About the author:
Alex North was born in Leeds, England, where he now lives with his wife and son.
Buy a copy of The Whisper Man here // Read our review of The Whisper Man here
The Whisper Man is described as a gripping, moving and brilliantly creepy psychological thriller. Can you tell us a bit more about the book?
Sure. The Whisper Man is about Tom Kennedy, whose wife has died recently, and his young son, Jake. Tom and Jake love each other, but they struggle to connect, and are both finding their grief difficult to deal with. Tom tries to give them a fresh start by moving to a small village called Featherbank, without realising there was a string of child murders there twenty years earlier. The killer was known as The Whisper Man because of the way he targeted vulnerable, lonely children, often whispering outside their windows at night. He’s been in prison for two decades. But now another little boy has just gone missing in Featherbank, and Jake begins acting more and more strangely. His imaginary friends take on increasingly sinister forms, and he says he hears a monster whispering outside his bedroom window.
What inspired the idea behind this novel?
When I began planning the book, all I really knew was that I wanted to write about fathers and sons, and I had in mind a father and son who were left alone and struggling with how to connect with each other after a bereavement. But I think the real impetus came from my own son. There was a time not long after we’d moved house, when he was about five or six, and I heard him talking in the front room. When I went through and asked what he was doing, he told me he was “playing with the boy in the floor”. Which gave me a shiver, but also fired my imagination. I’ve always loved reading threads of creepy things that children can say, and I knew then that the boy in my story would have imaginary friends like that, and that a few of them might turn out to be more than they seemed.
What do you hope the reader will take away from this book?
I hope they enjoy the book enough to feel it was worth the entrance fee! I mean, first and foremost, the book has to work as a thriller, and I hope on that level there are enough twists and turns, and scares and jolts to keep the reader entertained and turning the pages. But an emotional reaction is probably just as important deep down; the best compliment for me is when people have said they found the book moving. I want readers to fall in love with Jake a bit, and to be there with him as he goes through the events of the story. I enjoy being thrilled and entertained and surprised when I read, and I love a book that keeps me on the edge of my seat, but the novels that tend to stay with me the most – my favourite books – are the ones that hit me on an emotional level.
The Whisper Man means I’m not sleeping with the light on for the first time since primary school. Do you enjoy frightening people?
Ha ha! Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased when I hear that reaction. I grew up with a love of horror fiction and horror films, and I enjoy the sensation of being scared myself – at least in a safe capacity like that – so it was natural enough to include it in my own fiction. And given the subject matter, it was never going to be a comedy! But actually, it’s not an effect I particularly strived for in the sense of “oh, it’s been thirty pages, so I need a scary scene.” Instead, I tried to build atmosphere slowly and aim for characters you relate to and care about. That way, the scares arrive organically as the situation tightens around them. I love a good jump scare as much as the next horror fan, but I prefer stories that are frightening more because of the implications and meanings.
Are you working on another book at the moment?
I’m fairly superstitious when it comes to talking about work in progress. If you say too much about it, it feels like it removes some of the energy it takes to get the story down on the page. But also, the stories that I write tend to evolve as they go. I usually need to write a first draft before I figure out what I should have written all along. Annoying but true! But the next book is similar to The Whisper Man, in that it’s a psychological thriller with a creepy feel to it, and it deals with a horrific crime from the past that affects the characters in the present day. At least, that’s what it’s about at the moment…
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