The positive jacket blurb from Stephen King convinced me to read this book, but I wish I'd picked something else. This book is a total mess: the key concept makes no sense, the characters are mostly uninteresting, and the big introductory scene about the murder of the scientist's family has NOTHING to do with the plot. You will never get back the hours you waste on this book.

The positive jacket blurb from Stephen King convinced me to read this book, but I wish I'd picked something else. This book is a total mess: the key concept makes no sense, the characters are mostly uninteresting, and the big introductory scene about the murder of the scientist's family has NOTHING to do with the plot. You will never get back the hours you waste on this book.

I had read some MMS here and there; just not really getting into any particular piece, but this book had me spellbound!
The author knows how to make the characters come alive--I felt like I was an active observer/participant so easily.
This is slated as a 'crime novel' but it is so much more!

Give Michael Marshall Smith, (sometimes without the Smith), a chance with this book--it is a guaranteed good read!

I previously read 'The Straw Men' by Michael Marshall and really enjoyed it. I looked him up to see if he had written anything else and was excited to pick up a copy of 'The Intruders', but how quickly that feeling waned once I started reading.

Jack Whalen and his wife Amy live in Birch Crossing in Washington. Jack is a former LA cop turned writer and Amy works in Marketing. She is on a business trip and Jack gets a call from a Seattle cab driver telling him that his wife forgot her cell phone in his cab. When Jack calls the hotel where Amy is supposed to be staying he learns she was never booked there. A few phone calls and mysterious video messages later, Jack sets off on a journey to find his wife and learn what she is involved in, and with whom.

At the same time, Madison O'Donnell is approached by a man in black while on the beach near her parten's summer home in Oregon. After her brief meeting with this man, Madison starts blacking out and having odd feelings. She ends up getting herself to Seattle and doing crazy things that no one would expect from a little girl.

Marshall tries to weave a sci-fi tale that comes across as an attempt to master a genre he knows little about. His jumps from character to character and scene to scene are not well put together. I did not enjoy this book very much at all. I really had to push myself to finish it and as I was reading felt constantly confused and hoping it would end soo.

I really enjoy Michael Marshall Smith's writing style, and heartily recommend one of his earlier novels, THE STRAW MEN. But THE INTRUDERS is pretty much a middling effort, at least when it comes to the plot.

The first half of this novel is certainly well written, but the plotline is disjointed and makes little sense. Smith keeps on shifting perspectives and deliberately keeps the reader off-balance. While some readers may enjoy this type of storytelling, I prefer novels with straightforward narratives. Smith tries to tie everything together toward the end, but his "explanation" is so silly and contrived that I felt cheated. In the end, I felt the whole story was pointless.

THE INTRUDERS is further weakened by the lack of a truly likable character. While all the characters are intelligent, most of them are dour and anti-social. There are also too many characters to keep track of, and some of them are just stereotypical (the world-weary hit man for example).

Still, Smith is a terrific writer of prose, one of the best out there in genre fiction. There are many passages in thsi novel that I re-read because I was struck by their cleverness and insight. I recommend THE INTRUDERS if you enjoy good writing, but if you want a great story, you should try THE STRAW MEN instead.

I could not put Michael Marshall's latest down. He's created a multi-layered thriller involving a likeable protagonist plus a host of remarkable satellite characters who make you cringe & groan with curiosity & anticipation.
Set in the Pacific Northwest, the prologue of THE INTRUDERS starts with an apparently random home invasion, murder & fire. Then we meet Jack Whalen, ex-LA beat cop & a one-book author who's struggling to write another. Instead, he's sitting staring out at the forested panorama & remembering, for some odd reason, a high school classmate & how she didn't quite fit in & who, after trying to get the attention of the handsomest senior jock, committed suicide.
That morning, Jack's wife had driven to Seattle for a meeting at her ad agency. That's why, a couple of years ago, they'd moved up to this idyllic little mountain burg on the eastside of the Cascades from Southern California, where they'd met & married ten years before.
Then that very same jock, now 20 years older, calls Jack, wanting to see him. Gary Fisher brings a strange tale and Jack, with his beat cop instincts slowly coming alert, senses his visitor isn't telling him everything & some of what he's said doesn't ring true. But Jack has no time for Gary as he's just discovered his wife's cell phone has been found in a Seattle taxi.
On Cannon Beach in Oregon, a nine year old girl is struggling with nightmares, her parents' uneasy marriage, & something far more frightening: loss of memory & the arrival of a stranger as she's out on the beach wondering how she got there. When the idea that she's got to go somewhere sets her traveling, the people who help her along the way come to rue it as this nice, little girl with headaches has a killer's instincts.
THE INTRUDERS is a tale well-spun with lashings of deceit & determination, action & clues, body & mind invasions & chases, & other scary stuff. It's a thriller that has you connecting dots like mad, except, are you connecting the right ones? Unto the final page, you won't know!

First off... I enjoy reading bad reviews for decent books. The reviews of the previous readers either gave MMS full marks or dropped him down to nothing. Its the complaints that get me. They say they want a believable mystery... then go read a Robert B. Parker/Chander novel.

Michael Marshall tends to meld Harris and King and sometimes Gibson. It works, sometimes brilliantly. I like that he has stepped out of science fiction. No offense.

He great a writer, sometimes it seems like he struggles with direction, but even when this happens he tells it in a way that draws a reader's attention. His novels are not cut and pasted, this one in particular came off as very.... please don't stick a spork in my spleen... "organic."

One doesn't know what is coming, or whether the author does either, but its fun.

That keeps me special ordering his books.

Jack Whalen, a retired L.A. cop now living in rural Washington state, whose background may be a little murky, is surprised by a visit from a high school semi-buddy who wants his help with a murdered family and a disappeared husband who may have been onto some highly secretive organization. Jack is reluctant to help until his own wife disappears while supposedly on a business trip to Seattle, and he learns that she may be involved with the same company the missing man was investigating/working with. When Jack's wife Amy reappears as if nothing is wrong but begins to act just a little bit "not Amy," he finds himself in an uneasy team with the old buddy, Fisher, trying to ferret out the truth behind a shadowy group whose members seem to be hiding some truly strange things. There is also a concurrent subplot, quite connected to the larger plot, involving a 9 year old girl who also goes missing but finds herself doing and thinking things far beyond her young capabilities, much to her confusion. The noir style of writing in Jack's portions of the narrative are wonderful and cleverly hard-boiled. Marshall throws in a bit of the supernatural and even SciFi, but the character of Jack and his determined progress keep this tale grounded firmly on the personal issues. I was afraid the book would veer into some "it's all aliens!" territory, but its focus stays earthbound, and the dramatic tensions build nicely to its climax, with a smooth denouement that makes sense.

This book far surpassed my expectations. It was intense and creepy. I really had no idea how the book would end, which kept me turning the pages to find out. I was hooked from the first chapter, and it was a wild ride until the end. Overall, The Intruders is an excellent book. It is well worth your time to read this one.

I didn't like it AS much as some of the other books from Marshall (loved Spares, Only Forward and One Of Us), but still a darn good read. Really hated to see the protagonist slipping in thoughts of not having another book in him, hope that's not allegorical!

I do have a suggestion; if you're a "happy" person and like to read "happy happy" books, Michael Marshall is probably NOT for you. His characters/story lines are dark, the segues can be hard to keep up with, and you'll probably have to read the book at least twice to pick up on nuances you missed.

The Intruders is no different in this regard, but that's why its so much fun to read! If you like to be mentally twisted up in a book, Marshall's writing will accomodate you. He often comes across as being a great deal more about the sidebars/interactions/thoughts/situations than his actual endings.

So, if you are looking for black and white/easy reads, he(and this book) is probably not going to be your cup of tea.

This is coming from someone who likes both, so not slamming one genre over another. However, from reading a few of the reviews it seems like it might be good to say this upfront.

I first stumbled across Michael Marshall in one of those gift shops you find in bigger hotels. I wandered over to the paperback "section" --- it was a wall mounting, containing slots for nine titles --- and I noticed the name "Michael Marshall" on a copy of THE STRAW MEN. I went to grade school with a Michael Marshall, so I picked up the book to see if perhaps it was the same gentleman. They turned out to be different people altogether. But I was so intrigued by the premise of the novel that I bought it, read it and quickly sought out the remainder of the author's bibliography.

THE INTRUDERS is Marshall's latest work, combining his trademark elements of unpredictability, craftsmanship and sterling characterization to provide an addicting, thrilling read that never disappoints.

If you're paranoid at all, you're going to get your instincts jumpstarted within a few pages of reading THE INTRUDERS. The story deals primarily with Jack Whalen, a man who is unsettled by the feeling that his world is slowly, almost imperceptibly, changing. Whalen is an ex-LAPD patrolman who retired from the force, wrote a book of some nominal success and now lives with his wife Amy --- a successful marketing executive --- in a small rural community a few hours removed from Seattle. Their world seems to be financially and emotionally secure. But, as Marshall slowly reveals, there are tiny cracks around the foundation of the Whalen family --- not necessarily fissures or yawning chasms, but cracks nonetheless.

When Amy turns up missing during what would otherwise be a routine business trip to Seattle, Jack immediately begins to investigate, only to discover that her disappearance is more a misunderstanding than anything else. That's not the end of it, however. Jack notices that his wife is doing little things --- acquiring new habits, listening to different music --- that she has never done before. Taken together, they portend the arrival of something far beyond anything that Jack can imagine.

In the meantime, events occurring that appear far removed from Jack's world will jeopardize his very existence. A mysterious stranger breaks into a house, brutally murders a woman and her son, and sets the house on fire. A young girl, walking alone on a beach, is approached by a polite man and shortly thereafter leaves without explanation, even as her demeanor begins to change. And Amy? She just gets more and more bizarre.

As you're reading, you will probably find yourself wondering just how Marshall is going to tie up such apparently disparate elements into a cohesive story, and to what ultimate end. What Marshall does, however, is not only create a chilling tale that will keep you awake at night, but he also provides a possible answer to a question that has puzzled individuals for hundreds of years: What, precisely, makes us what, and who, we are?

Those familiar with Marshall's body of work wish that he would write more frequently. But when he publishes a novel of such quality as THE INTRUDERS, one remembers that any book of his is worth the wait, no matter how long it may be.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The Intruders brings to mind the works of such renowned authors as Stephen King, Philip K Dick and yes, Andrew Klavan. Whilst primarily a crime story, there are elements of the supernatural and even sci-fi here.

The story itself is quite uniquely plotted - there is a double murder involving the wife and son of a Seattle scientist, but the scientist himself is missing. Lawyer Gary Fisher who needs to resolve some estate matters pertaining to the family, approaches his old high school buddy, ex-cop Jack Whalen, who himself is facing some strange times, as his wife Amy [who disappeared during a trip to Seattle] seems to be acting strangely since coming back. Then there is a young girl who disappears whilst at the beach someplace in Oregon, and all of these seemingly separate incidents seems to have a unifying thread in them.

This was a gripping read from start to finish, and don't let the seemingly confusing plot put you off. If you are open to elements of the supernatural & weird in your crime/ thriller books, then you will enjoy this immensely.

I didn't like this book and the Northwest setting of Portland and Seattle made me think the author had spent an afternoon in the Northwest during a cruise ship pit stop and decided he could write about the location like a native.
Unlikeable, dour and sour characters populate this novel that has SciFi/Horror overtones set in something of a hardboiled mystery. None of really succeeds.

I'm not quite done with this book yet, but I have to say, I like it. I've read his last three books and I liked them all too. If you were a fan of "The Traveler" and "Dark River" and also the "Perfect Dark" books written by Greg Rucka (based on the video game) you should definitely check out this book. Marshall takes his time putting out new novels, but it's always worth the wait. Read it. Now. Although, I would give it **** not the 5 it has above, they wouldn't let me go back and change it.

Michael Marshall has a knack that few authors possess. In novel after novel, from Only Forward to Blood of Angels and now to The Intruders, he is able to deftly create sharply incisive and deeply observed characters inside the first page and sustain that sense of compassion and understanding throughout the work, no matter the form within which he is working, no matter the subject.

Astonishingly, he consistently crafts genre novels that read like literature, with firm, muscular, and often unexpectedly brilliant prose that forcefully carries intricately layered and compelling stories. With genuine humor, natural dialog and sensible emotional reactions to the insensible and the insane, he shames those embarrassingly mediocre bestselling authors who insist on safely repeating themselves when the initial work itself was lacking, hewing close to publisher demands at the literal expense of the public; artlessly churning out inferior work and daring to call it professional; whose personal voice is indistinguishable from narrative to character and back; authors whose intrusions inform us about less than the work in progress and more about their miserably uninteresting selves.

One Marshall is worth several dozen Greg Ileses, a bushel of Patricia Cornwalls, a thousand Gregggg Hurwitzes, a million Dean Koontzes and a number that defies notation of the mind blastingly insipid Kyle Mills.

The Intruders is nuanced and dark. Deeply felt and bleak. It is extraordinarily well-wrought. At turns melancholy, frantic and angry. And it is haunting. The idea at its core is ancient and well trod ground; but here, miraculously, Michael Marshall has brought forth new life upon it.

However dark, his work shines.

The wife and teenage son of a Seattle-area scientist are brutally murdered by a stranger claiming to be an FBI agent, and the scientist himself is nowhere to be found. A short time later, a nine-year-old girl named Madison disappears from Oregon's ethereal Cannon Beach while her inattentive mother, despondent over the deteriorating state of her marriage, dozes inside their beach cottage.

But the tale of The Intruders truly begins when Jack Whalen, a former cop with a troubled past who has of late become an accidental author of sorts, gets an out-of-the-blue visit from Gary Fisher, a high school classmate he hasn't seen in two decades, and one to whom he was only mildly acquainted -- making the seemingly impromptu reunion even more suspicious to a been-there-done-that kind of guy like Jack. Fisher, now a lawyer teetering precariously on the brink of something he himself is struggling to understand, has ostensibly come to ask for Jack's opinion on an estate case he's handling, owing to Jack's past in law enforcement and their connection as former classmates. But, as always, there's much more to the story.

Fisher's re-entrance into Jack's life is the catalyst for massive change, and the chaos that has been loitering outside the Whalen home for the last few years has finally found its way inside. Suddenly, everything Jack thinks he knows about his life is being challenged, especially in regard to his ad-executive wife, Amy, whose recent behavior has become increasingly peculiar.

Except for overuse of the words "diffident" and "irresolute" (a nitpick, to be sure), The Intruders succeeds as a thoroughly gripping and surprising creepy tale -- although, in the end, it left me with more questions than answers. I wanted to learn more about the Nine, a secret organization central to the tale's mystery, and was left feeling a bit confused about certain key points to the story (namely a character who goes unidentified until the end). Plus, I wasn't satisfied with the resolution between Jack and Amy, and thought it was a bit anticlimactic. And yet, that aside, The Intruders captivated me from the first horrifying chapter -- so much so, that I read it all in one night.

The Intruders is a tale that will appeal to readers who want an engrossing thriller with other-worldly tones. If you're geeky, as I am, then many of the ideas in the book will resonate with that part of you that believes -- or wants to -- in the things that go bump in the night. Just know that, whereas some books are a veritable feast for the mind that leave you filled to capacity for days, The Intruders is more like a frozen dinner: tasty, but not that satisfying.

I thought this was a very well written story with just enough of an explanation to let your imagination fill in the blanks. In this period of formula this and that, this book was just strange enough to entertain and legitimate enough to engross. I loved it!

I don't think I understood the whole thing, but it's not all my fault. Deliberately author Michael Marshall splits up his story between the first person narration of ex-cop/coffee table book captionist Jack Whelan, with a variety of third person accounts that are purposely confusing and disparate, so that you need a second reading to be able to piece it all together properly. I kept skimming and skimming, thinking with my fingers crossed that "this will all make sense later, I'm sure," but eventually I got at least a glimmer of a storyline involving a young nine year old girl who at first seems like she's been kidnapped by an evil, foul smelling man, but within a few pages we find out that this "abduction" is not really what it seems and the the 9 year old, cute little Madison, exhibits the cold, maniacal soullessness of an adult, and an especially demented one at that.

But why? Why? Why? She's like Patty McCormack in THE BAD SEED, but why? Author Marshall has a new theory about why some kids hit the ground running, while others just go to the devil. He grabs your lapels and shakes this theory into you until you reach a point where you just want to slap his hands away, he's so insistent.

On the home front, Jack is married to a woman who, just like in all the best postwar noir stories, isn't what she seems. This part of the story would seem more original if it hadn't been done just last month in the techno thriller HOOKED. Searching for the truth about his wife, Jack turns more and more to an old high school friend, Gary Fisher, once an idolized athletic hero in school, later a top lawyer, but obviously a man with a burning mission. As Jack grows suspicious of Amy, he grows closer and closer to Gary (who in the conventional thriller would have been a woman I think), and their eventual friendship and bonding has a distinct homoerotic charge to it as they both learn that women (and little girls) can't be trusted. Marshall makes you read through to the end but you'll be scratching your head over many of his plot choices, and I can't make up my mind whether the story is actually crazy stupid, or maybe too smart for a moron like myself.

Sorry, but I'm distinctly in the minority here. This is one of the worst books I've read in a long time. To be sure, it's gripping, but that's not too hard an effect to achieve if you give free reign to a desire to shock and manipulate the reader with an ever more preposterous plot. The ultimate "explanation" for all of the super-oddities that pile up throughout this novel is so absurd and pathetic that it leaves a sour taste in my mouth at least. I'd certainly stress this advice to any prospective readers: if you like impossible, anything-goes sci-fi, this may be up your alley; but if you are looking for a serious mystery, with intellectual quality and complex, non-stereotypical characters, pass this one by.

Former LAPD cop turned author Jack Whalen and his wife advertising executive Amy left Southern California to live in the Seattle suburbs. One seemingly uneventful day high school sports friend Gary Fisher calls from Chicago to ask Jack to do him a favor. The lawyer says he tracked Jack from his book and would like Jack to investigate the brutal murders of thirty-seven year old Gina Anderson and her son Joshua in their Seattle home; the house was trashed and the husband a lecturer at the nearby community college vanished.

Jack agrees to take the case, but when he calls his wife who is in Seattle on business, the hotel desk clerk says she has not checked in and she fails to answer her cell phone. Concerned he travels to Seattle to find Amy has vanished.

In Portland, a nine years old girl also disappears, but is found a few miles away. She shares visions with Jack, who digs deeper into a cesspool in search of his wife. Soon all three scenarios will connect at the heart of Jack's soul.

THE INTRUDERS affirm Michael Marshall's winning of the Philip K. Dick. Award (see THE STRAW MEN) as this action-packed thriller filled with twists will keep readers on the edge throughout. Jack is a wonderful beleaguered hero who starts off by quickly realizing he don't know jack even about himself and as he investigates realizes each new clue proves he knows even less than he thought. The audience needs to set aside plenty of time as 392 pages is a one sitting suspense read.

Harriet Klausner

Michael Marshall excels at building up suspense through layers of small details and ominous turns of events that don't so much leap out of the dark and scream at you as tickle your spine and engage your brain. THE INTRUDERS is riveting, all right, but a lot more than just a good read. Like The Straw Men, every character here feels fresh, alive, and odd in some way. Mr. Marshall's worldview is dark but not inhumane, his writing subtle but powerful. There is even a healthy dose of satire here, and some keen observations about the absurdity of modern life, but it is always presented within the context of the story and never shouts to be heard. The premise of this novel is very original and its sheer scale--not fully revealed until the end--has me hoping Mr. Marshall turns this one into another trilogy, as he did with The Straw Men. But even if this remains a stand alone work, it's an unqualified success. This book kept me up late, and scared me. Really creeped me out. And for a guy who's read maybe 300 horror novels and another 300 works of general suspense, that is saying something. Michael Marshall has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and THE INTRUDERS just cements his place on my shelf.

The wife and child of a prominent scientist are murdered, and the scientist disappears. A little girl in Oregon goes missing. Troubled ex-cop Jack Whalen is now a writer living a quiet life in a small town in Washington--until his wife goes on a business trip and vanishes.

And that's just the beginning....

Here's a thriller that really thrills. What begins as a reasonably straightforward mystery involving a couple of murders and several missing people in the Pacific Northwest soon escalates into something dark and different and profoundly frightening. If you like your suspense novels to be offbeat and edgy, and you don't mind a few genuine shocks, THE INTRUDERS is the book for you. Highly recommended.

A scientist in Seattle is missing after his family is murdered. A young girl goes missing from an Oregon resort town. A boyhood acquaintance, now an attorney, contacts Jack Whalen for help with a estate case that should have been open and shut - but isn't. Random incidents? Yes, unless you can connect the dots.

Jack Whalen is a patrol cop who could have become a detective, but didn't. Instead he took cell phone photos of crime scenes where the perpetrator was an intruder. His simple descriptions of what it must have felt like to be invaded turns the pictures into a best-selling book.

Now he and his wife have left Los Angeles for a remote town in Washington state. Jack's been working on another book, but is somehow blocked. His wife, Amy, goes to Seattle for a business meeting but never checks into the hotel. Jack goes to Seattle to find her and instead finds her cell phone abandoned in a cab and lots of questions--but no answers. And people are getting upset that he's even asking.

Meanwhile Amy shows up at home and wonders why Jack is so upset. She has a simple explanation for everything, but Jack's cop instincts tell him all is not what it seems. The more threads he pulls, the more tangled things seem to get. And he's not sure anyone is really telling him the truth. And the truth is scarier than fiction.

Marshall takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Is Jack sane or losing his mind. Is he the only one seeing clearly - or is he delusional. What's behind these disappearances? One thing you know - Jack will get to the bottom of it all - or die trying.

NOTE: Michael Marshall's alter ego is sci-fi and horror author Michael Marshall Smith.

Armchair Interviews says: The Intruder is nominated for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award.