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The Straw Men
 
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The Straw Men (Hardcover)

by Michael Marshall (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; First Edition 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: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 513,135 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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



The Guardian

"A new beginning for a major British writer, whose crime debut instantly moves him into the Thomas Harris division"
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Customer Reviews

37 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A FineThriller - The Film Awaits!, 1 Jul 2005
By John Bogie (Airdrie, Lanarkshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Straw Men (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.
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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense - Psychological Thriller extraordinaire, 17 Mar 2002
By A Customer
Being a huge fan of MMS's previous works, I delved into my proof copy of Straw Men in earnest. While it bears no resemblance to his previous works in content, you can't miss his solitary unique polished finish. Apparently gearing for the Thomas Harris crowd (according to the jacket), he definitely delivers. Ward Hopkins, basic wanderer in life, discovers his youth was a sham upon his parents "death". He then spends his energies on trying to decipher a cryptic video, apparently left to him by his parents. Zandt, the darkly mysterious former homicide detective is perfectly characterised and believable. The locations are so brilliantly hewn, you feel like you're sitting at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania after a single paragraph. Great in-jokes for anyone on either side of the pond. I still feel Spares was his best achievement but this book was definitely a top-notch read.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the best modern thriller fiction around, 25 Jun 2005
This review is from: The Straw Men (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...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Big Letdown
This novel starts really, REALLY well. The introductory chapters are terrific. I tend to skim and/or am bored by descriptive passages but - where other authors simply use... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Catblack_uk

5.0 out of 5 stars Great thriller
M.Marshall writes a great thriller in The Straw Men showing that not only is he a brilliant SF writer (under his M. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2007 by Foureyes

3.0 out of 5 stars Could be a disappointment for early fans
When I read this I was disappointed having loved the original wit and strangeness of Spares and One of us this book seemed to me to be just another horror/thriller. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2007 by Thrud Fan

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
i personally loved this book. Not much of a reader but my friend gave me this and hey i loved it. Give it ago, trust me you won't regreat it
Published on 20 Oct 2006 by Ben Horne

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining garbage
i'm not really sure why MMS needed to change pseudonyms for this novel as its basically another of his sci-fi novels, pretending to be a crime thriller. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2006 by E. R. Ramage

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book...couldn't put it down
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... Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2006 by C. M. Bennett

1.0 out of 5 stars The Worst 'Crime' Novel Ever Written?
The title says it all. I've read hundreds of crime novels, good & bad alike, and believe me, this is about as bad as it gets. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2005 by R. Rawling

5.0 out of 5 stars The Straw Men
This is a very original thriller. It combines an excellent storyline with philosophical views of the age we live in that are highly perceptive. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2004 by geecee30

5.0 out of 5 stars A damn fine read
I loved this book! From start to finish it keeps you gripped with a different take on the suspense thriller. Twist and turns that will leave you a gasp. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2003 by spoongoon

4.0 out of 5 stars A good one that could have been better
A very good thriller - I read the book in one go. It's a pity that Marshall loses it in the final chapters - a bit too much conspiracy theory and a predictable ending... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2003 by bonbini3

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