The Whisper Man by Alex North

☆☆1/2
ebook, 368 pages
Published August 20th 2019 by Celadon Books
About the Book:
After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank. But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night. Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window.

I am in the minority here but this book was just not live up to the hype for me. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hated this book or even disliked it...it was okay. But far from the masterpiece of suspense many people claim it to be. The three main problems I had with the book was the prose, the story, and the characters.

A fan of the book might call its style straightforward. I would call it impassive. The writing feels like Alex North himself was bored with his story. There's so little embellishment that it's like reading a something a robot wrote. Normally I appreciate brevity, since most authors include way too much static description and summary than needed, but North lies on the other side of the extreme. He keeps the reader at arms length, and I didn't get truly involved in the story at all. I'm not asking for melodrama or pages of endless description. I'm asking for soul.

While I wouldn't call this a bad book it was just barely mildly interesting enough to keep me reading. Is this book a complete waste of time? No. Could you spend your time on a better book? Certainly. Check out The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, for one.

Thank you NetGalley, Alex North and Celadon Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an impartial review; all opinions are my own.

#TheWhisperMan #NetGalley