This creepy novel is a cross between a possession story (sort of) and Needful Things with a bit of cosmic horror thrown in.

It takes place in a small Vermont town between two different timelines, one in 2001 and the other current day. Believe it or not, toy train sets are used as the catalyst for the horrors which take place.

Back in 2001, a mysterious toy train shop opens seemingly overnight. But whoever purchases a set from the creepy owner soon begins to experience terrifying atrocities. A BBQ blows a father to pieces, a woman kills herself by electrocution, a sweet family pet tries to kill it's owner, and more.

The "man" running the store is something evil and you'll read about him throughout. But the chief of police starts putting things together and that's going to lead to an unimaginable catastrophic event.

In the present day, a successful children's book author is living for the summer in another small town to get her and her son away from NYC for a break. They've had a very traumatic year and need the escape. But when her son finds a box full of a toy train set, it's going to lead to terrors beyond their imagination.

These two perspectives are going to come together and provide an ending which is full of fear and tension. I loved how the author switched timelines in between sections. The back and forth slowly unlocked a picture of this man and his purpose and it's certainly frightening.

I highly recommend this novel. I received an ARC through Netgalley. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

4.5 ⭐️ I’ve read Linwood Barclay thrillers, but this is a new genre for him and I loved it! Who would have thought a train set could be so scary!

Told in dual timelines and from multiple POV the story is fast paced and chilling! 2001 Mr Choo aka Edwin of Choo Choo’s Trains sets up shop in a small town in VT selling train sets to the locals. Strange things and disappearances begin to happen and local Police chief Harry starts to connect the dots.

Several years later Annie and her son Charlie rent a house outside N.Y. to escape after the death of her husband and Charlie finds an old train set in the shed. Strange things occur and it becomes obvious the train is not what it seems.

A frightening page turner that’s so scary! Both timelines come together for a great satisfying ending!

Thanks NetGalley and William Morrow Publishers for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! The book starts off with Annie who is a children's author losses her husband to a truck killing him as he walking across a street. Her publisher thinks its a good idea for her and her young son to take some time away from the hustle bustle of New York city and rents her a house 3 hours away in a small town. She settles in and not long after that there are strange things that start happening there.
Away for peace and quiet turn into nightmares and she second guesses why she agreed to go there.
A fantastic author and a fantastic book that I highly recommend.

Whipped through this one. Barclay thanks Stephen King for being an early reader, and I can definitely see his fingerprints on this book. It also reminded me of Joe Hill's NOS4A2, but not quite as fully realized. A solid horror novel from a new-to-me author.

Borrowing heavily upon Stephen Kings works of Needful THings and Christine comes a blockbuster from Linwood Barclay.

I loved how the author took a beloved childrens (collectors) toy and turned it into a thing of evil. It was so suspenseful, when the Chief of Police Harry was investigating and he KNEW something was off, yet how do you bring someone in on NO evidence but for just being evil?

Linwood builds a masterful tale and left me guessing at what would happen next. I DID NOT SEE THE ENDING COMING>

THis is another masterfully told horror story from the author that will wow and entrance anyone.

CHOO CHOO!

Better than I thought it was going to be. Crossing a small town horror and suspense with a deeper story unraveling secrets and discoveries.
Interesting concept with the delivery.
Very Stephen King'ish and Needful Things.

Annie is having a bad year.
Annie is a children’s book author and illustrator. When a child dies after becoming obsessed with flying, Annie is stuck. Unable to move forward and now trying to deal with the shocking death of her husband.
When her publisher finds her a house out of town, she takes her son and goes. But right away you know something is not right with this house, the people or the town.
Annie and her son are hoping to heal from the past year and are struggling.
When Charlie finds an old train set in the shed, things turn weird. Is this a haunting? Is this real?
Hearing train whistles in the night, with no tracks around, odd things happening around the town, and then Charlie goes missing.


Creepy, but in a good way!




NetGalley/ William Morrow May 20, 2025

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley of this ARC of Linwood Barclay's 'Whistle.'

If you like Stephen King's Main/New England small-town horror then you'll like this. It has all the elements of King's best small-town yarns - likeable stalwart local sheriff, strange interloper targeting innocent children and their families, familiar array of townspeople, and a fractured timeline involving big city blow-ins. It's like a combination Salem's Lot, Needful Things, Christine, and IT and even includes King's famous technique of foreshadowing.

Very enjoyable and, as I say, especially attractive to Stephen King fans.

Love Linwood Barclay, but I wasn't expecting the supernatural element in this book. Loved it though! Very creepy and atmospheric with a past/present back and forth narration from two different viewpoints. It was reminded me a bit of Bentley Little books (which I love but are usually too graphic for me) without all the violence..

Great story, well paced, with some great characters that I was really rooting for to save the day!

Thank you William Morrow Publishing and Net Galley for ARC. This book is very much like Stephen King's storytelling. I have read other Linwood Barclay psychological thrillers and loved them. This book was so creepy. As each chapter went, I could feel evil lurking. The dual time lines interwoven so well. I highly recommend this book.

A mix between thriller and cosmic horror, I had a really fun time. I will certainly be reading more by this author.

Whistle is a story that dabbles in the supernatural. I don't normally read books like this, but this is a Linwood Barclay book. I had to give it a try and I'm so glad I did. This was amazing and didn't get too deep into the supernatural aspect, just enough to make it a great storyline.

The story is told in two timelines, present and 2001. The parallels of the two timelines is unclear at first, but then suddenly they are tied together. This is brilliantly done in typical Barclay fashion. In 2001,Harry a police chief is investigating mysterious murders and chilling events happening throughout town.
Oddly, they all seems to be tied together by a new train store opening. In present time Annie, a children's book author and illustrator, and her son Charlie leave the big city for a quiet town, to recover after the death of her husband and an accident to a child as the result of one of her books. Once there, Charlie is bored until he discovers an old train set on the property. Once he puts it together and starts playing with it sinister things begin to happen and no one is safe. When the events of the two timelines come together it results in an explosive conclusion.

This book was a true page turner and gripped me from start to finish. I didn't think I could gasp as many times as I did reading this. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a good thriller.

Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow Publishing for the advanced copy

I remember getting a wooden Brio train set for Christmas when I was probably four or five year old. I loved that train. It didn’t do murderous things, so that’s good.

You know what else is good? This book.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC, and the opportunity to provide an honest review.

This book hums along with a steady, determined combination of eeriness and ebullience, and while it clearly pays tribute to books like Needful Things, it never crosses that line into emulation.

The good…
Barclay can write. He doesn’t have beautiful prose or dazzle with linguistic sorcery, but his straightforward, accessible style is perfect for telling this story; and this story is worth being told. I loved everything about it, from the dual timeline traversal, to the imparting of metaphysical evil into a benign entity, to the unforeseen event that punctuates the nature of villainy.

The less good…
I don’t have much to say here. I probably could have done without maybe 50 pages, but none of those felt belabored or uninteresting. They just might be unnecessary, and this book’s length could serve as a barrier to mass accessibility.

To read, or not to read…
Absolutely go read it. It’s a great time

I did not know what to expect when I read that this was a paranormal story from Linwood Barclay. I have read many of Barclay's books and enjoyed them all. so I was excited to see what he would do with this. I was not disappointed. This was written well, not in a silly way that I many times find paranormal novels. The timeline was a little confusing to me until it all came together at the end. I enjoyed the story very much and genuinely loved the ending. The characters were well done and I felt for some of them when they met their fate. All in all I enjoyed this book immensely.

What did I just read? Oh wait, I didn't actually read it -- it turned out to be something I have generally thought of as impossible: this one was a DNF. I have read and reviewed many Linwood Barclay books over the years, and he has consistently been on my "yes! A new book by < >!!" list. Possibly it is my own fault, I actually requested this one, without reading carefully enough what the book was about? The blurb for Whistle included mentions of grief, strange sounds in the night...should have tipped me off that this was likely to veer into the horror combined with supernatural -- generally not my thing. Looking at the reviews, I am clearly in the minority on this, for which I am glad -- Mr. Barclay has provided me with MANY hours of enjoyment, and apparently many of his fans thought this one was terrific. So with many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley, I appreciate being given the opportunity, but as George Costanza would say, "It's not you, it's me!" One star.

Having read most, if not all, of Linwood Barclay’s books, I was elated to receive an ARC from NetGalley. Ostensibly, the novel is about a murderer who selects his victims by making and selling toy trains to them. After a promising beginning, the book turns into a horror story and, to this reader, was akin to a Stephen King novel. It is more fantasy than a mystery/thriller and I am bewildered as to why I muddled through to a completely unsatisfactory conclusion. I thank NetGalley and William Morrow Books and the opportunity to read and review this very unsavory book.

This is Linwood Barclay's first foray into the supernatural, and he did a fantastic job! Whistle is a creepy, fast-paced, unputdownable story! It's well-written and full of great characters. There are two timelines. In the present day, Annie is desperate for a break and takes her son Charlie to a house in the country. While there he finds an old train set and their lives will never be the same again. In 2001, Harry, a small-town police chief, investigates the murders and mayhem that seem to coincide with a new model train store appearing in town. Both timelines were interesting, but my favorite parts were Harry's. What happens in that town is absolutely chilling. I was wondering how the timelines would come together, and I was surprised by the way they did. I hope Mr. Barclay writes more supernatural novels because I loved this one! Highly recommended!

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Whistle. I have been a fan of Linwood Barclay for a long time. Read all his books but this new novel is a departure from his other novels and I love it
This book is a supernatural thriller and I found it very entertaining and believable.
The story centers on a writer, Annie. She writes children’s books and in particular one about a Penguin. Kids love her books and she is very successful.
But unfortunate accidents happen and she’s ready to put the pen away and stop writing.
Her publicist comes up with a plan for her and her son to get out of the city and go to the countryside. Get away from it all and start working again well maybe but it’s not a bad idea. Annie and her son travel upstate to a beautiful place and they are going to have time to do some things together they never had a chance to do.
But something’s calling to her son and he finds an old toy. One that he starts to play with all the time. It’s a toy train set.
The only thing that is wrong is the change she sees in her son and the message from an old woman who lives next door.
Something is wrong.
A parallel story is being told by a police man in 2001 who is also finding out that there are things going on in his small town that seem to revolve around a small shop in town that sells toy train sets. People are going missing and people are dying from accidents. If he told people what he was thinking they would think he was crazy.
These two timelines converge and intersect to create a novel of suspense and mystery.
Excellent!!! 5 stars!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this Advanced Reader’s Copy of Whistle by Linwood Barclay due to be published May 20, 2025.

Annie Blunt had an unimaginably terrible year with her husband dying and another accident that she blamed on herself. She decides to get away with her son Charlie. Charlie is thrilled when he finds an old train set in the shed. He puts it together, and that’s when strange things start to happen.
I thought I would be reading a typical Linwood Barclay thriller, but I was in for a surprise! This was unlike any of his other books, and I loved it! Told from alternating time periods, it was a horror story like no other I have read. I love his thrillers, but he did a fantastic job with this one – kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I would highly recommend it!

#NetGalley #WilliamBarclay #WilliamMorrow #Whistle

4.5 stars

I’ve never read Barclay before and always thought of him as a mystery author. But damn this book was phenomenal! If this is what he has to offer call me a fan!