The Whisper Man by Alex North

Celadon Books, 368 pages, $26.99

What’s a book without coincidences and ghosts, I say. Luckily, “The Whisper Man” has both, if you believe in that sort of thing — either coincidences or ghosts.

Alex North is not a newcomer to professional writing, but “Alex North” is a pseudonym, so who knows what else he/she has written. Maybe it was a book on sociology, since the author’s CV lists a stint at Leeds University in that department. The author’s biography says he lives in Leeds with his wife and son. “Him,” hmmm. Let us not forget that J. K. Rowling said she was the male author Robert Galbraith! And Michael Redhill pretended to be Inger Ash Wolfe. Whatever. “The Whisper Man” reads smoothly and does not hint that this might be a first attempt.

What would you do if your seven-year-old son persisted in talking to invisible companions? You’d probably laugh it off, because don’t a large number of young children have make-believe playmates? What if your son was kinda creepy about it? What if your wife had died not long ago? What if you are a crap parent, riddled with self-doubt and grief? Ta dah, “The Whisper Man.”

Twenty years ago, several young boys were kidnapped. At the time, fifty-six-year-old DI Pete Willis found the killer, Frank Carter, and put him in prison. But the body of one boy, Tony Smith, was never found, even though Carter acknowledged Tony as one of his victims. Willis was a heavy drinker. Eventually, his drinking cost him his family. His inability to find Tony Smith weighed on him throughout the years, but contrary to expectations, he is now sober.

In the quaint English village of Featherbank, not far from where DI Willis lives, another young boy has disappeared. The investigation this time is headed by DI Amanda Beck. She allows Willis onto her team because of his experience with the prior child abductions and killings. The cases are similar in that they are about missing children, but until the police learn one crucial piece of information, the old and new events are not linked. His parents reveal that six-year-old Neil Spencer reported hearing whispering at night. That was a signature of the cases twenty years ago. Frank Carter was dubbed “The Whisper Man.” Willis is now on full alert.

Tom Kennedy, a book author, has moved to Featherbank with his seven-year-old son, Jake. Jake is “different.” Tom has often caught him whispering to himself and seeming to talk to someone who is not there. Jake tells his dad about a little girl who is his playmate, but no one else has seen the little girl. It’s the shock of having his mother die suddenly, Tom thinks. Tom and Jake have moved to get a new start, away from the home where Rebecca died, away from the bullying at Jake’s school, to a place where Tom could jumpstart his writing.

What is Jake’s strange connection to their very strange new house? Why is Jake afraid enough to beg his father to lock their doors and windows at night? Then late one night, Tom catches Jake on the verge of letting someone into their home. By the time Tom opens the door, the visitor has disappeared. The police become involved and, inevitably, their incident becomes part of the larger picture of the new Whispering Man case.

Alex North relies on his readers’ imaginations to provide the gory details after he has supplied the gory outline. The author’s strength is in how he builds the suspense and uses ordinary but fragile people as the prey. Horror is worse when it comes by way of your own imagining. Although every shadow flickers ominously (and usually dissipates into nothing), it becomes clear that every odd utterance is based on an odd foundation. Just because it’s your imagination doesn’t mean it’s not … real.

I’m going to start a new category, “Lights On,” as in read this book with the lights on. This will be my first entry.