The New York Times bestselling author of No Time for Goodbye returns with a haunting psychological thriller that blends the twists and turns of Gillian Flynn with the driving suspense of Harlan Coben, in which a man is troubled by odd sounds for which there is no rational explanation.
College professor Paul Davis is a normal guy with a normal life. Until, driving along a deserted road late one … along a deserted road late one night, he surprises a murderer disposing of a couple of bodies. That’s when Paul’s “normal” existence is turned upside down. After nearly losing his own life in that encounter, he finds himself battling PTSD, depression, and severe problems at work. His wife, Charlotte, desperate to cheer him up, brings home a vintage typewriter—complete with ink ribbons and heavy round keys—to encourage him to get started on that novel he’s always intended to write.
However, the typewriter itself is a problem. Paul swears it’s possessed and types by itself at night. But only Paul can hear the noise coming from downstairs; Charlotte doesn’t hear a thing. And she worries he’s going off the rails.
Paul believes the typewriter is somehow connected to the murderer he discovered nearly a year ago. The killer had made his victims type apologies to him before ending their lives. Has another sick twist of fate entwined his life with the killer—could this be the same machine? Increasingly tormented but determined to discover the truth and confront his nightmare, Paul begins investigating the deaths himself.
But that may not be the best thing to do. Maybe Paul should just take the typewriter back to where his wife found it. Maybe he should stop asking questions and simply walk away while he can. . . .
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Thoroughly Enjoyed this book. I am a real Barclay fan. It is a very imaginative plot and is full of twists and turns plus surprises near the end.
Haunted, not who you think. Great read. Awesome book.
Barclay’s books always have that little twist at the end, and this is no exception. It’s not a gripping page turner as his others have been, but it remains a good read.
This book starts out really good and interesting. Then at some point it turns and it’s not so great and doesn’t get any better. There were lots of twists and turns, but some of it was predictable.
Wow! This book starts with a murder and the quick pace never ends. I was pulled right in reading about Paul and his recovery. I didn’t see the twists and turns along the pages. Who hasn’t had the experience of hearing something strange in a dark house??? Great story, great characters and surprising ending.
You guess but not until the end do you get the answer to this great mystery. I recommend this book and all the others by this author..
I love a good mystery and this certainly was one…..I didn’t see the ending coming so I was pleasantly surprised when I hadn’t figured it out. Mr. Barclay is a wonderful author; if you’ve never read any of his books, you’re missing out on great reads!! This was one of his best…enjoy.
This book brought things to life and will have you second guessing if you locked your doors or not. Will have you rechecking just to be safe. A page turner. Read it in one night — couldn’t stop.
One of Linwood Barclay’s best. Full of twists and turns that I never saw coming. Highly recommend.
I really enjoyed this book, but it took a turn for the worst the last 50 pages. Too many characters with all kind of crazy scenarios showed up and made this book a circus. Its really a shame because the book was good until the end.
Not his best effort. Makes me long for the suspense of his earlier books.
Just imagine you are driving home and you see your coworker driving erratically in front of you. Worried, you decide to follow him to make sure he gets where he is going. This is where you wished you never bothered to follow him. Paul Davis becomes embroiled in a twisted thrilling ride that includes his therapist, another patient of his therapist, his wife Charlotte and you guessed it more questions than answers about that night. There is also a special addition to the story, a typewriter that Paul thinks is typing on its own and may be the answer to what happened that night. A twisted story that will have you second guessing all the way to the end.
Linwood Barclay is one of my favourite authors and I have read pretty well every book of his that I can get as an eBook and, of course, enjoyed some more than others but I don’t thinkI can ever remember a real bad one. However I had been noticing that his latest books seemed to be somewhat weaker than the earlier ones and sets like the Promise Falls trilogy had lots of loose ends and grew into a fourth volume which was supposed ty up those loose ends but didn’t really so I was quite curious about the direction this latest book would take. Boy am I ever happy to report that this is vintage Barclay at his very best! I have to rate this book among the very best Barclay’s I have read. I have found in many of the earlier books the male MCs all seemed to be practically interchangeable – just give them a different name, occupation and location but they all sounded quite similar. Well that sure is not the case here and it is actually difficult to find a male MC good guy and, except for Anna, all the female MCs are bad guys and all the characters are very well developed and all quite unique. There is some very good writing here and Mr Barclay just keeps turning up the suspense, thrills and fears from the opening sentence right to all the wild endings. The suspected paranormal events are handled very well and they appear to be logical events and there is really only one that doesn’t have a logical explanation. I was really impressed with how Mr. Barclay wrote Frank’s senility or dementia or whatever you want to call it and how Anna handled it. Now as to the various mysteries, and there are more than one, I had one of the who’s identified quite early but not the accomplice, and therefor not the motive, or the how, but I never saw all the twists upon twists coming although again they were all very logical. This book is most definitely a standalone with no loose ends and because of that I think it would be very difficult to produce any kind of a sequel. I am so glad that Mr. Barclay has rebranded himself and I look forward to reading more of his great thrillers.
Linwood Barclay’s latest book A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS will send chills down your spine. Undoubtedly one of the best psychological thrillers this year!
Late one night college professor Paul Davis saw his colleague and friend Kenneth Hoffman driving erratically. Concerned that something might be wrong with Kenneth, Paul follows him. Wondering what Kenneth is doing Paul first observes him stopping to throw something heavy into a dumpster. Paul then follows him until Kenneth finally pulls off to the side of the road. At that point Paul is horrified to discover that Kenneth has the bodies of two women in the back of the car. Then everything goes black…
Now eight months later Paul is in therapy with Dr. Anna White while recovering from the head injury inflicted when Kenneth tried to kill him, while Kenneth himself is in prison having pled guilty to two murders and an attempted murder.
Paul decides that perhaps writing about the incident with Kenneth will be cathartic for him. Showing her support, his wife Charlotte purchases an old Underwood typewriter at a garage sale. But it just so happens that it was an old Underwood typewriter that Kenneth was disposing of that fateful night.
A few nights later Paul begins hearing a noise downstairs. The noise is coming from the old typewriter. He begins finding messages on the typewriter. This is especially chilling as the women in Kenneth’s car that night had been tied to chairs and made to type out confessions before they were killed. Is this the typewriter they typed those confessions on?
Since Charlotte does not hear the noises, she is clearly concerned that her husband is now hearing things. She especially becomes alarmed when Paul speculates that these messages may be coming from the dead women. She suggest that perhaps Paul is actually unknowingly typing the messages.
A definite page-turner…suspenseful…intriguing. It kept me guessing to the end. When I got a bit too close to figuring it out Barclay led me into another direction. There have been many thrillers written lately with twists at the end that did not work…that came out of the blue. But Barclay skillfully nudges the reader along, picking up clues here and there, developing a theory and then discarding it as new clues are revealed. Totally masterful writing!
Typewriter sounds are almost non-existent today, but they kept recurring in Paul’s home and seemed to be coming from the typewriter that his wife had bought him.
After Paul followed his friend because he was driving erratically, he found something horrific and unbelievable.
Paul saw dead bodies in his colleague’s trunk and when Kenneth struck him to silence him, he thought it was all over. Thankfully Paul didn’t die, and Kenneth was imprisoned.
Another thing happened as Paul was following Kenneth. He saw Kenneth dispose of a typewriter in a dumpster. Could that be the same typewriter that Kenneth forced his victims to use to type an apology before he killed them and the typewriter that Paul’s wife bought for him at a yard sale?
When we do “meet” this, typewriter, bizarre things begin to happen.
THE NOISE DOWNSTAIRS has us following Paul as he is recovering from his physical injury caused by the strike with the shovel as well as the emotional trauma.
Mr. Barclay keeps the tension high, and the story line is intriguing. The ending twists were well hidden from the reader.
The introduction of the typewriter was very clever, and the typewriter seemed to be included as another character.
This was my first book by Mr. Barclay, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
If you have enjoyed Mr. Barclay’s books, you won’t want to miss his newest. 5/5
This book was given to me as ARC by the publisher and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I have been a fan of Mr. Barclays for several years before reading his latest. All his books are top-notch thrillers, but A Noise Downstairs is one of his very best. I highly recommend it.
Several months ago, Paul Davis was attacked by a killer with a shovel. Somehow he survived the massive head wound he received. The killer was a friend … a colleague … and it was just happenstance that he saw two women’s bodies in his friend’s trunk before they were hidden and buried.
Now Paul suffers severe panic attacks, short term memory loss. But the most terrifying are the noises he hears that no one else does. Most recently, his wife bought him an old typewriter. At night, he swears he can hear it typing .. by itself. It is suggested that he insert a sheet of paper and see what happens. And what he finds sends him into a massive spin.
The women that his friend killed were made to type out an apology to the killer. Those apologies are now being typed on his typewriter with no one around. Is this the actual typewriter that the killer owned?
Are the messages from beyond the grave? Is Paul hallucinating? Is he paranoid?
Either he’s losing his mind – or someone wants him to think he is.
His therapist is firm in her belief that he is not going crazy … on the other hand, she doesn’t believe that dead women are contacting him through type written messages. But who would want to torture this man .. and to what end?
This one goes to the top of my favorite books this year! It’s a well-written psychological thriller that is riveting in its edginess and features standout characters. Expect fast paced action with this one. The twist at the end is one that will knock you off your feet.
Many thanks to the author / William Morrow Books / Edelweiss for the advanced digital copy of this psychological thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
Thanks to William Morrow (an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers) for an advanced review copy of A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay.
This was the first novel that I have had the opportunity to read by this author and I am so glad I got the chance!
When Paul sees his friend Kenneth driving erratically one night, Paul decides to follow him to see if he needs assistance. After pulling off and watching Kenneth dispose of something in a dumpster, Paul approaches him to make sure everything is okay. Shocked to discover bodies in the back of his friend’s car, Paul is nearly killed by Kenneth. Months later, Paul is struggling to resume his normal life. He suffers from PTSD and frequently forgets things. After some discussion with his wife, Charlotte, and his therapist, Anna, Paul decides that writing down his experience and talking with people who were impacted by the murders might help him with his recovery.
Charlotte finds an old Underwood typewriter to inspire and encourage Paul with his writing. Paul begins to suspect that the typewriter may have been used in the brutal murders of the two women by Kenneth however. When Paul begins hearing the chit, chit, chit of the typewriter in the middle of the night and letters begin appearing that seem as if they are from the dead women, Paul can’t help but wonder if he is being haunted or if he is simply losing his mind.
To complicate matters more, Paul is struggling to connect with his son Josh, worried that his wife is growing tired of his issues, pondering whether he should return to teaching at the college where he works, and bothered by the possibility that one of his therapist’s patients may actually be breaking into his house and/or stalking him. (Definitely a creepy character and storyline woven into the main plot!)
This book was really a great read and tough to put down. Every time I thought I knew what direction the story was heading in, something would take place that would make me doubt myself. Honestly, there’s no way I could have predicted the ending.
Several times, I wondered why certain things that seemed insignificant were mentioned in the book, but by the end there were no loose ends and everything tied together very nicely. Creative, imaginative, and entertaining and definitely worth the read. I look forward to reading more by this author.
Definitely recommended!