- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st Edition 1st Printing edition (5 Aug 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0002256010
- ISBN-13: 978-0002256018
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 405,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Straw Men
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
With The Straw Men, Michael Marshall Smith moves impressively from being a promising author of surreal mid-list novels which draw equally on sf, fantasy and noir thriller into new and even darker territory.
Teenage Sarah is kidnapped in LA and subjected to the endless mad rants of the man who has nailed her under the floorboards, who is slowly starving her as he has others before. Burned-out cop Zandt, whose own daughter was taken and never seen again, is called back into the investigation by his FBI ex-mistress. Drunken, off-the-rails, ex-CIA Wade investigates the things which do not add up in the deaths of the parents he did not know as well as he thought he did. This is a book whose ambiguously heroic heroes share an almost comic ruthlessness with its villains and yet which never ceases to draw a clear line between the merely wrong and the profoundly wicked. Along the way, both the nature of the underlying conspiracy and the smart moves needed to track it down are created with remorseless ingenuity.
Marshall Smith has the skill to create motives and moves that are at once insane, plausible and contemporary. --Roz Kaveney
Review
‘The crucial thing about Michael Marshall Smith is that he is enormously readable… once you have started reading one of his books, you won’t want to stop until you have finished it … He has the talent to become the inspiration to a generation of writers’
INDEPENDENT
‘Humour, a cracking pace and fluid prose… Sizzling… Michael Marshall Smith has a Crichton-like knack of attracting film studios’
THE TIMES
‘Outstanding, highly original… fiercely funny, and hugely entertaining’
THE LITERARY REVIEW
‘As always with the fiercely inventive Smith, the rug of reality is exhilaratingly pulled from under the reader’s feet’
NEW SCIENTIST
‘No one writes better than Smith about love: how it’s won, how it’s lost. No one writes better about being wasted – by drugs, by drink, by time. Nigh-on unique’
i-D
‘A storytelling skill that can only be described as pure genius’
VENUE
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first Michael Marshall book I have read to date but I can safely say I will endeavour to read more. It is rare to find a book in this genre that is so well written. Keeping the reader gripped with a patchwork of perspectives; it displays the author's obvious intellect and has within it's pages passages that would not look out of place in texts that have theology or psychology as their main theme.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys a murder/mystery thriller though would say that it goes way beyond that.
Excellent Mr Marshall! - More books of this quality please.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to any reader who enjoys a murder/mystery thriller though would say that it goes way beyond that.
Excellent Mr Marshall! - More books of this quality please.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to see how criticism can be levied at an author for diverting from his usual genre and writing style to attempt something different. It must have been clear to Marshall's many fans that when he wrote Straw Men it was not to be the fare he has previously penned. He even changed his writing name in doing so. I read Straw Men and thought it was a superbly engaging and thrilling piece of prose. It led me to read the other books he wrote which I absolutely loathed. Not my style, surrealism, but how could I criticise Marshall for that? Onto the Straw Men itself. The opening is as gripping, shocking and disturbing as any I have read recently and immediately sets the tone for a very dark, cynical and grimly observed narrative. It is reminiscent in this respect of James Ellroy and Elmore Leonard. Marshall does not quite reach that classic status and perhaps 5 stars ought to be reserved for that level of talent and insight, but when compared to the rest of the genre currently, Marshall is streets ahead of the rest of the cadre of 'serious thriller' writers (distinguishing the likes of Harlan Coben and Rpbert Crais whose styles are slightly more tongue-in-cheek given the demeanours of their narrators). His ability to keenly observe in a sardonic and bitter way puts him in the same league as Ian Rankin. Characterisation of Ward Hopkins, John Zandt and Nina Baynam is good, not perhaps as good as Rankin's Rebus, but the characters are in general very well rendered. Dialaogue is utterly believable, which in my book is as important as anything other single aspect of a work of fiction. Bad dialogue will never be compensated for by great description whereas the reverse is not necessarily true - poor descriptive narrative can sometimes be compensated for very well by excellent dialogue. The Straw Men is a very accomplished and adriot entry into the thriller genre and there is much to behoove it. You will not be disappointed nor will you be able to put it down...
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to say that i am not a big fan of crime novels but i thought this book was brilliant. I love that it is written from the POV of the main character Ward Hopkins, and although the character doesn't have a squeaky clean past, you can't help but like him. The dialogue is also well written. Some of the one liners that the characters come out with have me in stitches.
I really only bought this book because i bought Blood of Angels and then realised that it was the third in a series, so i had to purchase the other two. I have to say i have not been disappointed once. I am now reading the third book, but have thoroughly enjoyed the others, hence the review. I think all fans of good writing, gripping storylines and believable characters should read them!
I really only bought this book because i bought Blood of Angels and then realised that it was the third in a series, so i had to purchase the other two. I have to say i have not been disappointed once. I am now reading the third book, but have thoroughly enjoyed the others, hence the review. I think all fans of good writing, gripping storylines and believable characters should read them!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disturbing and inspired crime writing
This was a real surprise witht the writing elevating it well beyond competent crime writing. It's not an unchallenging read but rich and surprising, slightly nightmarish with an... Read more
Published 9 days ago by MarkT
excellent read
i'm a huge fan of micheal marshall smith, and after reading all three in the straw men series, i was not dissapointed. Read more
Published 6 months ago by nomes
Addictive
I seriously could not put this book down. Great characters and quickening pace and deep plot. IMHO however the end did not quite add up to the first 95%. Read more
Published 9 months ago by AM
Great suspeseful and innovative concept novel
Starts with a bang and roller-coasters to a good ending. Lots of high tension, a bit of happiness laced throughout with tragedy and downright badness. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Russell J. Baird
A new discovery
I recently discovered this author after trying the single copy of his work at the local library. To me, he is a real find in the world of criminal fiction. Read more
Published 18 months ago by operabuff
Another great from MMS
Michael Marshall Smith is one of my favourite authors, and although dropping the Smith and writing in a slightly different genre, this is another excellent offering from the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by simon211175
The Straw Men
Simply brilliant. A plot for the internet age of ultra paranoia conveyed in prose which moves effortlessly from the chill factor of Thomas Harris to odd Bill Hicks like rants. Read more
Published on 12 May 2010 by PJM
excellent
Another riveting piece of writing by the versatile Michael ( Marshall) Smith - different in style form hie Sci-Fi thrillers but very good chilling stuff!
Published on 28 April 2010 by L. Williams
Un-put-down-able!!!!
This is such a fantastic book. One of the best books that I have ever read - I couldn't put it down, read it in a day & then re-read. Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by T. Wright
A Tale of Two Halves
First half, first class. Second half, second rate. This is a genuinely infuriating novel. The pace, humour and tension of the opening chapters led me to believe that I had just... Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2010 by I. Read-Books
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