On to Mt TBR it goes.

This is a compulsive read, very early on I was swept in. Themes of fathers and their challenging relationships with their sons, grief and loss, amidst a background of a child killer running rampant in the town. North's characterisation is superb, the setting promotes goose-bumps... A simply fantastic read.

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Recent widower and author Tom Kennedy struggles in the wake of his wife’s death to connect with their young son, Jake. He wants to be a good father, but there’s something unnatural, to him, about parenthood, which stems from his own childhood and complicates his and Jake’s relationship. When Jake begins displaying troubling behaviour—talking to “himself” and acting out at school—Tom begins to lose his patience.

I think the book can’t make up its mind whether it’s a thriller or a mystery and this creates some confusion. It has the thriller format, and yet it’s a mystery structure because we don’t know the bad guy and we are reading to find out.
The books I like/love drop me into the fictive dream and hold me there. I live the book through the character’s eyes and think about them when I’m away from the book where the characters come alive. In the Whisper Man this didn’t happen for me. What I wanted was a thrilling mystery with some creepy vibes and great twists. Instead what I got is an indulgent treatise on how to wallow in self-pity and feel guilty over everything, while not getting along with your parent/child by being purposefully difficult.

Release #296 for 2023..