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A Noise Downstairs

Review

A Noise Downstairs

Linwood Barclay is a master of domestic thrillers. His characters --- well, some of them --- are good people who suddenly have bad things happen to them. They possess neither the life experience nor the skill sets to deal with such adversity, and have to kind of make up their own solutions as they go along. Barclay is arguably best known for his series set in the mythical town of Promise Falls, but his latest novel is a memorable stand-alone work that will make even the most worldly readers sit up and take notice of what goes on around them.

A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS quickly introduces us to Paul Davis, a fairly ordinary, if not altogether invisible, English professor at a mid-level college. Paul is driving home late one night from a university function when he sees a car in front of him that belongs to Kenneth Hoffman, one of his faculty colleagues and probably the closest thing to a friend he has at the school. Kenneth begins driving and acting suspiciously, so Paul follows him out of curiosity. This leads to him catching Kenneth in the act of disposing of two bodies and almost getting himself killed in the process.

"A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS contains a number of mysteries --- some of which aren’t even introduced until late in the book --- and while you may guess some of them, you almost certainly won’t figure them all out."

Fast forward eight months. Kenneth is in prison, and Paul is still recovering from the head injuries he sustained on that fateful night. He is also having some psychological problems and is seeing a counselor. He is forgetful and overreacts. And, as the novel progresses, he apparently begins to have auditory hallucinations. Indeed, the “noise downstairs” is the click-clack of an Underwood typewriter. If you were born after 1970, you might not even know what that is, but Barclay does an excellent job of explaining through his characters the function of an Underwood before the days of computer keyboards, word processors and electric typewriters.

The Underwood is a present from Paul’s wife, Charlotte, and he decides to use it to put thoughts to paper concerning what happened to him. The problem is that it’s not Paul typing in the middle of the night. No one seems to be typing. Charlotte assures her husband that he is hearing things, and just about has him convinced until he comes down one morning to discover that there is a sheet of paper in the typewriter with a message on it. What’s worse is that it seems to relate to the murders that Paul stumbled upon and has come from the victims themselves.

After hearing more typing and receiving more messages, Paul is ready to accept a supernatural explanation, even as Charlotte maintains that what is occurring is related to his head injury. She expresses concern that it is Paul who is unknowingly typing the messages, perhaps as the result of a neurological or psychological disorder. That’s certainly possible, as are a number of other explanations.

Barclay pulls off a huge surprise in the last fifth of the book, and then begins to slowly reveal what has been going on, peeling back the assumptions to which he has gently led the reader as he displays the revelations beneath. It’s fun, startling and chilling, sometimes by turns and at other times simultaneously.

A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS contains a number of mysteries --- some of which aren’t even introduced until late in the book --- and while you may guess some of them, you almost certainly won’t figure them all out. Even if you do, you’ll enjoy the wild ride that Barclay gives you from the beginning of this fine tale to its surprising conclusion.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on July 22, 2018

A Noise Downstairs
by Linwood Barclay