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Three horrific events separated by time and distance are united by a hidden, cunning conspiracy that threatens the foundation of civilization.
I happened across THE STRAW MEN totally by accident. I was checking out a hotel sundries shop one rainy Sunday morning in New Orleans and saw the book on one of those wire, wall-mounted paperback racks popular in hospital gift shops and airports. Two things attracted me to it: the name of the author, "Michael Marshall," was the name of a kid I went to grade school with; and the two word cover blurb by Stephen King: "A Masterpiece." I picked the bad boy up; the story looked intriguing, and I scraped some bills together and bought it. It was the best several bucks I've spent in quite a while.
The Michael Marshall who wrote THE STRAW MEN is not the kid I went to school with. This Michael Marshall is from Great Britain, and his name is actually Michael Marshall Smith. He's published three books, I believe, under the latter name, works of speculative fiction that I'm going to get into as soon as I finish keyboarding here. Why he has been abbreviated to Michael Marshall is a question I can't answer; it's confusing, apparently, even to his publisher, which on the back of THE STRAW MEN, describes this book as his debut novel.
Regardless, this guy is incredible. Let me put it this way: I was firmly convinced before I was a third of the way through the book that Michael Marshall was one of those Richard Bachman identities that Stephen King comes up with. Or, even more improbably, that THE STRAW MEN was some collaboration between King and Dean Koontz. Marshall writes as if he is possessed with the strengths of both writers and bereft of their occasional weaknesses. But he apparently is his own, real person. Why angels are not calling his name right now, I don't know, and why THE STRAW MEN went straight to paperback, as opposed to getting a huge hardcover release first, is a question I can't answer. This novel, however, is incredible.
Marshall starts things off by recounting three separate, seemingly unconnected events. The first is an occurrence at a fast food restaurant; the second is the abduction of a teenaged girl named Sarah Becker from a Santa Monica mall; and the third is the death of a husband and wife in an automobile accident. Their son, Ward Hopkins, finds a note in his father's handwriting stuffed into a chair, reading "Ward, we're not dead." Hopkins, a ne'er do well who has been at loose ends for most of his life, haltingly begins an investigation and in the process begins to connect the random dots of the three events, revealing a horrific plot that stretches across the country and fifty years into the past, involving his parents and ultimately himself. At the same time, an FBI agent and John Zandt, a retired and grief-stricken Los Angeles police detective, investigate the Becker abduction, an incident which is tied to three prior abductions --- one of which involves Zandt's own daughter.
As Zandt races against time to rescue Becker, his path becomes intertwined with Hopkins as they race toward a tumultuous, apocalyptic conclusion. Marshall keeps the suspense level ratcheted to atmospheric levels practically from the first page, so that the reader turning the page while actually fearing what will come next. Marshall is a master of the unpredictable; nothing is as it seems, and no event can be anticipated, from the first page to the last.
With THE STRAW MEN, Marshall demonstrates that the Next Big Thing is already here. If you wish you had held on to that first edition of CARRIE, here's your second chance. This guy is a marvel. Highest possible recommendation.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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