LINWOOD BARCLAY

Do the locomotion: a bestselling thriller writer turns to horror

- Words by Jonathan Wright /// Portrait by Ellis Parrinder

THE NEW NOVEL BY LINWOOD BARCLAY, Whistle, is not one for anyone who has siderodromophobia - a fear of railways. “When I describe this book for people, sometimes I say, ‘This book will do for toy trains what Chucky did for dolls,” Barclay says, with evident satisfaction. “It’s just not fair that dolls and mechanical monkeys or rocking horses or ventriloquist’s dummies get all the good action when it comes to horror and thrillers.”

Not any longer, because Whistle is a supernatural horror that has all the slow-building creepiness of a Stephen King story. It doesn’t charge up the tracks at you; it chugs along, getting up steam before racing ahead after it hits full speed. “It couldn't just be somebody gets this old house and there’s a train set in the box, it’s creepy, and weird shit starts happening,” says Barclay.

The book begins with a foreshadowing of bad events up the line as we're introduced to recently widowed Annie Blunt, a bestselling children’s author whose career has become mired in controversy. Needing to get away from the city, she heads to upstate New York with her son, Charlie.