Whistle
A Novel
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4.0 • 41 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
“Terrific.”— Stephen King on Whistle
New York Times bestselling author Linwood Barclay enters new territory with a terrifying supernatural horror novel in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.
Evil has a one track mind....
Annie Blunt has had an unimaginably terrible year. First, her husband was killed in a tragic hit-and-run accident, then one of the children’s books she’s built her writing and illustrating career on ignited a major scandal. Desperate for a fresh start, she moves with her son Charlie to a charming small town in upstate New York where they can begin to heal.
But Annie’s year is about to get worse.
Bored and lonely in their isolated new surroundings, Charlie is thrilled when he finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed on their property. Annie is glad to see Charlie happy, but there’s something unsettling about his new toy. Strange sounds wake Annie in the night—she could swear she hears a train, but there isn’t an active track for miles—and bizarre things begin happening in the neighborhood. Worse, Annie can’t seem to stop drawing a disturbing new character that has no place in a children’s book.
Grief can do strange things to the mind, but Annie is beginning to think she’s walked out of one nightmare straight into another, in a haunting story of psychological terror that is far more terrifying…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barclay (I Will Ruin You) delivers a harrowing supernatural thriller centered around a model train set. In 2001, seven-year-old Jeremy receives a toy engine for Christmas and ties one of his sister's dolls to the tracks. When the train strikes the doll, a glass shatters in the kitchen, severing one of his sister's fingers. Decades later, bestselling children's author Annie Blunt is haunted by the death of a six-year-old fan who was attempting to fly like one of her characters. Then her husband is killed in a hit-and-run. Grief-stricken, Annie flees Manhattan with her son and settles in the small Vermont town of Lucknow for the summer. On their first night there, Annie hears a train whistle, only to learn, the next morning, that no trains run nearby. Then two locals disappear, and one is found without his hair, teeth, and bones. Toggling between 2001 and the present day, Barclay gradually focuses in on Choo-Choo's Trains, a mysterious Lucknow novelty shop that seems to be connected to a spate of tragedies. As the horror mounts, Barclay grounds the action through the eyes of his well-developed protagonist, offering scares and pathos in equal doses. It's a top-shelf chiller.
