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Dark•Matter #2
If Whispers Call
As a young woman lies in a deep and inexplicable coma in a Chicago hospital, investigators from the Hoffman Institute search for answers, finding a clue in a small cemetery, abandoned for nearly four decades, that holds the key to secrets from beyond the grave. Original.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 2000
36 people want to read
About the author
Don Bassingthwaite
34 books51 followersDon lives with his partner in Toronto, surrounded by gadgets, spice jars, and too many books.
No, I don’t normally refer to myself in the third person. That’s the official author bio from the back of my most recent books. You want some other trivia?
I’m a fan of the serial comma.
I’m a huge fan of breakfast cereal.
I own one (and only one) stuffed animal — a Highland cow from Edinburgh named “Ewan MooGregor.”
I love Edinburgh and London — other large cities visited in the UK include Bath and Plymouth. I’ve also been to Cheddar where I ate a really good cheese sandwich.
I like cheese, especially hard and blue cheeses (Mmmm. Stilton.).
I look terrible in hats with the exception (for unknown reasons) of a few ball caps of particular colour and design.
I look good in rugby shirts, but don’t really own any as I neither play rugby nor follow the sport enough to feel honest buying the shirt of any particular team.
I don’t play or follow soccer either, but that didn’t stop me from choosing a “shirt team” in the last World Cup, wearing their shirt, and cheering for them in pubs. Go Netherlands!
To quote Paul S. Kemp, “Mmm. Beer.”
I have seriously considered buying a kilt. Update March 2008: The kilt has been bought!
Kilt, cow, and fondness for Edinburgh aside, I’m not Scottish.
More to come, I’m sure!
No, I don’t normally refer to myself in the third person. That’s the official author bio from the back of my most recent books. You want some other trivia?
I’m a fan of the serial comma.
I’m a huge fan of breakfast cereal.
I own one (and only one) stuffed animal — a Highland cow from Edinburgh named “Ewan MooGregor.”
I love Edinburgh and London — other large cities visited in the UK include Bath and Plymouth. I’ve also been to Cheddar where I ate a really good cheese sandwich.
I like cheese, especially hard and blue cheeses (Mmmm. Stilton.).
I look terrible in hats with the exception (for unknown reasons) of a few ball caps of particular colour and design.
I look good in rugby shirts, but don’t really own any as I neither play rugby nor follow the sport enough to feel honest buying the shirt of any particular team.
I don’t play or follow soccer either, but that didn’t stop me from choosing a “shirt team” in the last World Cup, wearing their shirt, and cheering for them in pubs. Go Netherlands!
To quote Paul S. Kemp, “Mmm. Beer.”
I have seriously considered buying a kilt. Update March 2008: The kilt has been bought!
Kilt, cow, and fondness for Edinburgh aside, I’m not Scottish.
More to come, I’m sure!
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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May 3, 2022Quick review:
* This is the second book in the Dark*Matter fiction line.
* After the first book (three people from different background get involved in a conspiracy and find an alien living in DC), our three investigators have joined the good conspiracy and been transferred to Chicago, where they face a ghost haunting.
* As in a lot of game fiction, there's sometimes when the narrative seems to suffer because game logic intrudes, e.g., someone faces an obstacle and then immediately rolls a success, so the obstacle is not interesting.
* I complained that everyone talked the same in the last book--like a snarky 90s character, with no nuance about their background--and that is somewhat alleviated in this book, but now my complaint is that everyone is still acting like they're in a movie, with dialogue and conflicts that don't quite make sense.
* The ghost story in here is solid and the investigation is nicely outlined in a way that you could totally steal for an adventure: a husband and very pregnant wife visit a cemetery to learn about the husband's background; local kids do seances in the haunted cemetery; the wife gets hurt--was it the husband?; the husband is acting erratically, the cops are often around, the local kids are getting up to trouble. Some things are revealed to the reader that you wouldn't necessarily reveal to the PCs if this were an adventure, like the semi-possessed husband's POV, but that might give the GM some examples of what that feels like.
* This is the second book in the Dark*Matter fiction line.
* After the first book (three people from different background get involved in a conspiracy and find an alien living in DC), our three investigators have joined the good conspiracy and been transferred to Chicago, where they face a ghost haunting.
* As in a lot of game fiction, there's sometimes when the narrative seems to suffer because game logic intrudes, e.g., someone faces an obstacle and then immediately rolls a success, so the obstacle is not interesting.
* I complained that everyone talked the same in the last book--like a snarky 90s character, with no nuance about their background--and that is somewhat alleviated in this book, but now my complaint is that everyone is still acting like they're in a movie, with dialogue and conflicts that don't quite make sense.
* The ghost story in here is solid and the investigation is nicely outlined in a way that you could totally steal for an adventure: a husband and very pregnant wife visit a cemetery to learn about the husband's background; local kids do seances in the haunted cemetery; the wife gets hurt--was it the husband?; the husband is acting erratically, the cops are often around, the local kids are getting up to trouble. Some things are revealed to the reader that you wouldn't necessarily reveal to the PCs if this were an adventure, like the semi-possessed husband's POV, but that might give the GM some examples of what that feels like.
June 26, 2024
Don Bassingthwaite is turning out to be one of my favorite game tie-in authors. I liked his Werewolf the Apocalypses novels and I think he did a Wraith the Oblivion too but I'm too lazy to look that up. Getting to If Whispers Call, this is the second book in the Dark Matter collection. The world of Dark Matter is one populated with conspiracies and the supernatural (think X-Files, Koljack the Night Stalker and other 80's and 90's conspiracy TV shows). Back to the story, it follows an investigation into strange phenomenon at a local hospital that is centered around a pregnant woman in a coma. The three characters from the first novel are now a part of the Hoffman Institute an organization tasked with investigating the paranormal. Each character is dealing with their own demons/issues and the author really sells it. This is also their first investigation together and group dynamic is really screwed up. (It honestly reminds me of a dysfunctional gaming group which fits the RPG tie-in.) The ending was also fulfilling but very melancholy. So if you like fiction in the vein of the X-Files If Whispers Call is for you.
May 23, 2021
I was really hoping that my annoyance at the characters from the previous book was just due to the author's style. Nope. They are just as annoying, if not more so. I put up with enough of these kinds of people with their persecution complexes in real life, I really don't want to spent my down time reading about them.
Other than that, the premise was based on a real haunted location and that has been interesting to read up on.
Please let these characters get better...
Other than that, the premise was based on a real haunted location and that has been interesting to read up on.
Please let these characters get better...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews