A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay

A Noise Downstairs by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Paul Davis forgets things. Why he walked into a room. Who he spoke to, and what they said. What he promised his wife he'd do. Sometimes it's too much, and the panic takes hold.

But he wasn't always like this.

Eight months ago, Paul was attacked - left for dead after seeing something he shouldn't have - and has been piecing his life back together ever since.

During the days, therapy helps. But at night, he hears noises that no one else can. That nobody believes. Sometimes he thinks someone is in the house. Other times, the sounds are far stranger.

Either he's losing his mind - or someone wants him to think he is. Or maybe something even darker is waiting downstairs . . .

One of my favourite psychological thriller writers Linwood Barclay never disappoints.

A cleverly woven tale which slowly builds throughout keeping up the pace as it hurtles the reader to the conclusion. I did guess in part what was going on but then there were twists aplenty before the full story was revealed.

Good characterisation, the story is mainly told through 3 POVs Paul, Charlotte (Pauls current wife), and Anna Pauls psychiatrist. Paul the main character gets caught up in a situation with his college colleague quite by chance one evening when Paul is on his way home he spots his mentor Kenneth's car up ahead of him with its tail light out. Kenneth is driving erratically and Paul thinks he may be drunk. He decides to tail him and then get him to pull over with the intention of driving him home himself. After a confrontation of sorts (sorry no spoilers) Kenneth tries to kill Paul. We then fast forward 8 months after the attack and Paul is suffering PTSD and is visiting a therapist called Anna and Kenneth is now in prison.

Paul is finding it difficult to recover mentally and often can't remember things, jobs he has to do for his wife Charlotte (taking the cleaning to cleaners), often not remembering how he arrives at places, etc. Paul is struggling and things are seemingly getting worse. Having decided to work through his issues by writing about what happened hooping this will rid him of demons, Charlotte his wife brings him a gift of an old typewriter to act as inspiration.

Things take on a bit of a supernatural vibe now as he imagines he hears the typewriter in the night, things escalate and he begins to question his sanity. At this point his life begins to unravel at an alarming rate.

Lots of side plots make it difficult at times to work out what's really happening and although I did guess part of it I never really got the whole picture until the end which is what makes Linwood Barclay for me a great writer.

Thoroughly recommend this thriller - 4.5 stars - rounded up to 5* for Amazon and Goodreads.