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.

This was hard to put down as once I started I really didn't want to close the pages. I wanted to find out who was the Whisper Man and how was he able to fly under the radar. Tom and Jake have a rocky relationship they are still grieving over the loss of a mother and wife and really are living day by day. When they move into a new home Tom is hoping everything will work out for them both. Yet, that is when Jake hears the whispering. Who or what could it be? I did like the little surprise that came for Tom towards the climax of the book as I wasn't suspecting that person to know Tom and vice verse. It all goes to show that it is a small world and fate has a way of connecting things for us.

What happens now and what happened in the past is all connected in some way and for Detective Pete Willis he will find the answers he seeks even if those answers are close to home. The author did a great job going between different POV's and really bringing everything together. If you like a good mystery I would recommend you pick this up.

I like the characters and how real they felt. Detective Pete who of course drinks but we see how he fights it and has that drive to close a case.

Tom a grieving husband who is learning how to parent a child who is hard to talk with and we see he gets frustrated at times but really does try to be a good father.

Jake a loner who talks to himself and draws a lot. Grieving over the loss of his mother and is still hurting over that. He knows his world is not the same anymore.

After the sudden death of his wife, Tom moves his son Jake to a smallish village to try to begin again. Unfortunately, Tom has landed them in the middle of a serial killer's hunting ground where little boys are going missing . When the body of a missing boy from 20 years ago is uncovered, things escalate in this small village as the police try to catch the perpetrator before any more lives are lost.

Describing this book is difficult because I don't want to give away too much and spoil anything. The characters in this novel are woven together beautifully. Jake seems to know things that he should not know about hidden bodies, former occupants of homes, and details of the kidnappings. The book has a supernatural vibe that isn't overt and keeps you guessing. I really enjoyed this book!

Wow! This is a riveting, edge-of-your-seat thriller with fully developed characters and a superb mystery. I'm shocked this is North's debut - anticipating his second book already!! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Whisper Man.

I'm a big fan of police procedurals starring a serial killer so The Whisper Man was right up my alley.

The premise is straight forward; a young boy is kidnapped and the disappearance bears a disturbing similarity to a spate of disappearances from two decades ago that a famous serial killer named Frank Carter is now serving time in prison for.

When detective Pete Willis is brought into the current investigation, he is brought face to face with his past and the need to make amends.

At the same time, a father and author, Tom Kennedy, has moved with his young son, Jake, to a new town, hoping for a fresh start after the untimely death of his beloved wife, Rebecca.

Jake is emotionally sensitive, creative and introspective and father and son have a difficult time adjusting to their new life without Rebecca.

When Tom and Jake are pulled into the case, it will take Tom's courage to protect his son and a shocking sacrifice some readers won't see coming.

The Whisper Man isn't really a mystery or a thriller, per se.

Yes, it's about a serial killer and his horrific crimes but it's really about the relationships between fathers and sons; the relationships between Tom and Jake, Peter and his newly discovered son, and Frank and his twisted offspring. There are lots of Freudian daddy issues here.

My main issue is that the story wasn't suspenseful or thrilling; the writing was good but not exciting.

The identity of the bad guy isn't a shock and I hated how the serial killer, Frank Carter, was portrayed. I find it extremely difficult to believe scum like him would be revered in prison. Child killers are notoriously reviled in prison, right next to pedophiles.

There's not enough backstory for Pete Willis, a cliche, troubled detective who lost his family due to alcoholism but has completely changed his life.

Still, he is haunted by the terrible things he has done to the only woman he has ever loved.

I liked Jake's portrayal of a very sensitive young boy whose father is struggling to understand him, protect him, yet wish he was just normal so he could make friends and get along with people; thoughts we could all empathize with.

I did like Jake's interactions with his imaginary friend and who the identity of this friend turns out to be.

Overall, I liked the main characters, Pete and Tom and Jake, but I was hoping for more of a mystery, police procedural type of story.

Review#42. THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North,debut novel, reviewing for Netgalley. If you leave a door open, soon you'll hear the whispers spoken.
After the death of his wife, author Tom and his 7 year old son Jake decide to move to make a fresh start. Unfortunately the village of Featherbank has a shady past with little boys disappearing and later turning up dead....and ghosts? Excellent book and hands down the best Ive read lately. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Five stars

Creepy and just enough off-kilter to keep me turning pages until I finished at 4 a.m.

What I loved... the questions that kept arising to push me on for the answers. Who is the new Whisper Man? What connection does he have to the original serial killer? How are the grieving widower and his young son involved?

I could feel the loneliness and frustrations of the father as he tries to adjust to this new life months after the death of his wife. His floundering and inadequacies dealing with a young son and his grief were heartwrenching.

The parallel story of the recently kidnapped boy and the PD's efforts to find him made me wonder how the two stories would connect. Eventually... Oh, how they connected!

The element of a hint of supernatural added to the creep factor. Delicious.

What I didn't love... The father's angst over his parental inadequacies compared to that of the now-dead mother, and his continual anguish/anger while trying to communicate with his son, just made me tired after a while. It began to feel like a constant headbanging against the wall. Too drawn out and overwrought. The man was fairly intelligent; take some action, for crying out loud! Then I had to take a step back and understand that coping with life during a period of deep grief causes one to sometimes take faulty missteps. Or several of them. Nevertheless, I had to end up skipping over these parts, which brought my rating down to 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4.

If not for the "What I didn't love..." this would have been an incredible read for me. Kudos to the author for keeping me up until the wee hours because I had to finish it. Had. To. Finish.

Bottom line: a story with heart and heartbreak that spanned generations and wove them together intricately. Highly recommend.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Gotta love a book that I can envision as a movie or made for tv. The Whisper Man is an ARC I received from NetGalley for a free review. I must say that it was scary enough for me to put down at night but intriguing enough for me to rush to read during daylight hours. Twenty years ago a serial child killer was captured and placed behind bars. All of the bodies were found except one. That one missing body has hounded Pete a police detective who continues searching for the body. Cut to Jake, a young boy who sees and hears things that worries his father immensely. The lives of Pete, Jake and his father Tom intertwine as a result oh these whispers and imaginary friends. The writing style was good, and the story flowed smoothlessly. The author had me rooting for the three main characters. Even though the ending for one of the characters was disappointing, I loved the ending. You need to read to the very end. Highly recommended this book.