The Voices

October 13, 2014
Well-rounded characters and evocative prose distinguish this supernatural thriller from Edgar-finalist Tallis (The Forbidden). Composer Christopher Norton and his pregnant wife, Laura, purchase a home near London’s Hampstead Heath in 1974. During renovations, the builder finds some abandoned items, including a clockwork monkey that Christopher decides to retain so that his child can play with a toy another once cherished. Disturbing events begin when the Nortons’ daughter, Faye, is just two years old. As Christopher works on a movie score, he finds odd noises on his recordings. Laura is terrified when the toddler disappears for a few moments, and remains unnerved when she finds an entranced Faye behind a locked door near the monkey toy. Things only go downhill from there. This haunted house story doesn’t break any new ground, but fans of subtle horror will find a lot to like. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates (U.K.).

November 1, 2014
A composer jeopardizes himself and his family when he becomes a kind of ghost hunter. Christopher and Laura Norton fall in love with a stately but slightly careworn Victorian house tucked away in a remote pocket of London near Hampstead Heath. It's a perfect place to raise their young daughter, Faye, and has enough room for Christopher, a film composer, to open a studio. Never mind the partially destroyed journal entries Christopher finds mentioning "secrets" and "manifestations and vanishings" or the strangely compelling cymbals-playing windup monkey he takes a fancy to. A few months after moving in, however, minor random incidents, accelerating in intensity and oddness, disturb the calm rhythms of their new home. Christopher hears voices that he thinks must be coming from an old radio somewhere in the innards of the house, a theory soundly debunked by an engineer named Kaminsky. There's also the time when Faye seems to disappear for minutes that, to Laura, feel like an eternity. And of course there's a return of that mechanical monkey, leaving Laura feeling menaced. Despite evidence to the contrary, Christopher chooses to see the voices, which he now presumes are ghostly, as benign and plans an exciting new composition that incorporates them. But his plan soon snowballs into an obsession that blinds him to Laura's genuine fears and puts them all in danger. Inviting comparisons to Stephen King's classic The Shining, Tallis (The Sleep Room, 2013, etc.) includes many boilerplate components of the genre. But his incisive and beautifully observed storytelling trumps his cliches to produce a genuine page-turner.

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Starred review from October 15, 2014
The long-unoccupied Victorian house in north London badly needs repairs, but it has a room ideal for a recording studio for composer Christopher Norton and his pregnant wife, Laura, who instantly spots another room for a nursery. But after they move in with their infant daughter, Faye, in 1975, unnerving events begin. Laura's growing sense of unease and Faye's occasional odd behavior are dismissed by their doctor, but then voices start to be heard on the baby monitor, men and women speaking in different languages and even calling out to Faye. But what Laura sees as disturbing, Chris, with his waning reputation and income, views as an opportunity: after reading about electronic communications with the dead, he begins to solicit such voices to be incorporated into his cutting-edge music. Laura wisely wants to move out of the house, but Chrisobsessed with restoring his artistic standing with his new projectsays they can't afford to, and it's clear that nothing good lies ahead. Tallis, author of the Max Liebermann mysteries under the name Frank Tallis, also is a master of psychological suspense, and this novel, which reaches its climax during the London heat wave of 1976, is utterly gripping.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)