Helpful Score: 10
Wards parents are killed in an accident. He finds a hidden note (among other things) after the funeral. His life is about to change. Other seemingly unrelated events are happening...but in the end, all lead to "The Straw Men".
I could not put this book down. It is an intriquitly woven tale, that is as bazarr as it is believable. You will not forget the characters of this book, and the tale they tell will stay with you. Stephen King said it was a Masterpiece. It was.
I could not put this book down. It is an intriquitly woven tale, that is as bazarr as it is believable. You will not forget the characters of this book, and the tale they tell will stay with you. Stephen King said it was a Masterpiece. It was.
Helpful Score: 6
I really enjoyed this book. It caught my attention from the first chapter and I couldn't wait to get to the end. I highly recommend it.
Helpful Score: 6
Great Book. Found it odd at the end, but after finishing the book still thought about it and felt the ending added to the book.
Helpful Score: 5
Wow, this one kept me guessing till the end. I've already ordered the second in the series.
Helpful Score: 4
Wonderful and completely different from other thrillers out there.
Helpful Score: 2
A really good thriller, although I was a little perplexed at the ending.
Reads really quickly though, and pulls you right into the mysteries of what's going on.
Great for those who love a good thriller!
Reads really quickly though, and pulls you right into the mysteries of what's going on.
Great for those who love a good thriller!
Helpful Score: 2
Gripping - - Suspenseful - - A good read.
Helpful Score: 2
I was frankly disappointed in this book, and in fact, the trilogy. It seems to wander off-subject frequently. The author attempts, I think, to expand the prose past its use in telling the story.
I would never recommend that anyone not read the books. Everyone should make up their own mind. But, if I may suggest, if you find your mind wandering as you read, as I did, consider bailing out. Life is short.
I would never recommend that anyone not read the books. Everyone should make up their own mind. But, if I may suggest, if you find your mind wandering as you read, as I did, consider bailing out. Life is short.
Helpful Score: 2
What an excellent book by an author I hadn't read before but will definitely be reading again!
Helpful Score: 2
ARE THEY HUMAN, THE WORST OF US, OR SOMETHING ELSE?
Helpful Score: 1
I thought the last part of this novel was exciting. But, to be honest, it took forever to get interesting, as it was very slow moving.
Helpful Score: 1
What a disappointment this book was for me. I really didn't care for it at all. The characters didn't keep my interest and it tries to straddle being a crime novel and being a paranormal story. Blah.
Helpful Score: 1
Michael Marshall weaves a great plot that keeps you guessing until the end. He includes a dark side to his writing that makes his material a little different from some of the main stream mystery writers.
Helpful Score: 1
This book sucked you in in the first chapter and before you knew it, you we're trapped. Not trapped because it was a good book but because you we're lost in all the plot holes when all you wanted was a satisfying ending. I would recommend this book to no one unless you need to waste serious time. It's long and takes you on an unwell written journey that leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions.
Helpful Score: 1
If you like Stephen King and Lee Child, Dean Koontz and F. Paul Wilson, you will enjoy this author. (When looking for his books, some have been published under the name "Micheal Marshall Smith". A bit eerie, lots of action, interesting characters and a good writing style. I am looking forward to reading the final two novels in the series.
Some great twists that you don't expect and I liked how the author took what seemed like two different stories and twisted them together. A good read.
Extremely well written and engaging.
Absolutely fantastic book. surprising and unexpected. Excellent writing. Now I must read The Upright man
I read this again as a prelude to finishing the series. Still as powerful as it was the first time.
I really enjoyed this mystery! Very well-written with a clever narrative style, it made me flinch in fear and at other times, laugh embarrassingly loud. Other than a few distracting Briticisms, the writing was flawless. It reminded me a bit of John Connolly's Charlie Parker series. And I was ecstatic to learn that _The Straw Men_ is the first book of a trilogy. This is, unfortunately, not well-advertised, but I immediately ordered the remained books (_The Lonely Dead_(aka _The Upright Man_) and _Blood of Angels_), and I am really looking forward to reading them!
Most of the book, I was thinking "why are there two different stories going on here?" I stuck with it and the end was amazing! There is a reason why I read about a fast-food restaurant massacre, about a death of two parents, about the missing girl.... it all works out at the end.
awesome thriller -very stylish-read it!
very good book read it you will not be dissapointed.
its scary!!
At times riveting, at times dragging. Great concept but left a lot hanging. But then this is the first of a trilogy. It left so many gaps for me though that I don't think I'll read the next two in the series.
This book is GREAT! Totally engrossing!
In Palmerston, Pennsylvania, two men in long coats walk calmly into a crowded fast-food restaurant- then slowly and methodically, gun down sixty-eight people. They take time to reload.
On the Promenade of Santa Monica, California, a teenage girl gives sightseeing tips to a distinguished English tourist. She won't be going home tonight.
In Dyersberg, Montanna, a grief-stricken son tries to make sense of the accident that killed his parents- then finds a note stuffed in his father's favorite chair. It reads, "We're not dead."
Three seemingly unrelated events, these are the first signs of an unimaginable network of fear that will lead one unlikely hero to a chilling confrontation with The Straw Men. No one knows who they are- or why they kill. But they must be stopped.
On the Promenade of Santa Monica, California, a teenage girl gives sightseeing tips to a distinguished English tourist. She won't be going home tonight.
In Dyersberg, Montanna, a grief-stricken son tries to make sense of the accident that killed his parents- then finds a note stuffed in his father's favorite chair. It reads, "We're not dead."
Three seemingly unrelated events, these are the first signs of an unimaginable network of fear that will lead one unlikely hero to a chilling confrontation with The Straw Men. No one knows who they are- or why they kill. But they must be stopped.
This book is well written and a few completely unexpected things happen in it. All right, one of them is part of the book description, a spoiler you can almost not fail to see; but there are a few others that go beyond the standard random-person-is-a-killer, hero-flees-in-exciting-chase, etc stuff. I like and recommend it, although there are a few scenes of carnage you're likely going to blip over if you're anything like me.
I just don't have time to write this review. I need to get my hands on Volume 2 of Michael Marshall's Straw Men Trilogy, I'm looking forward to the summer 2019 release of the second novel by my new favorite guilty pleasure, Michael Rutger, AND my bedside table TBR pile is groaning with cult novels by distinguished SF novelist Michael Marshall Smith ...
Hahahaha! Gotcha! Because -- just in case that final name wasn't a bit of a giveaway -- all three Michaels are the same person!!
Actually, learning that all three Michaels are one and the same guy has restored my fragile faith in my own sanity: I spend a good deal of my time reading "The Straw Men" struggling was a frustrating sense of deja vu. You know that feeling?
"Have I read this before? It all feels very familiar. There's something about this ... I think I've read this before ..."
But nothing would coalesce into remembering a specific character or event or realizing, ten pages from the end, "Of COURSE, it's Colonel Mustard, in the Orangery, with the lead pipe! I've read this before." (That is NOT a spoiler, btw.)
What I was "remembering" in The Straw Men was the sharp, snarky dialogue, and and nicely turned phrases that I had liked so well in the Michael2 novel I read recently, the light-as-fluff, "For Fans of Dan Brown" horror-adventure "The Anomaly," in which Indiana Jones meets HP Lovecraft. Like his alter ego, Michael1 can not only write sharp dialogue, but construct working relationships between characters that you can actually believe in. AND he can sustain a complicated narrative, alternating between two intriguing investigations which seem to have nothing to do with each other. Except that we -- the Clever Reader and all the Michaels -- know better, and it all comes together with a pretty satisfying bang at the end, and sets us up for volumes 2 and 3.
If the Michaels share strengths like good characters, articulate style, and page-turning command of the narrative, they also share one weakness -- let's call it the "For Fans of Dan Brown Effect." Both novels I have read so far by this talented author have enormous plausibility holes. Even if you have willingly suspended every fibre of disbelief in your body, accepting the Big Picture, at the end you have to ask (deliberately vague, to avoid spoilers) whether the "events" at the end of each novel would go unnoticed, and uncommented upon. Just sayin'.
BUT, hey, don't listen to me! There's Volume 2 of the Straw Men, and the next volume of the Anomaly adventures, AND those cult SF novels ... you have some catching up to do! There may be another Michael along any minute now ....
Hahahaha! Gotcha! Because -- just in case that final name wasn't a bit of a giveaway -- all three Michaels are the same person!!
Actually, learning that all three Michaels are one and the same guy has restored my fragile faith in my own sanity: I spend a good deal of my time reading "The Straw Men" struggling was a frustrating sense of deja vu. You know that feeling?
"Have I read this before? It all feels very familiar. There's something about this ... I think I've read this before ..."
But nothing would coalesce into remembering a specific character or event or realizing, ten pages from the end, "Of COURSE, it's Colonel Mustard, in the Orangery, with the lead pipe! I've read this before." (That is NOT a spoiler, btw.)
What I was "remembering" in The Straw Men was the sharp, snarky dialogue, and and nicely turned phrases that I had liked so well in the Michael2 novel I read recently, the light-as-fluff, "For Fans of Dan Brown" horror-adventure "The Anomaly," in which Indiana Jones meets HP Lovecraft. Like his alter ego, Michael1 can not only write sharp dialogue, but construct working relationships between characters that you can actually believe in. AND he can sustain a complicated narrative, alternating between two intriguing investigations which seem to have nothing to do with each other. Except that we -- the Clever Reader and all the Michaels -- know better, and it all comes together with a pretty satisfying bang at the end, and sets us up for volumes 2 and 3.
If the Michaels share strengths like good characters, articulate style, and page-turning command of the narrative, they also share one weakness -- let's call it the "For Fans of Dan Brown Effect." Both novels I have read so far by this talented author have enormous plausibility holes. Even if you have willingly suspended every fibre of disbelief in your body, accepting the Big Picture, at the end you have to ask (deliberately vague, to avoid spoilers) whether the "events" at the end of each novel would go unnoticed, and uncommented upon. Just sayin'.
BUT, hey, don't listen to me! There's Volume 2 of the Straw Men, and the next volume of the Anomaly adventures, AND those cult SF novels ... you have some catching up to do! There may be another Michael along any minute now ....
from the cover:
In...PA, 2 men...walk into a restaurant and gun down 68 people-they take time to reload.
On the promanade of SM, CA, a teenage girl gives sightseeing tips to an English tourist. She won't be going home tonight.
In...Montana a grief-stricken son tries to make sense of the accident that kills his parents-then finds a note in his father's chair. It reads, "We're not dead." Three seemingly unrelated events, these are the 1st signs of an unimaginable network of fear that will lead one unlikely hero to a chilling confrontation with The Straw Men. No one knows who they are-or why they kill. But they must be stopped....An epic thriller for anyone who has feared that SOMEONE is watching us.
In...PA, 2 men...walk into a restaurant and gun down 68 people-they take time to reload.
On the promanade of SM, CA, a teenage girl gives sightseeing tips to an English tourist. She won't be going home tonight.
In...Montana a grief-stricken son tries to make sense of the accident that kills his parents-then finds a note in his father's chair. It reads, "We're not dead." Three seemingly unrelated events, these are the 1st signs of an unimaginable network of fear that will lead one unlikely hero to a chilling confrontation with The Straw Men. No one knows who they are-or why they kill. But they must be stopped....An epic thriller for anyone who has feared that SOMEONE is watching us.
