Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Just finished reading The Lonely Dead by Michael Marshall Smith, his second thriller [as Michael Marshall] and sequel to The Straw Men.
For a cynic there's possibly not much to mark this out from the crowd of serial killer thrillers... blah blah FBI agent forced out of the Agency... rogue cop... vicious murders... secret society... but even though Michael Marshall's writing isn't as wonderfully unhinged as his science-fiction books (and anyone who likes science-fiction should definitely check those out) he still manages to make these tired plot staples sizzle with energy as though no-one had ever thought of them before.
It's a few years down the line from The Straw Men. Following the conclusion of the investigation in that case which exposed a secret society of people with an unknown but malign intent former cop John Zandt has all but disappeared in his quest for revenge, Ward Hopkins, who almost lost his life discovering his links to the group, is always on the move, afraid that if he stops he'll be killed, only FBI Agent Nina Baynam seems to be living her life as before, but all that will change. The serial killer 'The Upright Man' is still active, and behind him, The Straw Men. There are still battles to be fought.
This isn't as good a book as The Straw Men. There's no 180 degree shocking twist as there was in that book. But then the twists in the first book were really ones that could only happen once, similar twists this time would contradict them. However, what becomes obvious is that there isn't much story to tell. There are many sequences when the plot effectively stops for one of the characters to give long explanations of various times in history, or the 'secret history' of the United States. The end of the book is such that there could be another part or it could just as easily finish things off, if it's the former I hope it's planned out already because most of this novel feels like a holding pattern. Marshall is good at keeping things tense, but it's a rather one-note tenseness, it's only really at the final climax where he puts his foot on the accelerator pedal.
But it's not a bad book, just not the book to introduce people to Michael Marshall Smith's great talents.
For a cynic there's possibly not much to mark this out from the crowd of serial killer thrillers... blah blah FBI agent forced out of the Agency... rogue cop... vicious murders... secret society... but even though Michael Marshall's writing isn't as wonderfully unhinged as his science-fiction books (and anyone who likes science-fiction should definitely check those out) he still manages to make these tired plot staples sizzle with energy as though no-one had ever thought of them before.
It's a few years down the line from The Straw Men. Following the conclusion of the investigation in that case which exposed a secret society of people with an unknown but malign intent former cop John Zandt has all but disappeared in his quest for revenge, Ward Hopkins, who almost lost his life discovering his links to the group, is always on the move, afraid that if he stops he'll be killed, only FBI Agent Nina Baynam seems to be living her life as before, but all that will change. The serial killer 'The Upright Man' is still active, and behind him, The Straw Men. There are still battles to be fought.
This isn't as good a book as The Straw Men. There's no 180 degree shocking twist as there was in that book. But then the twists in the first book were really ones that could only happen once, similar twists this time would contradict them. However, what becomes obvious is that there isn't much story to tell. There are many sequences when the plot effectively stops for one of the characters to give long explanations of various times in history, or the 'secret history' of the United States. The end of the book is such that there could be another part or it could just as easily finish things off, if it's the former I hope it's planned out already because most of this novel feels like a holding pattern. Marshall is good at keeping things tense, but it's a rather one-note tenseness, it's only really at the final climax where he puts his foot on the accelerator pedal.
But it's not a bad book, just not the book to introduce people to Michael Marshall Smith's great talents.
