Reviewed by: Kris

Written by: Michael Marshall

Titled: The Straw Men

In Montana, a man attends the funeral of his parents, ostensibly killed in a car crash. In Los Angeles, a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by a man assumed dead. These events are linked by the fact that in both there is something missing. As there is in so much of the world, for so much of the time. What's missing is a secret, something which strikes at the heart of what it is to be human. What it is that makes us this way.

This is the supposed debut novel written by Michael Marshall. I say supposed because I did a little research and he has written some science fiction novels under a different name. I bought this because I didn’t think I would remember the name of the author and I didn’t have a piece of paper to write down his name. I was not disappointed that I bought the book because it’s a very intense novel that takes the reader on an incredible, complex journey.

The book starts out with a pretty big bang, and then it starts to slow down a bit, but it picks up very quickly. It may seem a bit difficult to get into the book at first, but once you get used to being confused it’s much easier to read. It reads extremely fast when it gets moving and you probably won’t be able to put it down too easily. This novel is basically two stories until the two plotlines merge in the middle. You know that the two stories are in there for some reason, and you know that somehow they coincide, but you aren’t sure how they relate to each other until about three quarters through the book.

I loved the fact that the story is so complicated. I had no idea what was going on until the end, and even then I was slightly confused. The characters are very deep and you know that the characters have a few skeletons in their closets, but you have no idea what’s wrong with them until the entire plot is revealed. This is certainly one of the best suspense novels I have read in quite a while.

This is a novel most people will enjoy if they like to read suspense or mysteries. It’s a novel that reminds me a lot of early Stephen King, except not as horrific. It’s about as complicated as a Chuck Palahniuk novel and definitely suspenseful like a Stephen King story. There are so many things going on, and you will not understand until you get to the end. I look forward to reading more things by Michael Marshall because I think he has the potential to be an incredible master of suspense.

Definitely give this book a chance. You don’t really need to think while reading it; unless you want to figure out what is happening before you are actually told. You will probably be amazed at how complicated it is, and how much you enjoy the complications of it.