I will leave a review on Amazon Aug 20, 2019

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my fair and honest review.

This was the debut novel by Alex North, I found it to be very well written. Suspense/thrillers are one of my favorite genres, and this one was certainly a page turner. The title of the book was creepy in itself, then add in the rhyme which made it doubly so. This book kept me turning the pages, and I enjoyed the backstory. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

The Whisper Man. The name says it all. This book would have given me nightmares when I was younger. This book has psychological suspense that builds up and keeps you on the edge of your seat. The characters were creative and some just plain evil. A brilliant start for this author.

Wow!! Super creepy!

If you're a fan of Stephen King, You HAVE to read this book! I kept having to tell myself that this wasn't written by King while I was reading it.
Spooky, creepy, terrifying at times... definitely a page-turner. Will have you checking your windows and doors to make sure they are closed tight!

Congratulations to Alex North of this debut novel - you have a fan in me! Will definitely be on the look-out for more books from you!

"If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken.
If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home.
If your windows left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass.
If you're lonely, sad, and blue the Whisper Man will come for you."

What an incredible story! I was hooked from the start. A story about a serial killer who kidnaps and then kills children, this book is terrifying and yet exciting at the same time.
Being a fan of horror and suspense, this book reminds me of something Stephen King would write. The plot line of a child killer, coupled with a creepy rhyme of the Whisper Man, is reminiscent of Freddy Kreuger, the Candyman, or Bloody Mary.
The story has multiple layers. It centers on the child killing but also involves a cop who is trying to redeem himself, a man who is trying to relate to his son, and a boy who is trying to find his place in the world. All of these layers combine to make this story so much more than just a horror story.
Definitely pick up this book today.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.

This book is seriously riveting. Down right unputdownable. This author managed to keep me on the edge of my seat. I cannot wait for everybody to read this book. Just pick it up, trust me and read it. You will thank me later

Nursery rhymes by design can be extremely frightening. When you factor children in the mix of reciting old passages and rhymes of yesteryear, you gain a whole multitude of strange occurrences. Children had gone missing. A parents’ worse nightmare. It’s one thing to have one child go missing, but to have cold cases of children missing from over twenty years ago, and dare I say it, we’ve got a rather interesting story.

Tom Kennedy was a novelist struggling to write his next novel due to the grief he was suffering of his wife’s passing. It didn’t help matters that he was now charged with raising their son, Jake. Tom didn’t think he could do it alone because Rebecca always understood their son better than he ever did. How was he supposed to react to his son’s needs? What words was he to say when his son cried for his deceased mother? Would Jake listen to his father when he tried to give advice? These were all the troubles and woes Tom often thought about, so having his agent give him a deadline as to when his manuscript was due, was going to have to wait and be placed further on the back burner.

Tom and Jake needed a fresh start, so they began their search of new homes. Surprisingly, Jake found a house online that he loved right away. Tom wasn’t sure why his son picked this house because by all accounts, it looked extremely uninviting and a bit scary. As Tom learned after purchasing the home that the neighborhood kids said it was a scary house and no one wanted to go near it. Even though Tom wasn’t too excited about the new place, it was what his son wanted and he would stop at nothing to make sure his son had the best and was happy.

A new start was supposed to be fresh and old habits are hard to break. Jake began talking to himself, again. Tom was beside himself. He thought once they moved, Jake would stop speaking to his “imaginary” friend. But the ongoing conversations Jake was having with his “friend” appeared to get worse. And it certainly didn’t help when Jake went to his new school and the kids observed him “talking” to the air. Oh No, Tom thought. Not this again. If Tom thought that was nuts, he really was going to lose it when he discovered his son knew things that he shouldn’t be able to know. For instance, he mentioned to his father that he was talking to the “boy in the floor.” Say what now?

And this is where the story gets crazier. From what I’ve been reading online, this story is receiving rave reviews and called exciting and one of the best psychological thrillers to come around since Thomas Harris and Stephen King, and I have to respectfully disagree with that entirely. For me, this story was slow and extremely boring and I didn’t find it heating up until about 80% of the story. What I just described to you above comes near the end of the book, not at the beginning or the middle.

In fact, I found myself skipping over the unnecessary parts of the story of Tom’s father’s past dealings with the child murderer, Francis Carter, and his drinking problems. It appeared to have been repeated several times throughout the story. It would seem that once you’ve established the background of the character’s lives and how they relate and intersect with other characters, there wouldn’t be a need to continually bring those facts up? But here we are reading the same sections over and over, and I didn’t find anything exciting about that.
Actually, Nerds, I’m a bit on the fence with this. I struggled with whether to give this story three or four stars. Eventually, I settled on four because North is an exceptional writer. He demonstrated this well, but therein lie part of my problem. He was too good of a writer where he appeared to write things over and over and I didn’t feel it was needed. That’s a personal preference of mine, but other readers may not agree with me. Obviously so, since so many reviews I’ve read gave this story five stars. I don’t feel it warranted that in my opinion.

Was this a bad read? Absolutely not. In fact, it was a damn good one—I just felt there were too many things repeated for my tastes and that caused me to lose some interest. Again, that’s a personal thing with the way I like to read, but that may not be every reader’s view. Overall, I felt this story was pretty good and it really grabbed my attention near the end. The ending was shear brilliance.

The Sexy Nerd gives The Whisper Man four quiet stars. In my honest opinion, I didn’t feel this book was that exciting to the point it was the best psychological thriller I’ve ever read, but it was good enough to keep me tapping the Kindle pages. And at the end of the day, that’s all anyone can ask for. This would be a great summer vacation read!

There are already hundreds of synopses of this book, so I will refrain from my own summary. It is an easy, flowing read; I read it on a sea day on a cruise. It definitely kept my interest while I read it. The solution was not obvious but not dragged out of thin air either. There was one narrative choice that I thought was a bit cliched - it was not necessary to the main plot, and I felt cheated there. It's a decent mystery with well formed characters throughout. I received a free advance reader's copy through Net Galley.

If you leave the door half open

Soon you’ll hear the whispers spoken


If you’re lonely sad and blue

The whisper man will come for you.


Extremely creepy, definitely felt written for the big screen. The gosh dang nursery rhyme seriously FREAKED ME OUT - enough where I didn’t like being in my daughters room at night while reading certain chapters, but also going in to check that her window was locked, and set the house alarm early 😂




North does a great job at alternating from the hair-raising chapters, to more of the police procedural chapters, giving you time the chill the F out... you know to keep you reading lol. And LORD HELP your kids if they wake you up in the middle of the night while you’re reading this by grabbing your ankle, or by standing at the foot of your bed staring at you. I will pray for them. And you.



For as creepy as parts of this book are, some of it feels kind of censored, which left me feeling a little off kilter. It sounds eerie for me to say there wasn’t enough “gore” or “carnage” but there just....wasn’t. It was skipped over, and I believe it was due mostly the character arc of *grandpa*, which I can understand...however, north has brought to life this literal goose-bump provoking villain, and when it comes to what this monster does to the victims.. just nothing. There’s talk of just how awful it was. Something no one should ever have to see. And with the exception of just a few important details and signatures, that’s all. Describing the horrors would have upped the ante on the fear factor even more. But maybe, it just wasn’t needed for that? In my eyes, this led to the police procedural portion of this novel falling a little flat.


Moving on from the scary/horror side of this read, there are some deep emotional issues that the characters deal with. Loss, alcoholism, abuse, grief, anxiety.. north does a wonderful job of showcasing the very difficult side of life that is usually behind the scenes. I very much enjoyed the aspect of the book!


All in all, give in to the hype guys! This is a great spine tingling read and I am so thankful for Celadon Books for approving my request through NetGalley after seeing me BEG AND PLEAD AND WHINE (shamelessly) all over Instagram for it 🤣

the REAL MVP right there.

A lights-on thriller you won’t soon forget!

After the sudden death of his wife, author Tom Kennedy decides he and his son need a fresh start. An internet search turns up a strange, quirky-looking house that young Jake insists they should buy. Soon, the two are ensconced in their new home in a new town, but they don’t realise until it’s too late, there’s a predator on the loose- a serial killer.

When a six-year-old boy goes missing on his way home, the Featherbank police have their hands full- because this isn’t the first time. Detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis are determined to find the missing child and catch the monster haunting their streets- even if Pete has to face his past, and The Whisper Man.


This book had me so freaked out, but I couldn’t stop reading!

There’s an eerie poem Jake learns from his ‘make-believe friend’ that plays a large part in the story.

"If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken.
If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home.
If your windows left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass.
If you're lonely, sad, and blue the Whisper Man will come for you."
I don’t want to give too much away other than to say this is a haunting, terrifying, creepy psychological thriller but it’s the poignant, family first underlying plotline that kept me reading.

I give The Whisper Man 5+ lovely kisses- A story you won’t forget!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Celadon books for giving me the opportunity to read this story.

This follows several characters. We get both the detective's POVs. We also get Tom's POV and his son Jake. Other random POVs as well. But, a six year old boy gets taken in a similar fashion to cases that happened 20 years ago where boys were kidnapped any murdered. A man has been convicted for those crimes and he is in prison. Pete helped put that man in jail, but he never found the body of one of the young boys and it has haunted him for 20 years. Is this connected? Tom and his son Jake are new to town, making a fresh start after the loss of their wife/mother. Tom notices strange occurrences with Jake. He finds him talking to himself at times, and other unexplainable phenomena. What is happening to Jake?

Overall, the story was fine. The mystery wasn't really super exciting to me. There were no really great twists/turns on that side of things. That's kind of what I personally like in a mystery/thriller. I thought the book talked about family issues very well. It was very realistic in that sense. I was reading this book and found my attention going elsewhere. I kept asking myself "how much longer is this book?" That's never a good thing. I also felt like there were too many POVs for it not to say who I was in the mind of for each chapter. I found myself confused on several occasions.

Overall, it was just okay. It didn't blow my mind, but it was a fair read. I just thought the pacing was a little slow, and we talked about the same issues (family) over and over again, which I found exhausting to say the least. Three star read!

Creepy. Very well written! It has been a long time since a book has made me want to keep the lights on. Reminiscent of Stephen King but different as well! I loved the story and the characters. If you like books that send chills up your spine and that keep you guessing until the end, look no further!

This book was a terrific debut novel. It had the suspense and horror aspect down pretty well. It included a kidnapping killer and strange small town lore and plenty of surprises along the way. I liked that it revolved around a widowed single dad and his son. A pleasant change from typical single mom perspectives. I hope the author writes more in the future. He does seem to have talent.

Received an ARC via #NetGalley.

Holy heck!!! My hat goes off to Alex North for writing one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in a long time!!

The Whisper Man will have the hairs on the back of your neck stand up with it’s edge-of-your-seat storyline! This addictive novel centers around a serial killer know as “The Whisper Man” who after murdering 5 people was apprehended 20 years ago. Now 20 years later, a child disappears and all of circumstances are eerily similar to “The Whisper Man” so the million dollar question is who is behind this latest crime?!?!

I really suggest devouring this book in one sitting because it’s that unputdownable! I was literally on the hook for the very first page! The Whisper Man was told in several characters perspectives which worked brilliantly with the plot! I love reading a well thought out thriller and Alex North delivered with this gem! The novel was creepy and chilling and had my heart racing several times which for me is always a sure fire sign of a epically written thriller! The Whisper Man is a full 5 stars and I look forward to reading more from Alex North in the future!

Thanks to #NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read Alex North's fascinating new novel "The Whisper Man", in return for a fair and honest review. Honestly, I loved this 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.

Detective Pete Willis has been haunted by The Whisper Man's final victim - never found - and has repeatedly visited Frank Carter in jail, to try and find out where to find the body. And then, another young boy goes missing!

When Tom Kennedy and his son Jake move into their new home, Jake seems to tap into what has happened in Featherbank in the past, and talks about 'the boy in the floor'. When The Whisper Man's final victim is found, it turns out that there's a personal connection between Tom, Jake and the detective in charge.

And now, there's a new Whisper Man!

The Whisper Man works on so many levels - as a thriller, part supernatural mystery, police procedural and family dynamic. Highly recommended.

This novel is so creepy that I had to stop reading as soon as it got dark. A scary house that looks off, a lonely kid with an imaginary friend who may be a ghost or just a figment of his imagination but is still a creepy little girl; and a serial child abductor who whispers outside his victims' windows? Oh yes... it made my skin crawl! The chapters focus on different characters, but Tom Kennedy is probably the lead, as his story is told in first person. Tom's son Jake is precocious and very smart, but has trouble relating to other people. I did figure out whodunit, but I was in the dark as to the motive, and the last chapters are so suspenseful that I couldn't stop reading. There is a nice balance between action and character development, with a propulsive plot that showcases a rounded cast of characters. Dark and disturbing, this is a solid novel .
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Celadon Books!

I usually steer away from psychological thriller because they don't usually live up to the hype. Recently, I've been seeing The Whisper Man popping up in social media and so curiosity got the better of me - I have to read it. Boy, am I glad that I did. The Whisper Man lived up to its hype! It was one horror/thriller read that had me on the edge of my seat right from the beginning!

Twenty years ago, Frank Carter or "The Whisper Man" kidnapped and murdered five young local boys in the small town of Featherbank. He was caught by DI Pete Willis and is now serving his time in prison. The recently widowed, Tom Kennedy moves to Featherbank with his young son, Jake, hoping that a new place and environment would help both of them to heal. Soon after, a young boy vanishes and investigation reveals that his disappearance bears the signature of "The Whisper Man'. Is this the work of a copycat or something more sinister is lurking in this small town with a dark past? Things turn more complicated when Jake tells Tom that he hears someone is whispering outside his window at night.

I can honestly say that this is one impressive debut and I highly recommend it everyone! It has the right balance of plot (solid, consistent with lots of twists and turns) and characters, and the writing is absolutely engaging! Putting down this book was a Herculean task! The story has a magnetic pull that keeps you wanting more and I think that the author did an excellent job in building up the story in a suspenseful way. It's creepy, and eerie with a hint of supernatural added into the mix. WOWZA! Overall, this is a must read! It is one compelling read that also tells the story of forgiveness, love and redemption.

"If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken.
If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home.
If your window's left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass.
If you're lonely, sad, and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you."

***I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Celadon Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

The Whisper Man by Alex North has a great premise for a dark suspense thriller. The plot revolves around father-son dynamics until the very end.
My reservation was the author wanting the reader to believe the recently deceased mother was acting as a guardian ghost while luring her son to his peril. Really?
Thus the 4 out of 5 stars.

Have you ever questioned what was real and what wasn't, what your child actually saw versus what was nothing but a fancy of the imagination? What if you found out some of the imagined bogeymen were actually real?
Two separate yet mysteriously related strings of child abductions and murders collide in this terrifying thriller. Recently widowed father Tom knows his son, Jake, is seen as slightly off, but dismisses much of his behavior as being a natural reaction to the loss of his loving and doting mother. After one incident too many, the two decide a move and a fresh start in order. Jake, especially, seems keen upon a particular home that has gone up for sale in the nearby town of Featherbank, where, unbeknownst to the small family, a child has recently gone missing. The terror escalates once the two have moved, with intruders both mortal and supernatural creeping in almost immediately.
Local DI Pete Willis is still haunted by the original kidnappings and mysterious killings from twenty years ago. Fresh detective Amanda Beck is his worthy accomplice, a persistent workhorse who is determined to prevent history from repeating itself. Their secrets, as well as those surrounding the deaths of local children over the decades, are revealed as the massive knots of the past are untangled in this horrifying debut from Alex North.
As a mother, I found this book to be utterly terrifying yet compulsively readable. It contains many of my favorite horror story elements: a child who may or may not be speaking with ghosts, a chilling nursery rhyme, and narration that is questionable in its reliability. I have always been more spooked by those stories which could be true in real life, since that is a threat that is real and not some fanciful spook story to be told around the camp fire. This is a book that will surely cause a few of my future nightmares and will be in my memory for years to come.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy. This did not impact my review.

The Whisper Man by Alex North is a psychological thriller that is certain to get your pulse racing. An excellent story with great characters, this book had everything for me,. Tight plot, a bit of whodunit, police procedural and a hint of creepy.
But most interesting for me was the relationship between father and son with some heartbreaking moments of self awareness and soul searching; so unusual in this type of book.
There are nods to Stephen King and Thomas Harris's Red Dragon books but enough originality to not make it a problem.
I do not think the 'The best crime novel of the decade' quote helps at all, it is good, bordering on very good but best in a decade is just silly and off putting.
I enjoyed this book enough to be keen to find out what the author does next, which in my world is a good benchmark

This book is so damn brilliant that if I could give it more than 5 stars I would. The shame of it is, the brilliance that I want to share with you, would give away the best parts of the story, so I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it. It's creepy, and suspenseful, and seems to ooze with supernatural events that just keep happening to Tom and his darling little boy, Jake. They move into what's known as the "scary house" on the block, hoping to get some distance from the death of Jake's mother, the love of Tom's life, and soon strange things start happening. Jake has always been a little sensitive, talking to people who aren't there, knowing things that Tom can't quite figure out how he knows. Tom is jerked out of sleep one night, just in the nick of time to see long, bony fingers through the mail slot at the bottom of his stairs and his little boy juuuuust about to unlock the door and let this man in. From there, the danger and suspense grow and the story just leaps off the pages and into your ever quickening heart rate.

If you leave a door half open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken.
If you play outside alone, soon you won't be going home.
If your window's left unlatched, you'll hear him tapping at the glass.
If you're lonely sad and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you.

The history of this story spans over two decades, multiple families, cross connections you don't see coming until they're hitting you in the face; it's intelligent, fast paced, horrifying, and fantastic crime/horror writing. Absolutely bloody brilliant. I loved every chapter of this book.