I' didn't like it.
In a nutshell that's my review.
I guess I'd better give you a review that is more than four words long.
A Noise Downstairs is perhaps one of the most irritatingly frustrating books I've read in a long time…..
College professor Paul Davis is a normal guy with a normal life. Until, driving along a deserted road late one night, he surprises a murderer disposing of a couple of bodies. That's when Paul's "normal" existence is turned upside down.
After nearly losing his own life in that encounter, he finds himself battling PTSD, depression, and severe problems at work. His wife, Charlotte, desperate to cheer him up, brings home a vintage typewriter; complete with ink ribbons and heavy round keys; to encourage him to get started on that novel he's always intended to write.
However, the typewriter itself is a problem. Paul swears it's possessed and types by itself at night. But only Paul can hear the noise coming from downstairs; Charlotte doesn't hear a thing. And she worries he's going off the rails.
Paul believes the typewriter is somehow connected to the murderer he discovered nearly a year ago. The killer had made his victims type apologies to him before ending their lives. Has another sick twist of fate entwined his life with the killer; could this be the same machine? Increasingly tormented but determined to discover the truth and confront his nightmare, Paul begins investigating the deaths himself.
A Noise Downstairs somehow found its way on to my Kindle years ago and I never gave it a second thought.
On a whim, I stuck it on my Beat the Backlist Challenge at the start of the year. Even then, I wasn't sure that this was going to be the book for me because let's be honest, a plot that may involve a possessed typewriter is borderline stupid.
Anyway, in the mood for a psychological thriller, and wanting to make good on that particular reading challenge, I decided to give A Noise Downstairs a go. I wish I hadn't.
Three bloody weeks it's taken me to finish it.
Yes, I know I should learn to give up and DNF a book I'm not enjoying (I really did come close) but here we are, irritatingly frustrated.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Main character Paul is almost killed by a colleague who's trying to hide a couple of bodies, as you do.
Months later in therapy and struggling with PTSD, Paul decides to confront what happened to him by writing about and visiting Kenneth Hoffman – his one-time friend turned attacker.
Paul's wife, Charlotte, is actively encouraging him to do this and buys him a typewriter to get his creative juices flowing.
Paul's therapist, Anna White, isn't so sure the whole enterprise is a good idea. I mean he's already traumatise.
When Paul starts to hear the typewriter chit chitting away all by itself at night, he becomes convinced that it's possessed….
In fairness to our main character, there is a reason why he jumps to that conclusion. Basically, when Kenneth committed his murders, he made his victims write apologies on an old typewriter. The police never recovered the typewriter, so obviously Paul thinks he's ended up with it and that Kenneth's victims are trying to communicate with him through it.
Of course, THAT'S the only logical explanation… All I can say is that I'm glad he's not my professor.
With my eyes already rolling, I then spent 60% of this book reading about Paul's desperate attempts to prove that his typewriter was possessed and had belonged to Kenneth and my God, was it boring.
Reader, it was so boring, and (this is where my frustration comes in) IT DIDN'T NEED TO BE.
Barclay threw in some interesting sub plots. For instance, Anna was also treating a patient who had a history of terrorising people for no apparent reason; Barclay had really shoehorned him and his behaviour into the plot and then abandoned him completely. Sure, it would have been far too easy for him to have been behind Paul's terror but Christ, here's a complex character that's been wasted - FRUSTRTAING.
I didn't see the point in the implied, potential romance between Anna and Paul. As soon as it appeared I thought "of course, here we bloody go", it was unnecessary considering what came a short time later.
I had my suspicions about what was going on, and they were confirmed because, they were bloody obvious…
- Kenneth hadn't killed the two women; he was covering for someone.
- Of course it was Charlotte tormenting her husband.
I shouldn't then, have been surprised that it took Dr Anna White all of 20 minutes to figure out what Charlotte was up to - there's no subtlety here. However, she was all of a sudden on to Charlotte after overhearing two whispered words, that's all it took. She's clearly wasted as a therapist, get the woman a police job.
I know what you're thinking, you're thinking there must have been something good about this book or else why would I keep reading?
Well, there was a plot twist that I didn't see coming at all.
I was so stunned by it that I kind of wanted to see where it was going to take me, or if another twist was on the way. It did make the ending slightly more intriguing, it's just a shame that I'd been bored to tears up until that point.
I will say this though, I may not have liked A Noise Downstairs but at least it stood out!
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