Book Review: The Whispers by Heidi Perks

About the Book

Anna loves Girls’ Night with her friends. With the kids safely in bed, it’s a chance for the women to let loose, enjoy some wine, and just laugh. But after one lively evening, Anna doesn’t arrive for school drop-off the next morning—or the next, or the next.

Everyone, especially her husband and young son, is frantic with worry, but none more so than Grace, her childhood best friend. Grace is certain that someone is hiding the truth about Anna’s unexplained disappearance. As rumors fly and accusations are whispered among neighbors, Grace decides to take matters into her own hands and find out what happened to Anna…or die trying, in this “original, clever, and gripping thriller about toxic female friendships with a killer twist” (Claire Douglas, author of Just Like the Other Girls).

My Review

I enjoy Heidi Perks and really liked the way this one started, but I must confess that about a third of the way in it started to feel like a slog to me. I lost the sense of suspense and started to feel irritated at the characters and the mess they were all in, rather than curious as to how it would all play out.

Things got very repetitive and felt like they were moving at a glacial pace that was inconsistent with the tone and direction of the story, and largely stayed that way until the end. I forced myself to keep reading, on the hope that she’d salvage it with twists, but to no avail. By the time I got to the big reveal, I had already sort of seen it coming and even the bits that I didn’t just felt flat and anti-climactic…

On the whole this was not one of my favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.