Book Review: A Noise Downstairs

In Linwood Barclay's compulsively readable A Noise Downstairs, Connecticut college professor Paul Davis is battered with a shovel after he spots his colleague, Kenneth Hoffman, attempting to dispose of the bodies of two women. Hoffman is jailed, but Davis, traumatised from the events of that night, is left to grapple with PTSD and severe depression. Eight months later, when Paul, now on a sabbatical and recuperating from his brain injury, attempts to piece together the circumstances of the double murder, his wife, Charlotte, surprises him with an old Underwood typewriter she found at a yard sale. A strange series of possibly paranormal phenomena ensue, especially what with strange notes begin appearing on the typewriter, leading Paul down on a rabbit hole, pushing his troubled mind to the edge. Embellished with narrative twists on par with Harlan Coben, Barclay crafts a propulsive, edge-of-the-seat psychological thriller that keeps the tension alive and kicking even as it moves at a brisk clip.