WHISPER DOWN THE LANE by Clay McLeod Chapman – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Whisper Down the Lane by Clay McLeod Chapman
Published by Quirk Books on April 6 2021
Genres: Adult, Horror, Psychological thriller
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Meticulously crafted and mind-bendingly creepy, Whisper Down the Lane is a riveting page-turner that’s hard to put down.

Whisper Down the Lane is an extremely unsettling, paranoia-fueled psychological thriller that takes its ideas from some real life events and twists them into something new and horrifying. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I loved it! This is the second Clay McLeod Chapman book I’ve read, and I’m so impressed by how skillfully he combines multiple story lines and eventually weaves them all together. 

The story alternates between two characters, Richard in 2013 and Sean in 1983. Richard is an art teacher at Danvers school and has recently married a woman named Tamara, another teacher at the same school. Tamara’s five year old son Elijah attends Danvers as well, and Richard is slowly but surely gaining Eli’s trust and hopes to officially adopt him. Richard’s peaceful life is interrupted one day when he discovers the mutilated body of the school’s pet rabbit strewn across the playing field, and even more shocking, there’s a birthday card sticking out of the rabbit’s body addressed to “Sean.”

In 1983, we meet five year old Sean, who has recently moved to a small town in Virginia with his mother. Sean understands that his mom is on the run from something, and that’s why they never stay in one place for long. Sean likes his new Kindergarten teacher Mr. Woodhouse, but he doesn’t like the school bully, who corners Sean on the playground and hits him. When Sean’s mom sees the bruises and asks how he got them, Sean decides to tell her a lie. Soon Sean finds himself in the middle of a scandal, which quickly spirals out of control. Six teachers at the school—including Mr. Woodhouse—are being investigated for child abuse and satanic practices, and Sean is forced to answer all sorts of questions that are much too adult for a five-year-old boy.

Richard has suppressed certain childhood memories, but suddenly, bits of the past are starting to break through. It’s getting harder and harder to separate the past from the present, and he’s convinced that someone is targeting him and his family. Could history be repeating itself? As Richard spirals into paranoia, the idyllic life he’s built with Tamara and Eli seems to be slipping away.

The story is inspired by the McMartin Preschool trial of 1983, where teachers at the school were accused of sexual abuse, although after a lengthy trial, all charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. Chapman takes this idea and runs with it but mixes in some elements from the “Satanic panic” of that same decade, making this a fascinating, multilayered story. While I wouldn’t call this a traditional horror story, there are horrific elements, including a couple of pretty graphic animal deaths, so do beware if that’s a trigger for you. Most of the “horror,” however, was of the psychological variety, and the author did a fantastic job creating a feeling of paranoia as Richard slowly loses touch with reality as more and more weird stuff starts happening to him, and that paranoia rubs off on the reader. Eventually the relationship between Richard and Sean is revealed (you may have guessed it already), and the mystery of what actually happened to Sean and how it connects to the present is what drives the plot.

There’s an overall creepy feeling to the story, which doesn’t come from any one thing, but a combination of a bunch of smaller elements. I think some readers are going to find certain parts creepier than others, at least that’s what happened to me. One short scene in particular reminded me of something I haven’t thought of in years: Sean has to go to a home daycare while his mom is working, and his descriptions of Miss Betty and her vegetable sandwiches reminded me of my own unpleasant experience in daycare when I was pretty young. Sometimes stories set in the past evoke nostalgic feelings, but in this book the past is full of ominous overtones.

The most horrific thing for me, though, was the way the adults manipulated the children. It starts with a parent, whose response to her child’s complaint “My teacher was mean to me!” balloons into the panicked question “Did your teacher touch you??” The author uses the idea of gossip and whispering to show how quickly rumors can spread (and the book title relates to that as well). It was horrifying to see the leading questions the parents would ask that pushed their kids to fabricate a story that could literally ruin lives. McLeod also intersperses some recorded interviews between Sean and a child “therapist” who literally bullies him into confessing to things that never happened. I was more shocked by these interviews than the animal cruelty, believe it or not.

If you’re a horror movie buff, you might recognize some of the characters’ names and other tidbits from such movies as Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, and I absolutely loved that Chapman included these subtle references in his story. He also does a great job of evoking the time period of the 80s by mentioning things like popular toys (Cabbage Patch Kids) and TV shows (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ), which seem sweet and innocent, but somehow in Chapman’s hands they take on a sinister tone. In the 2013 timeline, the horrors of Sandy Hook are still fresh in parents’ minds, and the school administration has started doing lock down/active shooter drills. Add in the signs of satanic activity and speculation and you have a bunch of scared, paranoid parents on your hands. 

The tension slowly builds as both timelines slowly start to parallel each other, until the shocking conclusion. Clay McLeod Chapman has another winner on his hands with Whisper Down the Lane, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.