Yet another immersive, well-written and entertaining supernatural thriller from a guy who (imho) deserves to be as well-known as Stephen King.
This is the fourth novel I have read by this author, and the third that I have felt is a cracking read, well worth a few of my idle hours.
Michael Marshall/Marshall Smith/Rutger writes novels that share some of the elements that make even the least Stephen King novels more readable than 90% of other things being published: the knack of identifying something -- a "what-if" or a "how about that" -- that makes for an intriguing and relatable plot. Characters who feel real, spouting dialogue that sounds like the things people really say. A dry wit. A willingness to go for the slow burn -- not to hurry things, and sometimes digress in ways whose relation to the business at hand may not be immediately obvious, but are always fun and interesting.
(The final point may get both authors in trouble with impatient readers, and even devotees, because there are times when you want to scream, oh, just get ON with it!! But I would argue that they are relatively few, and far between.)
I won't try to describe the plot, because I think saying too much will spoil the experience: I have noticed that, for once, the publishers have worked hard to avoid excessive spoilers in the blurbs and publicity material. Good for them. I will only say that it's creepy, and (by the standards of supernatural thrillers) almost plausible. It definitely works as a metaphor to explain things that I'm sure all of us have experienced: the sense that you are not alone in an empty room. Your cat staring at something that isn't there. The keys that you know you left here, inexplicably turning up over there. I'll just say that, while you're reading it, those "footsteps" you hear in the empty room overhead will take on a whole new resonance ...
If I have a quibble, it's that (as is the case, I think, with many supernatural thrillers) the ending falls a little flat. There is so much build up, so many expectations, it's hard to see sometimes, how it could be otherwise. This, however, feels a lot better and more satisfying than many I have read.
My criteria for 4-stars is something that is much better than it "needs" to be. This is a 4-star supernatural thriller, with bells on. I am looking forward to my next novel by the author -- whatever he chooses to call himself.
This is the fourth novel I have read by this author, and the third that I have felt is a cracking read, well worth a few of my idle hours.
Michael Marshall/Marshall Smith/Rutger writes novels that share some of the elements that make even the least Stephen King novels more readable than 90% of other things being published: the knack of identifying something -- a "what-if" or a "how about that" -- that makes for an intriguing and relatable plot. Characters who feel real, spouting dialogue that sounds like the things people really say. A dry wit. A willingness to go for the slow burn -- not to hurry things, and sometimes digress in ways whose relation to the business at hand may not be immediately obvious, but are always fun and interesting.
(The final point may get both authors in trouble with impatient readers, and even devotees, because there are times when you want to scream, oh, just get ON with it!! But I would argue that they are relatively few, and far between.)
I won't try to describe the plot, because I think saying too much will spoil the experience: I have noticed that, for once, the publishers have worked hard to avoid excessive spoilers in the blurbs and publicity material. Good for them. I will only say that it's creepy, and (by the standards of supernatural thrillers) almost plausible. It definitely works as a metaphor to explain things that I'm sure all of us have experienced: the sense that you are not alone in an empty room. Your cat staring at something that isn't there. The keys that you know you left here, inexplicably turning up over there. I'll just say that, while you're reading it, those "footsteps" you hear in the empty room overhead will take on a whole new resonance ...
If I have a quibble, it's that (as is the case, I think, with many supernatural thrillers) the ending falls a little flat. There is so much build up, so many expectations, it's hard to see sometimes, how it could be otherwise. This, however, feels a lot better and more satisfying than many I have read.
My criteria for 4-stars is something that is much better than it "needs" to be. This is a 4-star supernatural thriller, with bells on. I am looking forward to my next novel by the author -- whatever he chooses to call himself.
