Review
‘Fast-moving, sinister and highly accomplished … This is ferocious storytelling of the highest order, with corkscrew twists and turns that make it deliciously scary as the secrets unfold.’ Daily Mail
‘Marshall’s thrillers get creepier with every book.’ Mirror
‘A great read, with a plot packed full of twists and turns’ News of the World
Praise for The Intruders:
‘A good, taut thriller, with lots of action and a very gripping ending; Marshall takes the reader with him on the investigation with a great deal of guile and style.’ Guardian
‘Devilishly clever … a tautly crafted page-turner of the highest order.’ Bookpage
‘Bestseller Marshall outdoes his own high standards with this potent blend of suspense, paranoia and just plain creepiness … a provocative and supremely intelligent thriller’ Publishers Weekly
‘Sinister’ Mirror
‘Captures a sense of the menacing inevitable … one of the more bracingly depressing tales of mystery and terror to have been published in recent years’ Time Out
‘Subtle, satisfying – and really scary.’ Kirkus Reviews
Review
Product Description
The new psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Straw Men and The Intruders is a heart-stopping tale of
secrets, lies and our culpability in our own misfortunes
On a beautiful summer's afternoon four-year-old Scott Henderson walked out onto a jetty over a lake in Black Ridge, Washington State. He never came back.
John Henderson's world ended that day, but three years later he's still alive. Living a life, of sorts. Getting by. Until one night he receives an email from a stranger who claims to know what happened to his little boy.
Against his better judgement Henderson returns to Black Ridge, unleashing a terrifying sequence of events that threatens to destroy what remains of everything he once held dear.
Bad things don't just happen to other people - they're waiting round the corner for you too. And when they start to make their way in through the cracks in your life, you won't know until it's far too late…
From the Author
I spent a lot of time in America when I was young, and in a lot of ways it feels as much like home as the UK. I’ve lived in London for a long, long time now, however, and so maybe the US has become the place of my imagination, the realm where I go to make things up, and to dream. I also seem usually to come up with novel ideas that are, at least in part, about America, or at least facets of human nature and experience that are most starkly apparent there — and that’s probably the main reason my novels wind up being set there. Place is a character too.
How much of your life and the people around you do you put into your books?
I’ve never put a particular person into a book — not even myself. But you can’t help being influenced by your own take on the world, and by your observations of those who are both close to you, and strangers. Naturally you then take these raw materials and mix them into new combinations, twisting them into completely different shapes, usually without being aware that you’re even doing it. My books often contain at least a shadowed reflection of what’s going on in my real life — or in my real thoughts — at the time of writing; but real life and fiction are very different things.
You’re renowned for your twists and turns – do your characters ever surprise you?
They surprise me every single time. I start every book thinking I know pretty much how they’re going to behave, and then — bang: suddenly they’re taking their lives (and the book) in unexpected directions. I love it when that happens, despite the extra work and head-scratching and soul-searching it provokes. Real people always surprise us, after all, and the more characters in books do this (while remaining in character, of course) the more likely it is the novel will feel as if its being driven from within, rather than out of the mind of the writer. If I ever write a book where the characters never surprise me, then I’ll throw it away. Immediately.
Do you have a favourite character from your novels?
I’ve spent so much time with each of the main protagonists that they all feel like old friends. Stark from Only Forward came very naturally, as did Ward Hopkins in The Straw Men novels, and John Henderson from Bad Things. But I also really like Bill Raines from that last book, and a lot of others from earlier ones...
Which other writers have inspired you?
Stephen King was the first person who made me really want to write — though Enid Blyton deserves some prior credit there, along with Kingsley Amis and Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse. But there was also Ray Bradbury, and Philip K Dick and Jack Finney, and Martin Amis and Brett Easton Ellis, then Jim Thompson and James Ellroy and James Lee Burke... more recently, Richard Ford and Tobias Wolfe. And in the last few months suddenly there’s Richard Brautigan. There’s always someone new to find — and inspiration has to be kept fresh. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Michael Marshall is a novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the internationally bestselling novels 'The Straw Men', 'The Lonely Dead' and 'Blood of Angels' as well as 'The Intruders', which is currently under series development with the BBC. Before that, he had already established a successful career under the name Michael Marshall Smith: his groundbreaking first novel, 'Only Forward', won the Philip K. Dick and August Derleth Awards, and its critically acclaimed successors, 'Spares' and 'One of Us', have been optioned by major Hollywoood studios. He lives in North London with his wife, son and two cats.
