Linwood Barclay has a brand new novel coming out next week, and he’s coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake to talk about it. Barclay is the guest author at Wine and Words on May 21 at Caroline Cellars, in collaboration with the NOTL Public Library.
Barclay has written 20 New York Times bestselling thrillers, which have sold millions of copies worldwide.
His faithful fans will notice this book is not like the others. It twists and turns down a sinister track, pulling you deeper and deeper into the dark world of supernatural evil.
“This one is different. It’s kind of out of my lane,” he notes.
“Whistle” is not just a thriller, it’s a supernatural chiller: “All the other novels are very much rooted in the real world. There are elements of horror and supernatural in “Whistle,” which is what makes it a big departure,” Barclay explains.
“I had more fun writing ‘Whistle’ than just about anything else I’ve done in at least the last 10 years. It was kind of liberating because I could do outlandish, bizarre things and really not have to explain myself, whereas in any of the other novels, there’s gotta be a reason for everything. In a good thriller, everything should fit together like a Swiss watch,” he says.
With “Whistle,” he says, “I thought, I can do something crazy here and I think I can get away with it.”
“Whistle” tells the story of Annie Blunt, an author of children’s books living in New York City. She’s had a terrible year of tragedy, including the sudden death of her husband. Annie decides to take her young son, Charlie, to a small town for a fresh start.
Life there is not what she expected. Strange things start to happen when Charlie sets up an old toy train set he finds in the rented house. Annie realizes she left one nightmare behind, only to step into another.
The novel packs surprise, suspense and sheer horror. Toy trains, typically associated with joy and innocence, become sinister instruments of evil.
Barclay explains why he chose toy trains for his villainy.
“It just didn’t seem fair to me that in horror, you know, dolls, like Chucky and Annabelle and Megan, they all get to be terrifying, so why not a train? Why not a toy train?”
There was also a practical reason for choosing toy trains: “I thought, well, why not make something evil that I’m also very familiar with? Even just the toy train parts I can get right without having to research, and I know how they work, and I know how they’re built. I have built many model train sets in my time,” he says.
Even now, he has a full setup in his basement, a large room with one massive model railway and scenery.
“Whistle” is evocative of a Stephen King horror novel, but with its own original storyline and characters. Barclay says of King, “I’ve admired his work for a very long time, I’ve been a fan forever.”
The admiration is mutual. Stephen King’s endorsement is displayed on the cover of “Whistle,” and Barclay says, “He was the book’s first reader. When I had the very first draft done, I asked him, ‘Do you want to read it?’ and he said, ‘Oh yeah, but I don’t want to read it on the screen. Can you print it out?’ So I printed it and mailed it to him.”
Barclay says he’s not sure yet if he’ll write another horror novel.
“I think it’s really going to depend on how people respond to ‘Whistle.’ If it does really well, then I might go there.”
In the meantime, he’s already written his next thriller. “I wanted to get it done because any time now, our daughter is going to have twins, and I anticipate the rest of the year will be complete mayhem.”
Barclay is on a whirlwind tour next week, with appearances here in NOTL, Grimsby and Burlington. In June, he’ll be travelling to various events in the U.K.
He looks forward to these appearances, saying, “Writing is a very isolating kind of profession, so when you get a chance to actually go out to something good like Niagara and see people, it’s a nice break.”
Wine and Words, being held from 7 to 9 p.m., is a fundraising event for the NOTL Public Library. To register, visit notlpubliclibrary.libnet.info/event/13004785.
