I read The Whisper Man in Summer 2019 and immediately went hunting to see if Alex North had any other books. Unfortunately at that time he didn't but I've been waiting patiently ever since and luckily am almost at the finish line.
There are many of the same things I loved from The Whisper Man that I see in North's upcoming novel.
First there is the setting - Featherbank, a quiet town with plenty of its own tragedies.
Then there's DI Amanda Beck - a strong female lead, I love that we now get to peel back layers of this character and see how the events of the first book affected her.
We experience the complicated relationship between children and their parents- the Whisper Man had Tom Kennedy, his son Jake and his dad detective Pete Willis whose relationships we got to work through and The Shadows has the main character Paul Adams, his ailing mother and deceased father, as well as DI Amanda Beck's relationship with her deceased father.
The writing style is one that alternates between Amanda's police procedural chapters and Paul's - in some books with this style one POV drags on, but North has done it in such a way that I'm excited to read both points of view and have a more multi-layered view of the events, the characters and the book overall.
I also love the similarities in the covers. Simple, but both incorporating an element of the store in the creepy hands.
These factors serve to help immerse those who have read The Whisper Man back into the spooky world of the book before the first chapter is even finished, while not taking away any of the experience for first time readers of North's work.
And not to mention the new plot seems creepy as all get out! What's with the red handprints everywhere??
Looking forward to reading more to find out!
Vanessa
There are many of the same things I loved from The Whisper Man that I see in North's upcoming novel.
First there is the setting - Featherbank, a quiet town with plenty of its own tragedies.
Then there's DI Amanda Beck - a strong female lead, I love that we now get to peel back layers of this character and see how the events of the first book affected her.
We experience the complicated relationship between children and their parents- the Whisper Man had Tom Kennedy, his son Jake and his dad detective Pete Willis whose relationships we got to work through and The Shadows has the main character Paul Adams, his ailing mother and deceased father, as well as DI Amanda Beck's relationship with her deceased father.
The writing style is one that alternates between Amanda's police procedural chapters and Paul's - in some books with this style one POV drags on, but North has done it in such a way that I'm excited to read both points of view and have a more multi-layered view of the events, the characters and the book overall.
I also love the similarities in the covers. Simple, but both incorporating an element of the store in the creepy hands.
These factors serve to help immerse those who have read The Whisper Man back into the spooky world of the book before the first chapter is even finished, while not taking away any of the experience for first time readers of North's work.
And not to mention the new plot seems creepy as all get out! What's with the red handprints everywhere??
Looking forward to reading more to find out!
Vanessa