The Lonely Dead

Some weeks ago I read The Straw Men by Michael Marshall the first part of a trilogy by an author who has never received the acclaim and recognition that he so richly deserves. I thought The Straw Men was an excellent read and was doubtful if the style, character development, and story could be bettered in a sequel. I need not have worried, The Lonely Dead has exceeded all my expectations, it is quite simply a stunning novel told by an expert author.

Ward Hopkins, ex CIA agent, is a man with a secret past, and he is determined to confront the murderers of his parents and trace the whereabouts is his lost brother Paul “The Upright Man” a deranged serial killer. His parents had been murdered by a group that his father had belonged to 35 show more years earlier...”the Straw Men, and believed themselves the only portion of humanity uninfected by a virus promoting social conscience above the cold-hearted individualism they believed inherent to our species. Whether they genuinely thought this, or it was just a convenient cover for acts of violence and depravity, was not clear.”

John Zandt, former LA homicide detective has his own special agenda for seeking out The Upright Man, an enforcer under the auspices and protection of The Straw Men. His daughter Karen was brutally murdered by him, and he seeks revenge whatever the cost. Adding to the intrigue is Nina Baynum, FBI agent, and former friend and lover to John Zandt.

What makes for a good thriller is the author’s ability to capture the reader’s attention from the first page and to retain that enthusiasm throughout a multi layered tour de force journey straddling the coasts of America. What on the face of it seems like a complex novel is made eminently readable by a very direct and approachable writing style. I found myself richly involved in the storyline whether that was in the cold mountain forests of Washington State, the Verona logettes of Bill and Patrice Anders, or the corridors of the Seattle Fairfew hotel where “Miss Katelyn” the night manager meets an unexpected intruder with murderous intent. This second book in the trilogy also imparts a little history on The Straw Men and it seems their ancestry reached back many hundreds of years..”The Straw Men were here back in the 1500’s? Get real. They were here long before that. They got here first, Ward. They stole America from the locals four thousand years before anyone else knew it was here”.

This is truly a wonderful read, a thriller with elements of the supernatural, and a storyline that pulses excitement and thrills at every page. The ending when it occurs is perfect and leaves the setting poised for the third and final instalment. If you only read one thriller this year let that the story be The Lonely Dead...of course I am presuming you have already enjoyed its predecessor The Straw Men. Highly highly recommended!! show less

Ward, Nat and John survived their brush with the Straw Men, but they did not survive unscathed. John, the ex-cop who lost his daughter to the Upright Man, is the most seriously spiralling down into something dark, but Ward is adrift, penniless and aimless while Nat is struggling to tolerate the conventions of ordinary Federal investigations. Some very odd deaths and a very odd encounter deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest seem unconnected, but set things in motion again for our damaged protagonists.

Ward, John, and Nina are back, trying to take down the Straw Men, and capture the Upright Man. And it's another good story, with my same complaint from the first book, namely that some of the characters' inner dialogues and general musings get a little boring, especially Ward's. Oh, and I also didn't like the whole Bigfoot/Neanderthal subplot. Sooooo weird... But it's a good sequel and I will read #3 for sure!

I read this and Straw Men hoping for the creativity and originality that Michael Marshall Smith brought to his sci-fi novels written under his full name.
So, I was disappointed, since these books are fairly straightforward stories about a serial killer. To top it off, some of the twists and turns didn't make good sense...

(#20 in the 2004 book challenge)

Eh. This is your run-of-the-mill serial killer thriller type deal. Eh. It was one of those books where the conspiracy gets so huge and murky that it's impossible to keep up with, there were parts where some conspiratorial character would show up, and I couldn't remember whether he was the same guy or a different guy as the last conspiratorial character, and ya know, it wasn't even worth it to go back and check because it all ended up the same. The plot itself wasn't half bad, it had some decent twists and suspense going on.

More importantly, I would now like to announce a moratorium on any sort of narrative exposition that draws parallels between the sad and lonely state of the modern human condition and show more the internet. No more "we are all just lone sparks drifting in the darkness, not unlike tiny packets of data moving mindlessly across the wires" garbage. You know what? It could be true for all I know, I happen to think it is not true, but regardless, it is TIRED. I am done with being compared to a data packet. It is not original or creative to use the internet as a metaphor for human disconnect and lack of purpose.

In this book's defense (maybe), it's the continuation of a story that was told in a first book, but one that I didn't read. I hate when I pick up the second book by mistake. For all my crabbing, I would pick up the first one should I come across it just to see what happened before.

Grade: C+
Recommended: Not really, but it would be okay if you were stuck at an airport and this was all they had to offer at the bookstore. show less

A sequel to The Straw Men this is an interesting continuation of the paranoia and conspiracy. The serial killer is interesting as well. Some of it is a bit farfetched but I found it a compelling read.

This was such a downfall after the first book, it was much more boring, and it seemed like he was trying to repeat the prior book, almost all sorts of events happened again.It was so bad I didn't finish it through and we gave our copy to the local library!