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CBC
19-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Linwood Barclay's latest novel, Whistle, is a spooky tale about an evil toy train set — read an excerpt now
Social Sharing Bestselling American Canadian thriller novelist Linwood Barclay is not only one of the five contenders for Canada Reads 2025 — he's also coming out with a new book of his own! Barclay's latest novel, Whistle, dips into the horror genre as a train set comes to life with sinister motives. In Whistle, Annie, a mother, moves charming town in upstate New York with her young son. She's reeling from the sudden death of her husband in an accident and the fact that one of the children's books she authored and illustrated ignited a major scandal. When her son, Charlie, finds an old train set in a locked shed on their property, he's thrilled, but there's something eerie about the toy. As weird things start happen in the neighbourhood, Annie can't help but feel that she's walked out of one nightmare and right into another. "I'm a life-long model train enthusiast (also known as, in some circles, a nerd) and it struck me that toy trains never get their shot at being evil the way dolls (think Chucky) and ventriloquists' dummies (think Magic) and wind-up toy monkeys (The Monkey) do," wrote Barclay in an email to CBC Books. "How unfair is that? But can toy trains BE scary? I don't think you'll ever look at an old Lionel or American Flyer trains set the same way again." Linwood Barclay and Wayne Johnston dish on Canada Reads strategy — and the magic of writing a life's story Barclay is a New York Times bestselling author who has written over 20 books, including thrillers I Will Ruin You, Find You First, Broken Promise and Elevator Pitch and the middle-grade novels Escape and Chase. Many of Barclay's books have been optioned for film and television, and he wrote the screenplay for the movie Never Saw It Coming, adapted from his novel of the same name. His books The Accident and No Time for Goodbye were made into a television series in France. Barclay lives near Toronto. He's also championing the memoir Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston on Canada Reads 2025. The debates will take place from March 17-20. Thriller writer Linwood Barclay champions Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston Whistle will be released on May 20, 2025. You can read an excerpt below. Jeremy was mesmerized. He could lay here like this for hours, imagining himself in the cab of that locomotive, shoveling coal from the tender into the firebox, elbow on the window ledge, head poked out to view the track ahead, a red kerchief tied round his neck blowing in the wind, the world flying past. It felt ... magical. As though he and the engine had somehow become one and the same, fused together. He remembered that book his mother read to him when he was two or three, about that little engine that could. Jeremy was that engine now, and he could do anything. "Have fun," his father said, and went to the kitchen with Jeremy's mom. He tentatively touched his finger to the track, pulling it away a millisecond before the train swept past on its latest loop. He felt a small charge, that tingle again. He knew that wasn't supposed to happen, but he definitely felt something. Maybe this train was different. Special, even – "Oops," said Glynis, kicking over the red boxcar and sending the entire train off the tracks. Maybe this train was different. Jeremy was so transfixed that the derailment hit him as though he'd been awakened from a dream. He looked first at the fallen train, then slowly turned his head to look up at his sister. She said, "You got a used second-hand gift. Somebody's old junk. My Bratz doll is new. I'm gonna eat your Cinnabon." She set her doll on the living room couch and disappeared into the kitchen. Jeremy pondered his sister's history of villainy as he looked at the devastation she had wrought, this scale train wreck. Telling him the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny. The time she put rabbit turds in his ice cream. Stuffed a dead toad into the toe of his runners. Told everyone at school he'd wet the bed. That time she stole three dollars from their mother's purse and, when it looked as though she might be found out, slipped the bills under Jeremy's pillow. Their mother found them when she was changing the sheets. Jeremy's protestations of innocence were to no avail. Glynis was a very, very bad sister. She was his tormentor. He was her victim. It had always been this way. He'd considered retaliation before but anything he attempted would bring serious blowback from his parents. He couldn't just hit her or pull her hair or put a snake in her underwear drawer. He wished he were more creative, that he could find a way to teach her a lesson without anyone tracing it back to him. She was his tormentor. He was her victim. Then he rolled over and eyed the Bratz doll Glynis had left sitting on the couch, staring into the room with its dead eyes. And there, on the floor, discarded strands of green ribbon that had secured some of the now unwrapped presents. An idea was forming. One day, his father had shared some old tapes of cartoons he'd loved as a kid. One was about a dumb Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman named Dudley Do-Right who was forever saving a girlfriend when she got tied to the railroad tracks by the nasty Snidely Whiplash. Jeremy took the Bratz doll from the couch. Placed it across the track and secured it with the green ribbon. Then he put the locomotive and cars back onto the track. See how Glynis liked it when her new toy got run over by his used t rain. He cranked the throttle so hard the engine's wheels spun as they sought purchase on the track. Only half a loop to go to make contact. There was no Dudley Do-Right coming to rescue Glynis's Christmas present. For a second there, as Jeremy looked into the face of the doll, he thought he saw the face of his sister. That was not possible, of course. He blinked, and the doll went back to being a doll. He blinked, and the doll went back to being a doll. Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuff Jeremy hit the whistle button. Woo-woo! Rounding the turn. Almost there. The moment of impact a millisecond away. Chuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuffchuf. And then whomp. What wonderful chaos. The doll was catapulted across the room, the flimsy ribbon cut by the loco's wheels before the engine bounced off the track and landed on its side, taking the attached cars with it. It was, Jeremy thought, an epic derailment as good as any he had ever seen in a movie. And then, from the kitchen, the sound of something shattering. Followed by a bone-chilling scream. Jeremy sprung to his feet and went to the kitchen doorway to investigate. His mother, father and sister were crowded around the sink, Glynis in the middle, holding her hand over some dishes that had been left there to soak. On the floor by their feet, the shattered remains of a glass. Blood was dripping furiously from Glynis' hand. Blood was dripping furiously from Glynis' hand. "My God!" Jeremy's mother shrieked. "Call an ambulance!" Jeremy's father said there was no time for that, he would wrap the detached finger in a cloth with ice cubes around it and drive Glynis to the hospital and maybe they could reattach it and how in the hell did this happen anyway and then Jeremy's parents were yelling at each other while Glynis continued to wail. Jeremy went back into the living room. He found the Bratz doll. The right hand was missing, as if neatly cut off with a pair of shears. After a brief search, he found the hand between two of the metal ties that supported the train. He tucked the tiny hand deep into the pocket of his jeans. Once the locomotive and cars were back on the track, Jeremy set the throttle to a nice, steady speed, got on the floor again, propped up on his elbows, head resting in his hands, and watched the train go round and round and round and round.
CBC
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Devouring Tomorrow, edited by Jeff Dupuis and A.G. Pasquella
Our lives, our culture, our community all start with and revolve around food and eating. Sharing meals with family and friends has been a hallmark of human society from our earliest beginnings. But we are entering an era of unprecedented change. Climate, technology, the global spread of crop diseases, droughts, and the loss of pollinators threaten to change not only how much food we eat, but what we eat and how we eat it. Devouring Tomorrow explores this strange new menu through the eyes and palates of some of Canada's most exciting authors. See a world with no bees left to pollinate our crops. Encounter lab-grown meat so advanced that it becomes sentient. Visit a land where diseases wipe out a common fruit and the society of a nation changes around its loss. This is not the world of the distant future — this is tomorrow. Featuring stories from: Sifton Tracey Anipare, Carleigh Baker, Gary Barwin, Chris Benjamin, Eddy Boudel Tan, Catherine Bush, Jowita Bydlowska, Lisa de Nikolits, Dina Del Bucchia, Terri Favro, Elan Mastai, Mark Sampson, Ji Hong Sayo, Jacqueline Valencia, Anuja Varghese, A.G.A. Wilmot (From Dundurn) Jeff Dupuis is the Toronto-based author of the Creature X Mystery series. A.G. Pasquella is an American Canadian author based in Toronto. His novels include the Yard Dog, Carve The Heart and Season of Smoke. His writing has appeared in McSweeney's, Wholphin, The Believer, Black Book, Broken Pencil and Utne Reader.
CBC
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Thomas King's new novel imagines how we'd react if aliens paid us a visit — read an excerpt now
Social Sharing Renowned American Canadian author Thomas King returns with his new novel, Aliens on the Moon, which follows the residents of a small Ontario town who are dealing with different life-changing challenges — whether it's a car breakdown or a love affair. When their lives are suddenly upended by the same extraordinary event — the arrival of aliens — their reactions are both comical and revealing. While some fear the aliens' proclamations of their mandate to save Earth, others see their visit as a chance to take advantage of possible perks, like having a massive discount weekend at Costco. "Sometimes books emerge from the consideration of the standard tropes — life and death, love and hate, revenge, redemption, resurrection," King told CBC Books in an email. But King says his latest book was inspired by the simple question of how we'd respond if our fabled alien encounters were to become a reality. "After 50 years of dealing with movie aliens, would the arrival of real aliens move our needles? How would we deal with such a situation? Would we forget our differences, band together against a common threat?" "Or would we simply avert our eyes, ignore reality, because feigned ignorance has worked so well with climate change, racism and gender equality?" King said. Thomas King is a Canadian American writer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry who is regarded as one of the most influential Indigenous writers and scholars of his generation. King was the first Indigenous person to deliver a CBC Massey Lecture in 2003. His books include Truth & Bright Water; Green Grass, Running Water, which was on Canada Reads in 2004; The Inconvenient Indian, which was on Canada Reads in 2015; and The Back of the Turtle, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 2014. He also writes the DreadfulWater mystery series. Aliens on the Moon will be out on Aug. 15, 2025. You can read an excerpt of it below. Chapter 1 The Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile is the first to raise the alarm. In quick order, SALT in South Africa, Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma in the Canaries, Mauna Kea on Hawaii, and SPT in Antarctica all confirm the Paranal observation. Aliens have landed on the moon. Chapter 2 Three days after the aliens arrive from deep space and park their ship on the moon, Nico Karras is at the local Subaru dealership, where the tow truck has brought his new Forester. Gary Tidy is behind the service desk. "This is the fourth time it's happened," Nico tells Gary. "I get in the car, and it won't start." There's a television set in the service waiting area, and CBC News is looping an enlarged image of the moon. Gary points to the television. "Did you know that all the places on the moon have Latin names?" "My car?" "The spaceship landed in Mare Imbrium." The pictures on the television are grey and grainy, and Nico can't see much that resembles a spaceship. "I think there's something wrong with the electrical system." "'Mare Imbrium' means 'Sea of Rains.' Kinda cool." "I'm concerned," says Nico, "that there could be a systemic flaw in the car that is draining the battery." "Missed you last week," says Gary. "Chuck almost got an eagle of the eighth." "Been busy," says Nico. "How's your mum?" "The battery?" "She settling into Falling Leaves okay?" "Autumn Leaves. The battery?" Gary looks away from the television to his monitor. "We'll give it a quick charge and see how that works." "And if that doesn't fix the problem?" "Then it could be a bad battery." "Which Subaru will replace?" "Can you believe it?" Gary hums the opening bars from Star Wars. "There actually is intelligent life in the universe." You're just in time," she tells Nico. "They're expecting the aliens to exit their ship any moment now. When Nico gets back to the house, Sudi is sitting on the sofa, watching the continuing coverage of the aliens on the moon. "You're just in time," she tells Nico. "They're expecting the aliens to exit their ship any moment now." " They being?" "See those guys." Sudi waggles a finger at two men in suits who are having an animated conversation. "They're experts." "On what?" "And your mother called." Sudi twirls a finger in the air. "Let me guess." Nico sits down on the sofa with a thud. "Autumn Leaves is a dump? She wants to move back to her old house? Should have had a daughter? Have I missed anything?" "You'll never make her happy. She's angry because she's lost control of her life." Nico stares straight ahead at the television. "Why is the sound off?" "Have you ever listened to experts?" Nico gets a glass of water from a push spout on the refrigerator door. It's a feature of the appliance that he likes. The water is cold, so you don't have to rummage in the freezer for ice cubes. "Autumn Leaves is a great place," says Nico. "It sure as hell isn't cheap." I think we can assume that the aliens didn't come all this way just to sit on the moon. "I think we can assume that the aliens didn't come all this way just to sit on the moon." Sudi turns away from the screen. "How's your car?" "They charged the battery." "Didn't they do that last time?" [no ornament] The next morning, the car won't start. The guy who arrives is the same guy who towed the car the day before. "Didn't we tow you yesterday?" The patch on the guy's coveralls says HECTOR. "We did." "And now the car won't start? Again?" "It might not be the battery," says Nico. "There could be something wrong with the car itself." Hector opens the hood. "Hey, you interested in snow removal?" "Now?" "Course not," says Hector. "In the winter. Gary just got a pickup with a snowplow. He's signing people up. Now's the time to get on the list." "I normally do it myself," says Nico. "Number one cause of heart attacks." Hector hands Nico a card that says TIDY PROPERTY MANAGEMENT. "Bet he'd give you a good rate. Seeing as you guys play golf together." "Right now," says Nico, "number one priority is the car." "You have to wonder." Hector hooks the Subaru up to the tow truck. "Aliens land on the moon, and now your car doesn't work."
