Michael Marshall The Intruders

The Intruders

Michael Marshall

Morrow, Aug 2007, $24.95

ISBN: 9780061235023

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