The Whispers

Starred review from April 24, 2023
Audrain (The Push) takes a deep dive into the secret lives of women in this standout work of literary suspense. Everything will change for four families in an upscale neighborhood after 10-year-old Xavier Loverly falls from his bedroom window and ends up in the hospital in critical condition. The ER physician handling his case is neighbor Rebecca Parry, who runs interference between police and Xavier’s overwhelmed mother, Whitney, whose seeming ability to juggle a corporate consulting firm, a husband, and three kids has made her the envy of the neighborhood. As Whitney maintains a vigil at her son’s bedside, whispers swell about what might have led to Xavier’s fall, and the truth emerges twist by twist from a quartet of narrators. In addition to Whitney and Rebecca, whose professionalism masks private sorrows, Audrain takes readers inside the minds of Whitney’s best friend, Blair Parks, a stay-at-home mom who suspects her husband is straying, and octogenarian Mara Alvaro, a relic from pre-gentrification days when the neighborhood was full of Portuguese immigrants. The novel soars via Audrain’s clever revelations of the ways her protagonists’ lives are linked in ways they never suspected. Both artful and pulse pounding, this isn’t easily shaken. Agent: Maddy Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Ltd.