The Intruders

by Michael Marshall
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Jack Whalen and his wife Amy have left Los Angeles and moved north to the small town of Birch Crossing. Amy is going to keep working for an ad agency, now as a traveling problem solver reporting to the head offices in Seattle. Jack has left his work with the police and will be working from home writing a book.

One day an old school friend of Jack's, Gary Fisher, gets in touch. Fisher is working as a lawyer in Chicago but he wants Jack's help finding a person from Seattle. Bill Andersson's wife and son have been murdered and Bill is missing, suspected of the killings. Gary has his own reasons for believing Bill is innocent and wants Jack to help him prove it as well as find Bill. Jack however believes the police are right and turns Fisher down.

But then Amy fails to come home from a business trip to Seattle and Jack goes there to try to find her. What he finds out makes him wonder if it is Amy who is in danger or his marriage. This is when Fisher contacts him again with information that suggests a possible connection between Amy and Bill Andersson.

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It is difficult to relate the content of this book in a way that does the book justice while at the same time avoiding revealing too much. This is not a common thriller focusing on solving disappearances and murders even though that is part of the story, here you will find more complicated, not to say mystical elements. Think Harlan Coben meets Stephen King and the X-files.

The mystical elements are uncovered gradually through the connection of several different plot lines. This slow introduction makes them feel scarily credible. The book is not without violence but above all it is frighteningly exciting and you struggle understand the context and find a rational explanation.

I recommend this book to those who wishes to read a really exciting thriller and who likes or at least can tolerate supernatural segments.