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    The Whisperer
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    The Whisperer
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    The Whisperer
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Whisperer

    Written by Donato Carrisi

    Narrated by Carol Monda

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A gripping literary thriller and smash bestseller that has taken Italy, France, Germany and the UK by storm.

    Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified. Worse still, the girls' bodies, alive or dead, are nowhere to be found.

    Lead investigators Mila Vasquez, a celebrated profiler, and Goran Gavila, an eerily prescient criminologist, dive into the case. They're confident they've got the right suspect in their sights until they discover no link between him and any of the kidnappings except the first. The evidence in the case of the second missing child points in a vastly different direction, creating more questions than it answers. Vasquez and Gavila begin to wonder if they've been brought in to take the fall in a near-hopeless case. Is it all coincidence? Or is a copycat criminal at work? Obsessed with a case that becomes more tangled and intense as they unravel the layers of evil, Gavila and Vasquez find that their lives are increasingly in each other's hands.

    THE WHISPERER, as sensational a bestseller in Europe as the Stieg Larsson novels, is that rare creation: a thought-provoking, intelligent thriller that is also utterly unputdownable.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateJan 5, 2012
    ISBN9781611133547
    Unavailable
    The Whisperer
    Author

    Donato Carrisi

    Donato Carrisi studied law and criminology before he began working as a writer for television. The Whisperer, Carrisi's first novel, won five international literary prizes, has been sold in nearly twenty countries, and has been translated into languages as varied as French, Danish, Hebrew and Vietnamese. Carrisi lives in Rome.

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    Reviews for The Whisperer

    3.5/5

    227 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. It gripped me from the start, so much so that I actually considered cancelling my plans for the day just so that I could keep reading it. It kept me guessing right to the end, although the one thing I never figured out was the location I had assumed that as the author is Italian that the story was set in Italy but after reading it I'm not so sure. I'll look forward to reading more from this author.
    • 3/5
      Good book, topic is searing, a bit loose at times. Place and time not well depicted,
    • 4/5
      The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi4 StarsWhat's It About?Six severed arms are discovered, arranged in a mysterious circle and buried in a clearing in the woods. Five of them appear to belong to missing girls between the ages of eight and eighteen. The sixth is yet to be identified. Worse still, the girls' bodies, alive or dead, are nowhere to be found.What Did I Think?This was a hard one for me to rate. The story line and the plot were intriguing and very well written.. At other times it seemed that much of the writing was simply to fill space. Overall there was enough of the mystery of the missing girls and the journey through the killer's evil, complex mind to more than hold my interest and anticipation and earn the book 4 stars. I do wish the author had given the reader a better understanding of the location in the world that the story was taking place. I like to imagine where I am visiting as I read. A small thing and takes nothing away from an excellent read.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this thriller. Definitely a lot of psychological happenings here. The subject matter was gruesome, but interesting. I was intrigued by the concept of a "whisperer" throughout the story. There were lots of plot twists--some expected, some not. I'll be checking out book two in the series.
    • 4/5
      Easy reading whodonit. I actually did not figure this one out prematurely, and I always appreciate a story with a surprise.I think this book benefited from translation. No flowery, superfluous language. Just straitforward storytelling. The heroine is definitely someone flawed, that we can relate to.
    • 5/5
      Scenario diabolique, riche en suspens et rebondissements
    • 4/5
      Intelligent and fascinating
    • 4/5
      Suspenseful, tricky, and ultimately satisfying. I hope Carrisi is writing a series, and that it will be translated to English.
    • 2/5
      This book held so much promise. Translated from the Italian, it suggested an interesting setting, and starting off with six arms found in a field when only five girls have been missing--well, that's gripping. The setting never really coalesces and has none of the details that would make the locale real. It really could have taken place anywhere in Europe. The first half or so is very absorbing, as Mila Vazquez (a missing-persons expert and something of a loner) is brought into a special team dedicated to identifying and locating the missing girls. The plot soon wanders off the rails, though, and in attempting to be a European Silence of the Lambs, becomes convoluted and downright silly. Mila has promise as a damaged investigator, but neither she nor her supporting cast are really fleshed-out enough to feel real.
    • 1/5
      The premise of the novel is fabulous. Six arms, from six young girls are found buried in the woods. Are the girls perhaps still alive? A troubled cop, expert in finding missing persons, but who has difficulty relating to others put with a long-standing team of experts to find the killer and perhaps the abducted girls as well. An exciting new Italian author with a book that has been a best seller in Europe. The Whisperer does begin with a great deal of promise. The crime is imaginative and horrible. The team assembled to solve it look great at first glance. And there the book faded. The characterizations are paper thin and the setting, while clearly Italy, is so thinly sketched as to remove all potential interest. Which is fine as long as the plot goes gangbusters, which it does, except along the way believability was left along the wayside somewhere near coherence. All in all, a big disappointment.
    • 4/5
      The Whisperer is Donato Carrisi's first novel. It has been translated from the original Italian to English by Shaun Whiteside.The Whisperer grabs you by the throat from the opening chapters. Six severed left arms are found buried in a circle in a forest glen. Those left arms belong to children. Girls, in fact - five of them reported missing. But no sixth child has been reported missing. No bodies have been found at all.Criminologist Goran Gavila brings in Officer Mila Vasquez to work with his team. Mila's specialty is finding missing children.She is battling her own demons as the team struggles to follow the clues left by a deranged and devious serial killer. But he seems to be one step ahead of them at all times, playing cat and mouse with the sixth girl as the prize.It took me about 50 - 75 pages to get a good firm grasp on the characters and plot in The Whisperer. Carrisi has crafted a complex labyrinth of a tale - you'll want to read carefully as the plot twists and turns rapidly (and the ending is a real twister). Indeed, I sometimes felt slightly off balance as I read - bodies and characters are added to the tale in quick succession. This is a minor complaint - but clues are referred to by the characters with no sense of how they were obtained - such as school pictures and homework from the past of one suspect. Some procedural details that don't quit ring true were bothersome. A police officer on a major crime scene reviewing tapes that asks for help because "I don't know a thing about electronics". Why in the world would he be allowed to touch evidence then?Carrisi has taken the crime novel a step further with the care he has take to explore the main character's psyches. I would like to see Carrisi continues with Mila as a protagonist in future books.I did find the translation to be a bit choppy in places. The setting of the book in terms of country is never really defined - niggly I know, but I would like to have known where the book was taking place. Did I enjoy The Whisperer? Yes I did. But, it's probably not for the faint at heart.
    • 5/5
      Creepy, dark, at times I felt the evil literally waft off the pages. Different characters, major twists, I honestly never saw them coming. Don't know where this novel takes place, but it doesn't seem to matter as if the author is telling the reader that the place doesn't really matter and that this type of evil exists everywhere and anywhere. Hopefully there will be a sequel.
    • 4/5
      This was a gripping read and reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs, even to the butterfly on the cover.Someone has kidnapped 5 young girls. When left arms are discovered in a remote wooded area the police team investigating the kidnappings suspects the worst and they are right. Tests show the arms come from the kidnap victims. There is just one problem--there are six arms, not 5. And it becomes obvious that the 6th arm was taken from a girl when she was living. That puts the team under a lot of pressure to find the kidnapper while the girl is still alive.The team consists of Goran Gavila, leader and civilian, Stern, Boris and Rosa who are police officers. A decision is made to bring in Mila, a police officer from another jurisdiction who is a specialist in missing persons cases. Mila is a loner and so has a hard time fitting into the team. But she has some success in discovering motives and she is gradually accepted by most of the team except for Rosa, the only other woman. Mila and Gavila in particular make a connection. As time goes by the bodies of the girls start showing up and it becomes clear that they are positioned to point up the crimes of other people. The team keeps scrambling and they know more about the perpetrator but not enough.The ending, I thought, was a little far-fetched which is the reason my rating isn't higher. All in all, it was a great read. Since this is a first book for this author I hope there will be more to enjoy.
    • 2/5
      Six arms are found but police know of only five five missing girls, which is why they call in a missing child expert to help. To try and discover who the sixth girl is..and determine if they might be able to rescue her while she is still alive. Good start.I must say reading the description I thought this was right up my alley, even though comparisons to Stieg Larsson made me a little concerned.And there are some positive things about the book. The idea that the killer is using the murder of each girl to lead the police to uncover another hidden crime is rather clever. And I must say that the ending was quite a surprise, always a great thing in my book...quite a surprise.But, from there on I have quite a few problems with this book.First, is the basic premise that there are such thing as "whisperers", evil people who can somehow influence others to do bad things, people who otherwise may not have been bad people. Interesting, but the case is never really made by the author, and at least one of the examples just seems totally unbelievable.Then there is the writing. This is a translation, so I am not sure if the issue is with the original or the translation, but either way it comes across as very awkward. I have read a couple of reviews that thought that gave it a "European charm". I just though it kept me from getting totally involved in the book, always jolting me out of the story to reread yet another awkward phrase that just felt wrong.And a final issue..I could list a few more...is that the book has no setting. I am not sure that I have ever read a book before that was set in no specific place.You know it is not the US because there are too many metric references for us metric challenged Americans. The character's names are of a variety of ethic sources, so that is no help and no specific reference is ever made to a real place. So is it Europe? Germany..Italy...England...who knows? And I wanted to! I must say I do not understand that decision of the author at all and found it annoying. The setting can be a huge plus to a story and the lack here was just another thing to grate on me as I read this book.There are a lot of great mysteries and thrillers out there, including the above mentioned Stieg Larsson, but too little time to waste on a just fair book like this one.
    • 3/5
      I received a copy of [The Whisperer] through the LT Early Reviewer program. I seem to recall it being described, somewhere, as creating "a sensation" in Europe. Well, it was sensational -- and I don't necessarily mean that in a positive way.It deals with child abductions and murders, and revolves around the team assembled to try and solve the crimes. Mila is an emotionally damaged officer who is brought in because she's an expert at finding missing children. Dr. Gavila is a criminologist with some odd methods. The whole squad is an odd bunch of not particularly likable characters. They eventually move into "the studio," an old "safe house" once used for witness protection, as their base for solving the crime.A lot of it was very good and suspenseful. It kept me turning pages with lots of plot twists. But at the end, it got too convoluted, and the final turns of plot made the whole thing totally implausible in my mind. And it really did fall into what I felt was almost crass sensationalism. How to explain my reasons for feeling this way, without spoilers, is a major problem to which I have no answer.One thing I can say is that -- at least as it stands in the proofs I read -- there is NO sense of place, such as I have enjoyed in so many other books imported from Europe. Geographical names are not used, there are a lot of references similar to "the next town" or "the village where she lives," etc. The story is obviously set in a climate that receives snow in February. Certain terminology gives clues -- calling fuel "petrol," for instance. You could argue that it's meant to give the feeling that "this could be happening anywhere." Or perhaps the lack of a sense of place is meant to echo the sterile, "away from the world" atmosphere of "the studio" which the investigative team uses as their base of investigations. But, then, I really didn't get the point of them moving into "the studio" either.
    • 5/5
      This book was a thriller in every sense of the word. This is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish and will keep you guessing throughout.The story does have some very gruesome elements and is disturbing because it portrays child murders. However it focuses more on the psychological elements of the killer and of the main hero Mila. The story is very plot driven and one event after another helps to piece the mystery together.One area I wish had been developed more I. The story is a deeper portrayal of Mila. Mila seems to have many layers and not everything seems to be revealed. However this did not detract from the overall story.This is a great story for those who enjoy a good mystery.Reader received a copy through the Library Thing early reviewer program.
    • 4/5
      Mila Vasquez is a police officer who specializes in finding missing children. When the book starts, she is about to enter the home of a man she has been tracking. She has seen another person in the house, and she has no time to wait for backup. Things almost go bad on her, but it turns out that the perpetrator is more interested in killing himself. She is then sent to another police department to help find a serial child kidnapper, who quickly becomes a serial killer. She does not quite fit in with the team that she joins. Another police woman there takes an instant dislike to her. But, she admires the team leader, Dr. Goran Gavila, who is a civilian criminologist and academic. She and he both have an innate ability to find the meaning in sparse clues. But, she is damaged from something in her past, and she prefers to keep to herself and investigate on her own. I enjoyed that the book was more than an ordinary police procedural, with an added element of character development. Also, the plot is well constructed, and not predictable. I did not like that the book has no sense of place. It was not clear to me exactly where the story is set. It would be anywhere. I was expecting something that would give me the feel of Italy. But, it is a totally nondescript locale.
    • 4/5
      It would be hard for any book to live up to the claim that it is "as sensational a bestseller in Europe, as the Stieg Larsson novels" but this novel is a thrilling read. I agree with the other reviewers that the lack of clarity as to location is strange. Is it a small city in Italy or perhaps even Rome? When referring to places, the titles of police officers, or even restaurants, only generic language is used and the action could take place anywhere in Europe.Nevertheless, the book is a thrilling ride and I loved the twists and turns. I am a seasoned reader of mysteries and thrillers yet there were times when I was glad I was not alone in the house. The severed arms of six little girls are found by police in a clearing and that may be too gruesome for some readers but much of the terror is psychological. Who can be trusted? There must be a mastermind but who is he? HIghly recommended.
    • 2/5
      You sometimes just have to wonder about the bravery of the people who select the blurbs for the front of books. THE WHISPERER, debut book by Italian author Donato Carrisi, comes with the attribution "The most eagerly awaited thriller in the world? It is written by an unknown Italian' Il Giornale". Now I'll be honest, this blurb really threw me, it seems to set high expectations, particularly for a debut novel.The central thread of the book is the story of the discovery of six severed arms in a forest clearing without bodies, but identified by forensics as belonging to girls aged between eight and thirteen. There are five girls in that age group reported missing, but with no bodies identifying the victims isn't quick, and there are no clues about the owner of the sixth arm.A close-knit team of investigators with Criminologist Goran Gavila as the central point is assigned the case. An experienced investigator, Gavila is naturally inclined towards being rebellious, but he has his working methods and he and his team and comfortable with each other. Mila Vasquez is a young female police officer with a difficult past, who is equally rebellious, boyish, prickly, unable to relate to others, but with an eerie ability to locate missing people. She's bought into Gavila's team for this case. They are able to work together well, his team aren't so easy for Mila to get on with.The investigating team have a difficult task, as the bodies slowly starting to appear, they are looking for a serial killer, and the sixth victim - not reported missing and very possibly still alive. The killer seems to be leaving macabre clues with each discovery of a new body, and the team must move quickly and deftly to have a chance of keeping her alive.I came away from THE WHISPERER really unsure about how I feel about the book. On the one hand it's an interesting, complex plot with some twists at the end that came as a big surprise. On the other hand there's yet another damaged investigator; a frisson of romance between the two central characters, a team that doesn't handle the imposition of an outsider well; a cast of characters with secrets. Combine all of that with yet another serial killer targeting children and there's a real sense of been there / done that if you read a lot of crime fiction. Of course it's unreasonable to assume that any book is going to be completely unique, and there are elements here that have a freshness about them. The pairing of a cop and a scientific investigator was well done - creating a different dynamic between the two central characters, shown up particularly by the cop versus cop tensions between Mila and the team. Also THE WHISPERER used the stagey, calculating way that the killer used his victims to play games with the investigating team in a chilling and uncomfortably realistic manner. I think my greatest sense of disappointment in THE WHISPERER is that there was no particular sense of a place or a culture in which the killings are occurring. The location wasn't obvious, the book could have been set anywhere, so I never quite got a complete sense of reality, it somehow seemed to dissipate the threat. The damaged central investigator line also didn't quite work - it was almost too predictable, as was the romantic entanglement, and the rest of the team's antagonism. The antagonism seemed too broad brush, and whilst there is some attempt at explanation, some justification if you like, it was hard to move past the tension for tension's sake feeling. Having said all of that, it's a good plot, with some cleverly done twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing, and will engage. The way the characters secrets are revealed works in the main, although some readers may agree that some of the elements are a tad unbelievable, even for fiction. Overall I came away conflicted, not sure enough to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but certainly not able to say that I didn't like it at all. But that's not so surprising with a debut book so I'd definitely read another by this author.
    • 2/5
      This book held so much promise. Translated from the Italian, it suggested an interesting setting, and starting off with six arms found in a field when only five girls have been missing--well, that's gripping. The setting never really coalesces and has none of the details that would make the locale real. It really could have taken place anywhere in Europe. The first half or so is very absorbing, as Mila Vazquez (a missing-persons expert and something of a loner) is brought into a special team dedicated to identifying and locating the missing girls. The plot soon wanders off the rails, though, and in attempting to be a European Silence of the Lambs, becomes convoluted and downright silly. Mila has promise as a damaged investigator, but neither she nor her supporting cast are really fleshed-out enough to feel real.
    • 2/5
      I was awarded The Whisperer by Donato Carisi as part of the Early Review Program here on LT. Originally I found it to be a rather disappointing read that I blamed on an awkward translation which slowed down my enjoyment of the story, but then, it’s increasingly unbelievable plot put the final nail in the coffin.The book started off well enough with the discovery of a small graveyard of only left arms, obviously severed from young girls, and just as obviously belonging to the currently missing five young girls that had the police scouring the country. However with the discovery of a sixth arm, the police are puzzled as a sixth girl hasn’t been reported missing.A major crime team is put together to discover both the identity of the sixth child and to hunt down this serial killer. From there the book becomes a convoluted, messy, over-done and ultimately silly story. The author’s refusal to identify the country that this story is set in was just one of the many minor annoyances that the reader faces. The book holds too many coincidences to be believed. The characters seemed forced and stiff; the story never flowed easily but always felt contrived.This is a book that I would not have finished had it not been for the Early Review Program, at over 400 pages The Whisperer was a huge time waster that I cannot recommend.
    • 3/5
      I won this book through a Library Thing Early Reviewers giveaway. I had thought from reading the book's summary that it was going to be a fast-paced thriller. After reading the book I realized that that statement is only true for the second half of the book. The first half of the book seemed odd to me, the writing seemed stiff and the characters were bizarre. While their was a little action in the first part, it didn't seem like enough action to keep it interesting. As for the second half of the book it really picks up and I loved not only the pace of it but the twists and turns thrown in. The second half of the book made up for some of what the first half was lacking but I still wish the first half would have been more interesting. I would recommend this book to people who like psychological thrillers.