The Upright Man

The Lonely Dead A GREAT READ FOR LOVERS OF ALL THINGS ZOMBIE.

This is the UK version of The Upright Man, the sequel to The Straw Men, and #2 in the (so far) trilogy. There are differences between the texts of Lonely Dead and Upright Man, so an interesting comparison but not a "whole new read." Not as compelling as Straw Men, but certainly full of interesting twists, backstory and hints. Better than #3 (alas), which cries out for another sequel (and on and on).

It is an unusual sequel that is actually better than the first book in the series. While I note that other reviewers may not agree, I thought this sequel excellent and much better than the first book. The descriptions were just great. Very fine noir writing. This story takes up where the first book ends. Once again, the writer tells parallel stories of the different characters, with all of them on trajectories that eventually collide. Once again, the hero Ward is searching for his evil twin, Paul (and it says a lot for this book that it didn't seem like a cliche , even with an evil twin). Meanwhile, Paul is in danger of being killed by the straw men (an ancient group that believes social behavior is a virus and men who are free from it may commit all sorts of mayhem) because he has been too overt and has drawn the attention of the authorities. Paul thinks that capturing or killing (or maybe sacrificing?) bigfood (yes, and can you believe it is STILL a good book?) will get him back in their graces. What an adventure this all makes! So I enjoyed the book a lot more than I thought I would!

There have been quite a few negative things written about The Upright Man, the sequel of course to The Straw Men. I would consider The Straw Men to be one of the best serial killer novels ever written so it was always going to be tough to write a sequel that delivers the same impact. Well, The Upright Man is probably not as good as The Straw Men (there, I've said it!), however it is still a compelling, suspenseful and at times brilliant book. The book starts off in fine style with a first chapter that defines the cliché "page turner". The only other introduction to a book that has grabbed me in such a way was Jeff Long's "The Descent". After this the plot spins off in different directions. We have Ward Hopkins trying to find out more about the Upright Man, a character who has connections to Wards own past. FBI agent Nina Baynam is investigating the death of a woman killed and left to be discovered sitting up in her bed while John Zandt has gone off the radar completely in his search for his daughters killers. Things get really weird with the introduction of a sub plot apparently involving the sighting of Big Foot. All I can say is just go with the flow on this one as it all makes (kind of) sense at the end. The key to the success of this book is that Marshall is such a good writer. He has the great knack of generating lots of suspense from any given scene and handles dialogue and action scenes with aplomb. I'm really looking forward now to reading Blood of Angels, apparently the last in the trilogy, but surely it would be a shame for Marshall never to revisit the story of that group of psycho's known as the Straw Men again.

Michael Marshall's novel "The Straw Men" was one of the best books I read in 2003. It told the story of a shadowy group of powerful figures that believed a disease called civilization infected the majority of the human race. These "Straw Men" maintained a tradition dating back to the earliest days of the human race, a time when human beings performed rituals to honor the ancient gods in exchange for power and health. A central tenet of these rituals involved, and continues to involve, human sacrifice. Using their positions of power and influence, the Straw Men employ various men and women around the world as procurers of victims. One of these men, sometimes known as the Upright Man, ran up against trouble in the form of a Los Angeles police detective named John Zandt, FBI agent Nina Baynam, and a smart mouthed former CIA operative named Ward Hopkins when he abducted a young girl. Zandt, Baynam, and Hopkins soon learned the Upright Man was involved in a series of bizarre incidents, including the abduction of John Zandt's own daughter and the disappearance of Hopkins's parents. A lengthy investigation of the Upright Man lead to startling revelations about Hopkins's childhood, and eventually led to a showdown between the three heroes and the Straw Men in a place called The Halls, Montana."The Upright Man" is Marshall's latest entry in what looks to be a multi-volume series about the Straw Men. Set roughly three months after the explosive confrontation at The Halls, the book reintroduces us to Nina, Ward, and to a lesser extent John as the trio continues to track down the Upright Man. Hopkins dropped out of sight for awhile after the incident in Montana before realizing he had to resume his search for the Straw Men. Zandt, after a brief dalliance with Nina, fled to Florida. Nina Baynam continues to work with her partner at the bureau. It isn't too long before more gruesome murders register on the radar. A slain LAPD cop leads to the discovery of a young woman's body in a nearby motel where suspicious evidence found on the scene leads Nina to suspect the Upright Man is once again on the prowl, a suspicion soon reinforced by two subsequent murders in Portland and Seattle. It seems the Straw Men took a little time to regroup from the fiasco in Montana, and now the ancient society is on the hunt for the three individuals who nearly brought them down.Meanwhile, Ward Hopkins approaches the Upright Man from a different direction. Reassessing evidence discovered in his parents' house after their disappearance, Ward heads to San Francisco to search for the serial killer. He learns a lot about his own childhood in the process. He also learns that the Upright Man left a bloody swath through several foster families as a youth. The disparate facts Hopkins accumulates during his investigations in San Francisco start to gel after he reestablishes contact with Nina Baynam. The murders of the young woman in Los Angeles, a restaurant owner in Portland, and a hotel man