The Whisper Man by Alex North

"The dream itself had faded a little now, but it had been a memory as much as a nightmare. Me as a child, walking toward the doorway to the small kitchen of the house I had grown up in."

After the death of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his son Jake move to the small town of Featherbank. They're looking for a fresh start, but it soon becomes clear they won't find it. The locals call their new home "the scary house" and Jake's imaginary friends are becoming increasingly disturbing. A child goes missing, and as police race to find the boy they discover the clues point to someone who is already in prison.

The first thing that stood out to me was that we're given a collection of imperfect characters all trying to overcome some sort of loss. There's Tom who's coping with his grief by writing about his wife, and as much as he loved her, some of what he writes isn't always pleasant. His son Jake is inventing imaginary friends and getting in trouble at school. And the two fight constantly, each left feeling like they aren't good enough for the other. There's also Pete, an investigator looking into the disappearance of a little boy; he's a recovering alcoholic who sobered up when his wife and child left him. Every night, he uses the memory of that loss to stop himself from opening another bottle. I liked that they weren't perfect angels, the imperfection making the characters realistic.

There's an interesting blend of mystery and paranormal in this book. There's the obvious mystery of the kidnaped kid, but there's also the who done it portion. 'The Whisper Man' has been in prison a long time, so it couldn't have been him because his alibi couldn't get any more airtight. It leaves you looking at all the secondary characters asking, "was it you?" The hints of paranormal activity are subtle. Jake knows things he shouldn't and as his imaginary friends get creepier you have to entertain the possibility that he might be talking to ghosts.

It touches on one of my favorite themes: nature vs nurture: are we influenced by our genetics or our we products of our experiences? This theme is most pointedly seen in Tom whose father was a drunk with behavior that bordered on domestic abuse; Tom is striving, and in my personal opinion, succeeding, to be a better father than his own. There's one character who seems to be shaped by both nature and nurture... Raising a new question: is it possible that we're shaped by both elements and not just one or the other?

I think with so much focus on the mystery elements, the book was more of a thriller than a horror. With the details of Pete and his partner trying to solve the crime, the book was less scary than it otherwise would have been if the book solely focused on Tom, his weird kid, and the strange happenings at his creepy house. But I think as thrillers go, it was a fairly good one, and worth the read if you're looking for a spine-tingler.