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The Intruders
For ex-cop Jack Whalen, it all begins with a visit from a childhood friend, a lawyer who needs Jack's help. The family of a noted scientist has been senselessly, brutally murdered, and the scientist is nowhere to be found.
But Jack has more pressing concerns. The past that drove him from the L.A.P.D. continues to haunt him. And his wife has disappeared during a routine b
...moreMass Market Paperbound, 399 pages
Published
January 1st 2009
by Harper
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Compared by critics to Stephen King and Philip K. Dick, British novelist Michael Marshall crosses genre barriers, from crime to horror to science fiction, in the fast-paced, action-packed Intruders. As the story takes one creepy, bizarre turn after another, Marshall's convincing characters act consistently and believably in a progressively implausible situation. A few complaints included the intricate plotting and the book's length, but most of the critics' objections resulted from the novel's a
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Jack Whalen is an ex LAPD cop, getting on with life in his own way, until his wife goes missing and everything turns upside down.
A ten year old goes missing although she is more than what she seems and can take care of herself and anything that gets in her way.
The two become tangled with many more people and the story unravels as it progresses.
This book is a mind boggle, it starts really well, a family is brutally murdered with the father being the main suspect bu...more
A ten year old goes missing although she is more than what she seems and can take care of herself and anything that gets in her way.
The two become tangled with many more people and the story unravels as it progresses.
This book is a mind boggle, it starts really well, a family is brutally murdered with the father being the main suspect bu...more
This book is teaming with ideas. Like a few recent thrillers, it doesn't try too hard to give you all the answers or explain away things that aren't really important to the story. It is what it is, it happens, deal with it. You only ever know what the lead character knows helping add to the tension as the character crashes wildly from one discovery to the next, in a permemnt state of confusion.</p>
There are a few flaws - some things that we really should have had explained are missing - an
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This was a book that's good on concept, but lousy on execution. I was very disappointed. It took me two weeks to read this book (which is a lifetime for me!) because I started reading and had a hard time get into it. I had to put it down for a week before I could convince myself to pick it back up again. A reviewer on amazon said that there were too many characters. That's almost true. It wasn't that there were too many, it was that the author did a bad job of making sure I could tell who was ta...more
I did enjoy this thriller-with-a-supernatural-twist, but ultimately, I was a bit disappointed. Though it is not a direct sequel to his Straw Man trilogy, events and even one character were mentioned, seeming like a rather purposeful red herring tossed out to his own fans, which is a little... well, intentionally rude. The ending was not terribly satisfying either. The beginning, and general premise, was very strong, as well as Marshall's general witty writing style. The idea and resolution just ...more
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm. Mr Marshall has a knack for writing good stories that just pull you in. For the first 80% of the book. Whether he runs out of ideas or just isn't good at closing out books or just simply doesn't flesh out the ending until too late, I don't know. I do know this is ...my fourth(?) Marshall book. That should tell you he's a good storyteller. This one and The Straw Men are just terrific...till he has to come up with a plausible ending. There it falls apart.
This one was...more
This one was...more
Everything Marshall writes is a pleasure to read, and this thriller doesn't disappoint. As usual his writing moves at a pace, with short chapters dense with fascinating characters and vivid locations which jump out of the page. As is his tendency, what seems simple at first develops into a backdrop of conspiracy with a tinge of fantasy/sci-fi underpinning it all.
Highly recommended, I just wish he'd go back and apply his talent to some more pure sci-fi as Michael Marshall Smith.
Highly recommended, I just wish he'd go back and apply his talent to some more pure sci-fi as Michael Marshall Smith.
This is really a 3.5 star book. Bizarre is perhaps the best word to describe this book. There are several stories going on at the same time, which Marshall ultimately brings together in the last quarter of the book. In the meantime, I had no idea what was going on! There are hints, but...huh? This is a page turner of a book. It reads like a current day book, but has a Stephen King-esque twist. A bit creepy.
Sometimes paranoia is a good thing, as it can force you to see things that others might miss. That's a key point in Michael Marshall's book. I found his story to be well written, plotted, and paced. It moved quickly, with a great feeling of tension spread throughout the story. My only problem with the book was that the reveal of "The Intruders" themselves is "spoiled" earlier in the book...ie our main character learns about it well after the reader has figured it out.
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By the end I was really enjoying it. I liked the concepts of the story and thought the ending was very well done. However the first 2/3 of the book felt slow and seemed to have little impact on the rest. Although by the end it all makes sense there seemed to be a lot that could have been left out, and too many coincidences used to drive the plot.
I hated this book---actually could not even finish it! I wanted to like it but just could not get into it. Too many plot lines going on at once and none of it made any sense. I finally gave up about 2/3 of the way through because I knew I could be reading something much better. I rarely, if ever, don't finish a book so it had to be pretty bad.
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This should have been better, but it just didn't draw me in. It had the characteristic MMS wit, leaving me giggling helplessly many times in the first half of the book, but for some reason I kept finding other things to do. It's a long way ahead of the two other books that I have partly read right now, but that really isn't saying a lot.
This here was my airplane book on the way home from Cupertino. Better than I expected; X-Files feel; characters still rather two dimensional. Solid thriller, smarter than most. Almost gave it three stars, but it's not one I'll be keeping or reading again. Off it goes to the book exchange table!
I think I would have liked this book a lot more if I had gotten an explanation of what was going on earlier than 3/4 of the way through the book. Interesting concept for the book (I won't give anything away), but I would have liked a little more upfront exposition.
Has some wonderful lines and good writing on places, moods and relationships. Good action sequences and some chills but I just didn't get the plot on this one. The 'Straw Men' Trilogy was better for me.
Jaca
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fans of the genre - try it, maybe you'll get something from it I missed
I'm a big fan of Michael Marshall-Smith, and greatly enjoyed the Straw Men trilogy from his incarnation as Michael Marshall. However, this book doesn't deliver to his normal high standards. The books well written and there are places that show Marshalls distinctive characterisation, with slightly bleak, self-aware characters. But while the premis is simple it doesn't appear to be strong enough to fully engage the authour, who opts to forgoe any deep consideration of the topic and instead produce...more
Mike
rated it
·
review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
airplane riders, thriller readers, those addicted to conspiracy fiction
Better opening than wrap-up, which is probably typical in the "what-the-hell-is-going-on?" genre. For a hundred pages, events pile up without any clear sense of cause or correlation, and part of the fun of such books is not knowing what the patterns are. (It's a paranoiac's thrill: all the stuff going on in our lives might just very well be ordered in ways that make some other kind of sense....)
A fast read, and fun enough; not as good as Michael Marshall's stuff written u...more
A fast read, and fun enough; not as good as Michael Marshall's stuff written u...more
What starts off as a man questioning his wife's fidelity turns into a thriller/horror of an ancient order taking control of people-- particularly harrowing is the take over of a young girl.
I love Michael Marshall's books. They grip you and don't let go. I love the way he writes and the stories he tells, although they're really dark indeed. One of my new favorite authors!
This was a very suspenseful book but an odd topic--based on the premise that there are spirits attempting to enter into children's bodies in order to continue a previous life.
I enjoy Marshall's books but this wasn't his best. It is a compelling mystery that will leave you turning the pages to the final denouement which is unexpected to say the least.
An excellent thriller, with a very creepy undertone and some brilliant characters. I was impressed with the way Marshall constructed the novel in first and third person. Highly recommended.
This was one of my favorite books in a long while. I just really like how this guy writes. I thought the story was interesting and couldn't put the book down.
This is the 2nd book by Michael Marshall (Smith) that I've read, the 1st being the Science Fiction book, Spares. I must say I was not as impressed with this one as I didn't feel like it really succeeded as suspense/thriller. The ending was a little bit too diffuse for me; I wasn't satisfied with it at all. Of course since this is a new, there may be a sequel on the way, but if that is the case, it failed the "stands on it's own" test. The premise is fascinating, and the writing very go...more
I read this in one night. It's been a long time since I've read anything that really scared me, but this did! What a creepy book--very well-written.
No where near as good as The Straw Men triology. This has a strange ending. Not an interesting ending, just a strange one.
Pretty scary book. I picked this up in a bookstore when I didn't have anything to read. Psychological thriller.
one of my faves from last year. enuff so that i reco'd it to a bunch of people
Somehow, I expected more....
Good writing that got you intrigued; I liked Jack, the main character and I liked the storyline but the 'answers' never seemed to be properly, not to my liking anyway.
The story is based on a kind of conspiracy about people who come back and take over the mind and eventually life of others, working on a 9 year basis - sound complicated? Once you get your head around it, it makes sense but as I say left me feeling not enough was explained suffic...more
Good writing that got you intrigued; I liked Jack, the main character and I liked the storyline but the 'answers' never seemed to be properly, not to my liking anyway.
The story is based on a kind of conspiracy about people who come back and take over the mind and eventually life of others, working on a 9 year basis - sound complicated? Once you get your head around it, it makes sense but as I say left me feeling not enough was explained suffic...more
Creepy plot. REALLY creepy. Loved it. But the end was quite rushed.
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(1) Michael Marshall - Religion/Spirituality
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More about Michael Marshall...
(1) Michael Marshall - Religion/Spirituality
(2) Michael Marshall - Acting
(3) Michael Marshall - Fishing/Geography
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Also, when Michael Marshall Smith writes horror, ...more
