Whistle

Barclay (I Will Ruin You) delivers a harrowing supernatural thriller centered around a model train set. In 2001, seven-year-old Jeremy receives a toy engine for Christmas and ties one of his sister’s dolls to the tracks. When the train strikes the doll, a glass shatters in the kitchen, severing one of his sister’s fingers. Decades later, bestselling children’s author Annie Blunt is haunted by the death of a six-year-old fan who was attempting to fly like one of her characters. Then her husband is killed in a hit-and-run. Grief-stricken, Annie flees Manhattan with her son and settles in the small Vermont town of Lucknow for the summer. On their first night there, Annie hears a train whistle, only to learn, the next morning, that no trains run nearby. Then two locals disappear, and one is found without his hair, teeth, and bones. Toggling between 2001 and the present day, Barclay gradually focuses in on Choo-Choo’s Trains, a mysterious Lucknow novelty shop that seems to be connected to a spate of tragedies. As the horror mounts, Barclay grounds the action through the eyes of his well-developed protagonist, offering scares and pathos in equal doses. It’s a top-shelf chiller. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency. (June)