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The Whistling
The Whistling
Jul 17, 2025 1:45 PM

Author:Rebecca Netley

The Whistling

FEEL SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE WITH THIS CHILLING AND GRIPPING GHOST STORY SET ON A FAR-FLUNG SCOTTISH ISLAND . . .

'Wonderfully atmospheric, genuinely eerie' GUARDIAN

'Gripping, chilling and very, very satisfying' DAILY MAIL

'A ghost story that kept me guessing' SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN

'Perfect for a cold winter's night' DAILY MIRROR

'It will chill you to the bone' ANITA FRANK

'If you're looking for a chilling tale as we head towards Halloween, you've found it' HEAT

_________

When Elspeth arrives on a remote Scottish island to become nanny to a young child, she hopes to bond with her. Until she learns that, for reasons no one will explain, Mary has not spoken for months.

And the girl's silence is not the only mystery.

Hypnotic lullabies drift down empty corridors.

Strange dolls appear in abandoned rooms.

And as the nights draw in, darker questions arise . . .

What happened to Mary's late twin, William? Why did their previous nanny disappear so suddenly?

And is the whistling Elspeth hears at night just the storm outside?

Or is somebody coming for her . . . ?

_________

*Longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize*

READERS ARE CHILLED BY THE WHISTLING

'I was sucked in from page one and read it in one fell swoop'5* READER REVIEW

'A wicked twist . . . brilliant, scary, clever. Horror writing at its best' 5* READER REVIEW

'A great story with moments of heart-grabbing terror, beautifully written'5* READER REVIEW

Reviews

Assured debut . . . This wonderfully atmospheric read offers both a satisfying puzzle and some genuinely eery moments

—— Guardian

If you're looking for a chilling tale as we head towards Halloween, you've found it . . . It's not easy to pull off a genuinely unsettling ghost story, but this evocative mystery succeeds beautifully

—— Heat, 'Read of the Week'

Gripping, chilling and very, very satisfying

—— Daily Mail

A perfectly conjured setting and an unfolding mystery that will keep you guessing to the very end . . . Atmospheric and eerie, it will chill you to the bone

—— Anita Frank, author of The Lost Ones

A terrific, all-absorbing read. A wonderfully eerie haunted house set-up is given new life by brilliant, atmospheric writing, and by those rare things in any ghost story: real heart and feeling. I loved it!

—— Gytha Lodge, Sunday Times bestselling author

While The Whistling is an intricately plotted ghost story, it is also a beautifully poignant study of grief that kept me guessing right to its satisfying end. A must read!

—— Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora

Dripping in gothic melodrama, this chilling mystery is the perfect read for a cold winter's night

—— Daily Mirror

A genuinely creepy book with a gripping mystery at its heart. For fans of Laura Purcell and gothic historical fiction, this is a must!

—— Woman's Weekly

If you love haunted house ghost tales that are as psychological as they are supernatural, then you'll love Rebecca Netley's atmospheric debut

—— Culturefly

A beautifully written and intricate gothic tale with an atmospheric setting

—— NB Magazine

A chilling read

—— Prima

Troubled children in a chilling, chilly house, built on an island off the Scottish coast . . . A touching and engrossing story, perfect for winter evenings!

—— Hope Adams, author of Dangerous Women

The Whistling is an incredibly haunting and utterly gripping tale, with writing so chillingly atmospheric I had to sleep with the lights on! If you enjoy a good scare, this book is for you

—— Fíona Scarlett, author of Boys Don't Cry

Powers is a former computer programmer whose ideas-rich fiction grounds the grandest scientific concepts in everyday experience. For him, environmental crisis means that we must share the pain not just of fellow-humans but other life-forms threatened by our botched stewardship of Earth.... Powers's unchained imagination stretches its empathy circle from lichen to nebulae, in finely crafted prose

—— Financial Times

Refreshing, original and moving

—— Evening Standard

Powers has the rare gift of being able to deal with big ideas while keeping you interested in the lives and emotions of his characters

—— Sebastian Faulks

A heartfelt cry for climate awareness, with fantastical digressions to other planets and a rueful celebration of our own

—— Guardian

It's a wonderful story - taut, touching and wholehearted

—— Psychologies

Intense and disturbing

—— Mail on Sunday

A beautiful and thoughtfully written novel

—— Good Housekeeping

Impressively precise in its scientific conjectures, Bewilderment is no less rich or wise in its emotionality.... channels both the cosmic sublime and that of the vast American outdoors, resting confidently in a lineage with Thoreau and Whitman, Dillard and Kerouac... Sorrowing awe is Bewilderment's primary tone, and its many remarkable scenes are controlled with high novelistic intelligence.

—— Observer

It's deftly crafted, packs an emotional punch, and Powers's urgent environmental message, delivered by the Greta Thunberg-like Robin, comes through loud and clear

—— Daily Mail

Powers is extremely good at creating a very specific emotion in the reader: a potent mix of sadness and guilt. He's also a wizard when it comes to telling us about trees, rivers, insects and birds

—— Spectator

Bewilderment is a compelling story about love in a dying world

—— Irish Independent

Powers succeeds in engaging both head and heart. And through its central story of bereavement, this novel of parenting and the environment becomes a multifaceted exploration of mortality

—— Economist

It is a thoughtful exploration of individual grief, a study in empathy for the biosphere, a questioning of the medical profession's pathologising of children and a beginner's guide to eco-biology... Bewilderment is both cerebral and heartfelt, a rigorous and damning assessment of the state of the world today. A call to arms for empathy and action

—— Irish Times

Utterly absorbing

—— Daily Mail

One of our most lavishly gifted writers

—— New Yorker

Nothing less than brilliant

—— John Updike

It's not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book

—— Margaret Atwood

With its first few pages, Powers' novel completely captivated us and with its last, it bowled us over. Powers creates a texture and specificity to our future that feels simultaneously sweepingly large and breathtakingly intimate, told through the most relatable point of view: the ferocious love of a parent for his child and his struggle to provide him a better tomorrow.

—— Leigh Kittay, Black Bear’s Head of Film

On The Overstory: It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it . . . It changed how I see things and that's always, for me, a mark of a book worth reading.

—— Barack Obama

On The Overstory: Really, just one of the best novels, period

—— Ann Patchett

On The Overstory: Monumental . . . breath-taking . . . a gigantic fable of genuine truths

—— Barbara Kingsolver

On The Overstory: Exhilarating . . . on almost every page you will find sentences that combine precision and vision

—— The Times

On The Overstory: The best book I've read in ten years. A remarkable piece of literature

—— Emma Thompson

On The Overstory: An extraordinary novel . . . an astonishing performance . . . he is incredibly good at turning science into poetry

—— Guardian

The success of the story - and a success it is - comes not from the ingenious scientific speculations, nor the shrewd literary connections (on the "emotional telepathy" of a work of art, or Daniel Keyes's Flowers for Algernon), but the human story between father and son, as Theo finds out 'how my brain learns to resemble what it loves

—— The Critic

Richard Powers's Booker Prize-shortlisted novel is both brutal and heartwarming, intimate and profound. A masterfully curated story of love, grief and loneliness, quietly building to an inevitable and devastating close

—— Press Association

He composes some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. I'm in awe of his talent

—— Oprah Winfrey

In Bewilderment, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist has crafted a story of great beauty and power

—— Business Post
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