A Book A Week

Dan can pinpoint the exact moment his life changed forever. He was just a child when it happened. His father had pulled into a quiet rest stop so Dan could use the bathroom. As soon as he stepped inside and saw another boy standing there alone, he knew something was wrong. Their eyes locked—briefly, urgently—and Dan could feel the danger. From the last stall came a faint whistling, a deceptively cheerful tune that masked the malevolence waiting within. Dan should have done something. He should have taken the boy’s hand and run. But when the whistling stopped, and the man in the stall realized they were no longer alone, Dan panicked. He hid in the nearest stall, trembling, listening. Then came the chilling words: “No one sees, no one cares.” Moments later, the man was gone, his whistling fading into the distance. The boy walked dutifully behind him, resigned to whatever fate lay ahead. 

“We are shaped by our pasts, not defined by them.”

Years later, Dan still lives with the guilt of that day. He would eventually learn that the man he encountered was known as the Pied Piper—a serial killer responsible for the disappearance of countless boys. The child Dan saw was almost certainly one of his victims. Now an adult, Dan works as a criminal profiler, devoting his life to saving the innocent lives he once failed to protect. But when his father dies under suspicious circumstances, Dan is pulled back to the place he thought he’d escaped. As he investigates the final days of his father’s life, a terrifying truth begins to take shape. The monster from his past may never have left.

The Man Made of Smoke sees Alex North return to the kind of chilling, standalone thriller that first put him on the map. I was introduced to his work with his breakout debut, The Whisper Man, and this latest novel draws on the same atmospheric dread and psychological intensity that made that book such a standout. Only here, it feels even more urgent, more unsettling.

North is a master at preying on the imagination, understanding that what we conjure in our minds is often far scarier than anything he could explicitly describe. In The Man Made of Smoke, mere suggestion becomes nightmare fuel. There were moments I had to pause just to collect myself before diving back in. The story alternates between Dan’s present-day investigation and the haunting perspective of one of the Pied Piper’s abducted victims from two decades earlier. North weaves these timelines together with precision, gradually building toward a final act that’s both terrifying and emotionally resonant.

This is a remarkably effective thriller—dark, original, and full of psychological menace. The Man Made of Smoke will have you second-guessing what’s real, what’s imagined, and what’s lurking just beyond the shadows. Keep the lights on for this one.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2025, 37)