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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scarier than Hannibal Lecter, July 28, 2010
Not since The Silence of the Lambs have I been so scared reading a thriller. No wonder Donato Carrisi has become an overnight sensation in Italy as this gripping, gruesome yarn captivates the rest of the world.
If I may digress for a moment to an unlikely comparison between The Whisperer and Curtain, Poirot's Last Case, which Agatha Christie locked in a vault for over 30 years. The murderer, identified by Poirot simply by the letter X, has been completely unsuspected of involvement in five previous murders, in all of which there was a clear suspect. X had perfected the technique of which Iago in Othello is master: applying just such psychological pressure as is needed to provoke someone to commit murder.
Now to the Whisperer. Six buried arms. Six missing girls. Writing so vivid you will gasp in horror at night and by day turn over and over in your mind the nature of good and evil.
Carrisi, a screenwriter, has created fully realized and utterly compelling characters in the child-finding specialist Mila Vasquez with her dark secrets and renowned criminologist Goran Gavila, reeling in pain after his wife packed up and left him to raise their son alone. The evil-doers beggar belief yet they are out there as we all know. Waiting, watching, pouncing.
This book has a very high IQ. You will never guess where it will take you. But as Mila says, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the darkness calls to you, it seduces you with its pull. And it's hard to resist the temptation.
"When I come out with the person I've rescued, Mila says, "I'm aware that we are not alone. There's always something else that comes with us out of that black hole, stuck to our shoes."
Every now and then I am reminded of what literary crime fiction means and how cinema can only dream of going such places.
Very highly recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Newcomer Carrisi revitalizes the serial killer genre, January 15, 2012
This review is from: The Whisperer (Hardcover)
There are few things in life my mother loves more than a good psycho-killer novel. And because I grew up reading what she did, I was raised on the things. It took me well into adulthood before I realized that I really don't like reading about nightmare killers. It's depressing and unpleasant. To each his own, right? I'm not sure what it was about this novel's description that inspired me to want to pick it up. It must have been the typical publisher hyperbole. I fell for it again. Except, this time the hype was right. It's not my usual cup of tea, but The Whisperer was a fantastic crime novel. The novel opens with a prologue made up of the first of several redacted pieces of correspondence from a prison director about an inmate who was arrested for not sharing his identity, and who appears to be obsessively collecting all trace DNA he may be leaving around the prison. They suspect he may be guilty of far more serious crimes. The first chapter drops us in the middle of an English crime scene. There's been a rash of abductions of young girls. The entire country is in a panic. Parents are pulling children out of school. As the novel opens, there has been a grisly find. A collection of arms, surely belonging to the missing girls. Only one problem, five children have been snatched, and there are six arms. Who is the sixth victim, and is she still alive? Enter the novel's protagonist in chapter two. Mila Vasquez is not a member of the elite serial killer-hunting team that's been working this case. She's on loan from another part of the country. She specializes in finding missing children, and she never stops looking. It becomes apparent almost immediate that Mila isn't your average woman: "She couldn't even bear to see her image reflected in a mirror. Not because she wasn't beautiful, quite the contrary. But at the age of thirty-two, hours and hours of training had stripped her of every trace of femininity. Every curve, every hint of softness. As if being a woman were an evil to be eradicated. Even though she often wore male clothes, she wasn't masculine. There was simply nothing about her that suggested a sexual identity. And that was how she wanted to appear... Invisible among the invisible." So, yes, it's clear she's not your average woman, but it takes the reader a while to realize just how different she is. Let the comparisons to Lisbeth Salandar begin! In any case, Mila is an intriguing, if not always a relatable, central character. Additionally, the other members of her new team keep things lively. Aside from the rich ensemble cast, the novel is intricately and very smartly plotted. Author Carrisi does an admirable job of avoiding genre clichés. Hats off to him for flat-out flummoxing me more than once. Great plot twists! And on a creepiness scale of 1-10, this book rates an 11. If this is your cup of tea, don't hesitate to pick The Whisperer up. I can't wait to recommend it to Mom!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Realistically Groteque- Horror Movie on Paper, December 29, 2011
This review is from: The Whisperer (Hardcover)
The opening chapter of Donato Carrisi's novel "The Whisperer" describes a hideous scene where the severed arms of young girls are found in a clearing. Enter Dr. Goran Gavila and his team of special agents: Klaus Boris, Sarah Rosa, and Stern. As they attempt to find five missing girls, the discovery of their arms does not leave the agents with much hope. Plus, the fact that they found the arm of a sixth unidentified girl sends this team into a whirlwind, as they attempt to predict what this monster will reveal next.
Officer Mila Vasquez specializes in finding missing children. Having a sixth sense about the men and women who abduct the young individuals, she successfully rescues hundreds of children, yet shies away from the limelight. While harboring a secret of her own, she is called in to help Dr. Gavila and his team solve the missing girl case. Named Albert by the team, the abductor begins to leave the little girls' bodies in places that reveal a previous horrendous crime not discovered by officials. Battling time, Mila rushes to discover the identity of the sixth girl while uncovering horrible secrets including murder and rape. Donato Carrisi studied law and criminology and it certainly shows when reading this gripping novel. The beginning is a bit disjointed since I didn't realize how he was going to connect the two storylines, but once the connection was made, the novel took unexpected turns. I felt as if the novel was detailing a real police case and enjoyed the scientific and logical explanations given by Gavila, which never seemed farfetched. He carefully explained the thought process of Albert, the serial killer, and motives behind his actions. I also instantly bonded with Mila who through her personal pain and insecurities put the case in the foreground. While the rest of the team caught my attention, she seemed to view the case in a different light, allowing the reader to compare her viewpoint to the rest of the team. Also, when I thought I had everything figured out, Carrisi throws another curveball, disrupting my sense of calm and accomplishment at outsmarting the perpetrator. You feel as if you are alongside Mila and Gavila, attempting to solve this mystery before the sixth girl is killed. Carrisi also infused the novel with grotesque horror scenes, leaving the reader wondering if such crimes were even possible for a human being to commit. Combining mystery, intrigue, horror, and hope, "The Whisperer" is certainly one of best novels that I have read this year. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves a thrilling story and wants to get lost in a disturbingly realistic plot.
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