Book description
Michael Marshall's unique voice adds a chilling intensity to the
serial-killer plot, combining dazzling narrative, a white-hot pace and a
deeply disturbing backdrop of conspiracy.
Sarah tries to struggle, but the man holds her. The scream never makes
it out of her throat. 'Nobody watching,' the man says with hateful calm.
'I made it this way. I can walk where nobody sees.'
The Straw Men. They kill people. Any people. And soon they'll get
around to you.
Sarah Becker is the fifth girl to be abducted by this maniac. Judging
from the state of the bodies that have been found, her long hair will be
hacked off and she will be tortured. She has about a week to live.
Former LA homicide detective John Zandt has an inside track on the
perpetrator - his own daughter was one of his victims two years ago. But
the key to Sarah's whereabouts lies with Ward Hopkins, a man with a past
so secret not even he knows about it. His parents have just died in a
car accident, but they leave Ward a very strange message that leads him
to question everything he once believed to be true. As he begins to
investigate his own past Ward finds himself drawn into the shadowy,
sinister world of the Straw Men - and into the desperate race to find
Sarah, before her time runs out. 'Just when you think there's nothing
new under the sun in the world of the suspense novel, along comes one
hell of a nasty spider call The Straw Men. It's brilliantly written and
scary as hell. Be the first on your block to stay up all night with this
one; it's a masterpiece, reminding us that even paranoids really do have
enemies.' STEPHEN KING
'A staggering, suspenseful journey through the darkness of American
crime … succeeds in revitalising the serial killer novel with assured
gusto… A new beginning for a major British writer, whose crime debut
instantly moves him into the Thomas Harris division' Guardian
'Brilliantly plotted, stunningly written … I read this in one go … if
this isn't a hit, I am a monkey's uncle. And I don't think I am'.
Independent on Sunday
'Marshall's descriptions of people and places are memorable and
evocative and he has produced and absorbing mystery with a chilling
denouement' Sunday Telegraph
'The Straw Men is a genuinely original thriller that combines the
imagination and darkness of his previous work with bolts of
nerve-screaming tension … Think “The X-files” meets “Hannibal”.' Time
Out Michael Marshall lives in north London with his wife Paula, and is
currently working on screenplays and his next book, while providing two
cats with somewhere warm and comfortable to sit.
