13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creepy, chillng... thought-provoking for geeks like me, September 13, 2007
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.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They're Here...., August 6, 2007
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun vs. Plot, April 22, 2008
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. It's the complaints that get me. They say they want a believable mystery... then go read some true crime novels.
Michael Marshall tends to meld Harris and King and sometimes Gibson. It works, sometimes brilliantly. I enjoy that he has stepped out of science fiction. No offense.
He is a great a writer, sometimes it seems as if he struggles with direction, but even when misdirection occurs 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 it's fun.
That keeps me special ordering his books.
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