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Published Apr 2021
304 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Inspired by the McMartin preschool trials and the Satanic Panic of the '80s, the critically acclaimed author of The Remaking delivers another pulse pounding, true-crime-based horror novel.
Richard doesn't have a past. For him, there is only the present: a new marriage to Tamara, a first chance at fatherhood to her son Elijah, and a quiet but pleasant life as an art teacher at Elijah's elementary school in Danvers, Virginia. Then the body of a rabbit, ritualistically murdered, appears on the school grounds with a birthday card for Richard tucked beneath it. Richard doesn't have a birthday—but Sean does...
Sean is a five-year-old boy who has just moved to Greenfield, Virginia, with his mother. Like most mothers of the 1980s, she's worried about bills, childcare, putting food on the table...and an encroaching threat to American life that can take the face of anyone: a politician, a friendly neighbor, or even a teacher. When Sean's school sends a letter to the parents revealing that Sean's favorite teacher is under investigation, a white lie from Sean lights a fire that engulfs the entire nation—and Sean and his mother are left holding the match.
Now, thirty years later, someone is here to remind Richard that they remember what Sean did. And though Sean doesn't exist anymore, someone needs to pay the price for his lies.
"Chapman evokes the 'satanic panic' that convulsed schools and day care centers in the 1980s, destroying reputations and lives, in this spellbinding psychological thriller...a suspenseful tale of paranoia that will keep readers riveted until the last surprise is sprung." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Creepy and engaging, this is a tale for readers who enjoy true crime like We Believe the Children by Richard Beck (2015), horror like Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism (2016), and intensely disorienting psychological suspense like Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (2017)." - Booklist
"This clever, creepy roller-coaster ride is perfect for fans of fast-paced horror with the flavor of true crime." - Library Journal
"Devilishly good. In Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman has given us a diabolically creepy hybrid of horror and psychological suspense that thrills as much as it unsettles. You'll keep turning the pages even as your hands shake." - Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of Home Before Dark
"In Whisper Down the Lane, Clay McLeod Chapman has gifted readers a novel that is darkly compelling, deeply discomfiting, and achingly human. We squirm as the dread and terror mount, but we can't stop reading. We're under the spell of a true storyteller, and bound to follow him wherever he takes us. Prepare to surrender some sleep for this twisting tale of family, memory, identity, and the weight of old sins." - Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
"A beguiling page-turner brimming with dread, Whisper Down the Lane is diabolical fun." - Rachel Harrison, author of The Return and Cackle
This information about Whisper Down the Lane was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Clay McLeod Chapman writes novels, comic books, and children's books, as well as for film and TV. He is the author of the horror novels The Remaking and Whisper Down the Lane.
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