Customer Reviews

Listen for the Whisperer

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I first read this book in high school and loved it! It was the first book that I had ever read by this author. It has a beautiful setting and the suspense is unbelievable! I was shocked to learn whodunnit, and I believe that you will be too!

I first discovered Phyllis Whitney at about age 12, and for the next 10 years or so I consumed her books (along with those of Victoria Holt). I haven't read a Whitney in at least 20 years and decided to give her a try to see how she holds up for me after all these years.

The book got off to a better-than-expected start (because Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy hasn't held up too well for me). Whitney sets up her characters and scene with a deftness that has just a touch of smartness. Her heroines are, like all typical Gothic heroines, alone in the world and vulnerable. Although with Whitney, the vulnerability usually comes from age (they are typically in their early 20s) and not from any fragility of character. She infuses her heroines with resourcefulness and independence that is appealing to the modern reader but never overbearing. Also surprisingly, the book didn't feel dated, even though it was written and set in the early 1970s.

It is in the middle of the book that it begins to sag, as the plot (and the characters' actions and reactions) becomes a little too melodramatic. In this book, for example, someone slashes a portrait of the actress Laura Worth (the heroine's mother) in a sinister game of tic-tac-toe, with "X" (the mysterious and unknown malefactor) just one square away from winning. When she sees the vandalism, Laura reacts by crying that "if "X" wins, I'm done for!"

The "suspense" is handled with a fairly heavy hand throughout the book; the climax, therefore, is really more of an anti-climax. Although Whitney manages to keep the culprit's identity a secret until the very end, when it is revealed there is no thrill, no surprise.

I plan to try a couple more of Whitney's books; it has been so long since I read them that I no longer remember the plots so it will be like reading them for the first time, again. I don't think she will ever again be the fave that she was in my teens; I have outgrown her writing too much for that. But perhaps her books can serve as light, fast, short intermissions between meatier books.