Whistle by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After tragically losing her husband in a hit-and-run accident, Annie Blunt, a popular Children’s author, is looking to escape from NYC in order to get a fresh start for herself and her young son, Charlie.
Through her editor, she’s able to secure a lovely rental house in a small town in upstate New York, close to the Vermont border, or as Charlie calls it, ‘in the country‘. It will definitely be a big change of pace for them.
Looking for things to do at their new place, Charlie ends up discovering an old train set locked in a storage shed in the yard. Annie helps him bring it in the house and set it up, but there’s something nagging her about it; an unsettling feeling she cannot explain.
Strange noises, strange occurrences throughout the neighborhood, and a strange feeling haunting Annie’s every moment. She’s determined to get to the bottom of what is happening in their new place.
Is it her? Is the stress finally taking over, or is there something more sinister at play?
Interspersed throughout Annie’s story, we also get a past perspective that may provide the answers to what is happening to her and Charlie. It might not be a train journey, but this novel is certainly a journey. Wow!
Whistle was a very fun read. While it won’t go down in history as the most memorable Horror novel I’ve ever read, I appreciate the classic feel of the storytelling. Barclay definitely succeeded in captivating my attention.
It actually heavily reminded me of a less diabolical version of Needful Things. There were a lot of aspects of this story that reminded me of that one, and I wasn’t mad about it.
I appreciated that Barclay didn’t try to throw in a bunch of narrative tricks, or gimmicks. It’s just a straight-forward story that manages to be creepy as heck.
Also, I found the characters compelling enough to care for their outcome, which is always a plus. Additionally, I’ll never look at a toy train set in the same way again…
Overall, I was really impressed with this. I would definitely recommend it to any Horror Reader, or even people who maybe don’t read Horror as much, but want to dip their toe into an unsettling Supernatural Thriller once Spooky season comes along.
Thank you to the publisher, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I had never read from this author before, but I’m excited to look into his backlist!