggling emotional relationships? Check, check and check. It was the perfect recipe for something great, and it was giving AMAZINGNESS until it became entirely too predictable.

 Look, I get that you *should* be able to solve a murder mystery by the last third of the book. The author’s goal is to quite literally provide you with all the clues, so if you are working through it all properly, you should be able to connect the dots. My issue is that this book was so well done that I truly believed there was no way that the path I found at literally page four of the book was going to be the correct one. I naturally, wishfully, assumed that because of the awesomeness of the first half, there was going to be one giant plot twist. To say I was let down would be the understatement of the century.

All that being said, I would like to clarify that this book was still masterfully written. It was a crime thriller with the perfect elements of evilness that made it all a quick and wonderful read. I think my issue is that it became a little too emotionally wishy-washy. North perfectly encapsulated what occurs when past traumas go unresolved. In fact, he depicts almost a mirror-like relationship between four characters, with one coupling successfully overcoming history and the other facing the inverse - the failure of being able to move on.

In terms of the plot, North chose to switch chapters between an array of characters, each one battling their own inner demons and spiraling thoughts. At times, I felt as though we were following along with too many individuals to really ever get attached to one, but by the halfway mark, I was interested in learning more about each. I particularly enjoyed that North continued to end most chapters on a cliff hanger before jumping to another scene so that it gave time for the reader to think and sort through some of the previous details before revealing anything too majorly.

Hilariously, the character I fell most in love with was the one that did get her own chapter and, actually, did not even exist (you’ll get it when you get it). However, without revealing too much, I wish there was a bit more of an explanation for how and why Jake Kennedy was so attached to… somewhere else?  

All in all, my search for the perfect thriller continues on, but don’t let that stop you from scaring yourself with this one!