Spoilers Ahead:
I received an ARC copy of Alex North's The Whisper Man from BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.
Ok, so I really loved the parallel storyline of the three main characters; Tom Kenndy, his son Jake, and DI Pete Willis. I loved the beginning of the story and the set up of the premise and "first" kidnapping victim. The whole Whisper Man idea was very chilling. The story was an honest representation of the complicated bonds of not only father and son, but parent and child in general. But, when it came to the back end of the story and the second attempted kidnapping and the big familial reveal it was clever, but I just found it way to unrealistic. Before you say, "Well it's a fiction thriller.", I enjoy the more realistic ones and find them to be waaaaaay scarier than one that throws in an almost seemingly cheap plot line in order to drive the back end of the book and make it make sense. Think about it, if Pete wasn't his dad he wouldn't have been babysitting his child as one of the lead detective's on the case. Maybe it would've been better to keep them unrelated and still have the kidnapping take place but the dad end up injured in the process. Putting the reality factor aside, I really enjoyed the creep factor of it and would definitely recommend. The author did a great job in building the sense of dread throughout the entire story. I'm a mom with a full time job and I had a hard time putting it down, and that's definitely a good thing.
I received an ARC copy of Alex North's The Whisper Man from BookishFirst in exchange for an honest review.
Ok, so I really loved the parallel storyline of the three main characters; Tom Kenndy, his son Jake, and DI Pete Willis. I loved the beginning of the story and the set up of the premise and "first" kidnapping victim. The whole Whisper Man idea was very chilling. The story was an honest representation of the complicated bonds of not only father and son, but parent and child in general. But, when it came to the back end of the story and the second attempted kidnapping and the big familial reveal it was clever, but I just found it way to unrealistic. Before you say, "Well it's a fiction thriller.", I enjoy the more realistic ones and find them to be waaaaaay scarier than one that throws in an almost seemingly cheap plot line in order to drive the back end of the book and make it make sense. Think about it, if Pete wasn't his dad he wouldn't have been babysitting his child as one of the lead detective's on the case. Maybe it would've been better to keep them unrelated and still have the kidnapping take place but the dad end up injured in the process. Putting the reality factor aside, I really enjoyed the creep factor of it and would definitely recommend. The author did a great job in building the sense of dread throughout the entire story. I'm a mom with a full time job and I had a hard time putting it down, and that's definitely a good thing.