Whisper Down the Lane

Richard has a good life: a satisfying job as an elementary school art teacher, a happy marriage, and the impending adoption of his stepson, Elijah. But Richard has a secret, and it concerns Sean, a boy who was five years old in 1983, 30 years before the book’s action. Sean told an innocent lie that sparked a devastating witch hunt in his Virginia town. Now someone wants to remind Richard of the price of Sean’s lies. And since Sean isn’t around anymore, Richard is expected to pay. With the satanic panic of the 1980s as a backdrop, Chapman’s latest is a full-throttle, twisty (and twisted) horror mystery. Alternating between Richard’s living nightmare in the present and the storm of accusations that surrounded Sean in 1983, Chapman explores the lifespan of a lie and how it curdles over time. Here, the past is restless. You can try to erase it, but it’s coming for you, claws out, with revenge on its mind.