Michael Marshall Smith Books In Order

The Straw Men

Michael Marshall’s unique voice adds a chilling intensity to the serial killer plot, combining dazzling narrative, a white hot pace and a deeply disturbing backdrop of conspiracy. Sarah tries to struggle, but the man holds her. The scream never makes it out of her throat. ‘Nobody watching,’ the man says with hateful calm. ‘I made it this way. I can walk where nobody sees.’ The Straw Men. They kill people. Any people. And soon they’ll get around to you. Sarah Becker is the fifth girl to be abducted by this maniac. Judging from the state of the bodies that have been found, her long hair will be hacked off and she will be tortured. She has about a week to live. Former LA homicide detective John Zandt has an inside track on the perpetrator his own daughter was one of his victims two years ago. But the key to Sarah’s whereabouts lies with Ward Hopkins, a man with a past so secret not even he knows about it. His parents have just died in a car accident, but they leave Ward a very strange message that leads him to question everything he once believed to be true. As he begins to investigate his own past Ward finds himself drawn into the shadowy, sinister world of The Straw Men and into the desperate race to find Sarah, before her time runs out.

The Upright Man / The Lonely Dead

Ward Hopkins is afraid. He’s seen something dreadful in the high plains of the Columbia River. It’s sent him fleeing cross country, forever running. And in his wake, one by one, people are dying. Something’s following Ward Hopkins.

Blood of Angels

Welcome to the world of Michael Marshall where a female FBI agent and her partner face a secret brotherhood of serial killers born and bred to commit the most violent acts known to man.

Only Forward

Only a handful of authors write with such startling originality that the uniqueness of their vision has become synonymous with their name. In Spares and One of Us, Michael Marshall Smith has earned that distinction. In this unsettling, suspenseful, and wildly imaginative novel he’s written a tale that from page one hurtles us…
. Call him Stark. If you have to. If you’re lucky, you won’t call him at all. Because if you do, it means you’ve got trouble. Big trouble. And the problem is that before Stark is done fixing something, a whole lot of other things usually get broken. Like laws and lives and anyone who gets in the way. It’s that attitude that’s earned him his latest assignment: finding a missing VIP named Fell Alkland. The authorities believe Alkland has been kidnapped. Stark doesn’t. He hasn’t stayed alive this long without learning the basics of survival in a world hurtling straight to hell: Things are always more complicated than they seem. And when a job seems too easy, that’s when something really ugly is about to happen. For Fell Alkland is about to become Stark’s worst nightmare, a nightmare where anything can happen at any time where friends can become enemies in a heartbeat and your most secret fear a soul screaming reality. And the worst of it is that for this nightmare you don’t even have to be asleep.

Spares

Luck? Don’t talk to Jack Randall about luck. He didn’t keep up the payment on his, and it ran out a long time ago. The good fortune box is empty. A loner veteran of a savage war, he’s spent the last five years buried deep, hiding out on a Spares farm with people who can’t even spell luck. Forced to flee this last bolthole, Jack returns to the city that used to be his home. All he wants is to score a little money and disappear with the people he’s trying to save. Unfortunately, he’s got a talent for attracting trouble the kind most people would run screaming from. Jack Randall isn’t most people. That’s part of his problem. His escape from the Farm with six of its inmates well, five and a half brings him head to head with the man who destroyed everything he once held dear. He has to make a decision: take revenge or turn away? In a startling odyssey of fear, black comedy and the surreal, Jack Randall discovers that the choice has already been made. The demons in him take on the demons without, and all he can do is stand back and see who wins.

One of Us

It’s not what you’ve done that counts it’s what you remember…
. If you could sell your conscience, could you get away with murder?Hap Thompson works the gray area between truth and lies. He works for REMtemp, taking on other people’s memories. It’s illegal, but usually harmless. Maybe a petty criminal wants to pass a lie detector test. Or an unfaithful spouse wants to enjoy a guiltless affair. All Hap has to do is carry the memories for a couple of hours. It’s easy money. Until a beautiful young woman who committed murder leaves her memory with Hap and won’t take it back. Now Hap is on the run: from the LAPD, from six angels of death in gray suits and sunglas*ses, and from the best hit man in the business his ex wife. Even worse, people all around Hap are disappearing in a strange white light. His only hope is to negotiate with a guy who may be much more than he seems, so he can stay alive long enough to discover who is and who isn’t…

The Intruders (As: Michael Marshall)

The bestselling author of The Straw Men makes his American hardcover debut with a searing, atmospheric tale that ratchets up the suspense, page by page, until its shocking end

For Jack Whalen, it all starts with a visit from a childhood friend, now a lawyer, who asks for his help on an odd case. The family members of a scientist have been brutally murdered, and the scientist who may have had something to hide is nowhere to be found.

But Jack has more pressing matters on his mind. His wife has told him that she’s on a routine business trip to Seattle, yet she hasn’t checked into her hotel. Calls to her cell phone go unanswered, and when Jack travels to Seattle to investigate, she’s vanished.

And in Oregon a little girl goes missing. She’s found miles away, but it soon becomes clear that she’s not an innocent victim, and is far from defenseless. Unusual events, all leading to the same place. As a former patrol cop who left the force under difficult circumstances, Jack is determined to find some answers. Yet the more he digs, the more the intrigue grows. Searching into the dark secrets of a past that still haunts him, Jack discovers that the truth has roots deeper and more evil than he ever feared.

The Servants

For young Mark, the world has turned as bleak and gray as the Brighton winter. Separated from his real father and home in London, he’s come to live with his mother and her new husband in an old house near the sea. He spends his days alone, trying to master the skateboard, while other boys his age are in school. He hates the unwanted stepfather who barged into Mark’s life to rob him of joy. Worst of all, his once vibrant mother has grown listless and weary, no longer interested in anything beyond her sitting room.

But on a damp and chilly evening, an accident carries Mark into the baseme*nt flat of the old woman who lives at the bottom of his stepfather’s house. She offers tea, cakes, and sympathy…
and the key to a secret, bygone world. Mark becomes caught up in the frenetic bustle of the human machinery that once ran a home, and drawn ever deeper into a lost realm of spirits and memory. Here below the suffocating truths, beneath the pain and unhappiness, he finds an escape, and quite possibly a way to change everything.

A richly evocative, poignantly beautiful modern day ghost story, The Servants marks the triumphant return of Michael Marshall Smith the first novel in a decade from the multiple award winning author of Spares.

Bad Things (As: Michael Marshall)

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Intruders and The Straw Men comes a nerve shattering story of guilt, rage, deadly secrets, and very, very…
bad things

Three years ago, lawyer John Henderson watched his four year old son tumble from a jetty into the lake outside their Washington home. In a terrible instant, a life all too brief and innocent ended. But it wasn’t drowning, the fall, or even some previously undetected internal defect that killed the little boy. Scott Henderson had simply, inexplicably…
died.

Today, John is a different man divorced, living a solitary existence in a beach house in Oregon, working as a waiter in a restaurant that caters to the summer crowd. Withdrawn from a life and past too painful to revisit, he touches no one and no one touches him. Then one night he receives a short and profoundly disturbing e mail message from a stranger. It reads: I know what happened.

It’s enough to pull John back to Black Ridge the one place on earth he’d hoped never to return to in search of answers to the mystery that shattered his world. In this small, isolated Pacific Northwest community, populated in large part by descendants of the original settlers, the shadows now seem even darker and more sinister than when tragedy first drove him away and the wind whipping down out of the primal forest can chill a man to his soul. It seems that bad things have always happened in this town of generations old secrets and are happening still.

The deeper John digs into his own past, and into local history, the more danger he draws toward himself…
and toward his estranged and helpless family. And though he doesn’t know it, he’s not the only one who’s been called back to Black Ridge.

And that’s a very bad thing…

A twisting, relentlessly thrilling, and consistently surprising novel of psychological suspense, Michael Marshall’s Bad Things is a masterwork of chilling brilliance that will keep the reader guessing right to the final page. Bad things don’t just happen to other people. They’re waiting to happen to you, too.

What You Make It

The first ever collection of Michael Marshall Smith’s award winning short stories. The first piece of fiction Smith ever wrote a short story called The Man Who Drew Cats won the World Fantasy award. It’s included here along with many others, some unpublished, which show the incredible versatility of one of the most exciting writers working in Britain today. The collection is stuffed with surreal, disturbing gems including: ‘When God Lived in Kentish Town’ Someone comes up to you when you’re quietly eating your stir fried rice in a great Chinese take away, and tells you: ‘I’ve found God’. You try to ignore them, right? But what if they have, and what if He works in a drab old electrical store on Kentish Town Road and he’s not getting many customers? ‘Diet Hell’ Some people will do anything to fit into their old jeans. ‘Save As!’ What if you could back up your life? Save it up to a certain point and return to it when things went horribly wrong? ‘Everybody Goes’ An idyllic childhood day from a long, hot summer. The kind you want to last for ever. All good things must come to an end, mustn’t they?

Binary 2 (With: Kim Newman)

THE VACCINATOR by the Award winning author of SPARES. A hilarious SF/noir satire. A hitman, a scam and a group of aliens on the make in Florida. ANDY WARHOL S DRACULA by the award winning author of ANNO DRACULA. Part of Newman’s stunning alternate history Vampire epic this takes a vampire out of the shadows and into the self regarding glare of a 1970 s New York peopled by characters from films and real life.

Best New Horror 4

A collection of short horror stories features the work of Peter Atkins, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Peter Straub, Karl Edward Wagner, and others.

Best New Horror #26

The first annual collection of the world’s best horror stories and short novels showcases fiction from every part of the field from terror to supernatural chills and features the talents of Ian Watson, Stephen Gallagher, Ramsey Campbell, and others.

Shadows Over Innsmouth

SEVENTEEN CHILLING STORIES, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL MASTERPIECE OF HORROR: THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH by H. P. LovecraftInspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s classic, today s masters of horror take up their pens and turn once more to that decayed, forsaken New England fishing village with its sparkling treasure, loathsome denizens, and unspeakable evil. ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD AGAIN by Neil Gaiman: The community of Innsmouth performs a blood sacrifice with shocking, terrifying results. THE CHURCH IN HIGH STREET by Ramsey Campbell: In the crypt of a derelict church, a sensible young man meets a besti*al, unthinkable fate. INNSMOUTH GOLD by David Sutton: An adventurer searches for buried treasure and discovers a slithering hell on earth. THE BIG FISH by Jack Yeovil: A few months after Pearl Harbor, a mobster and his floating casino lie under water, teeming with the stuff of nightmares. AND THIRTEEN MORE TERRIFYING TALES!

The Recent Weird

For more than 80 years H.P. Lovecraft has inspired writers of supernatural fiction, artists, musicians, filmmakers, and gaming. His themes of cosmic indifference, the utter insignificance of humankind, minds invaded by the alien, and the horrors of history written with a pervasive atmosphere of unexplainable dread remain not only viable motifs, but are more relevant than ever as we explore the mysteries of a universe in which our planet is infinitesimal and climatic change is overwhelming it. In the first decade of the twenty first century the best supernatural writers no longer imitate Lovecraft, but they are profoundly influenced by the genre and the mythos he created. New Cthulhu: The Recent Weird presents some of the best of this new Lovecraftian fiction bizarre, subtle, atmospheric, metaphysical, psychological, filled with strange creatures and stranger characters eldritch, unsettling, evocative, and darkly appealing.

The Bone Key (By:Sarah Monette)

The dead and the monstrous will not leave Kyle Murchison Booth alone, for an unwilling foray into necromancy has made him sensitive to and attractive to the creatures who roam the darkness of his once safe world. Ghosts, ghouls, incubi: all have one thing in common. They know Booth for one of their own…

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend…
who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor’s guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch’s candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them…
What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year. Legendary editor Ellen Datlow Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two

Legendary editor Ellen Datlow, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year Volume 2.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three

What frightens us? What unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw, tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the nineteen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.

The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, #8

The latest annual of the world’s premier collection of horror, terror, and dark fantasy again showcases the talents of the finest writers working the field. Along with his annual review of the year in horror, award winning editor Stephen Jones has chosen the year’s best stories by old masters and new voices alike.

October Dreams

Classic novellas, never before published stories, essays on the history, literature, and films of Halloween, and real life memories of October 31st from today’s best practitioners of fear: Dean Koontz Peter Straub Poppy Z. Brite Rick Hautala Steve Rasnic Tem Elizabeth Engstrom Thomas Ligotti Gary A. Braunbeck Jack Ketchum Thomas F. Monteleone Hugh B. Cave Simon Clark Christopher Golden Ray Bradbury Jack Ketchum Alan M. Clark Gahan Wilson Paula Guran John Shirley Tom Piccirilli Jack Cady David B. Silva Robert Morrish William F. Nolan Michael Cadnum Richard Laymon Douglas Clegg Douglas E. Winter Stanley Wiater Caitl n R. Kiernan Lewis Shiner Yvonne Navarro Tim Lebbon Kim Newman F. Paul Wilson Owl Goingback Dennis Etchison Stephen Mark Rainey Charles L. Grant Kelly Laymon Dominick Cancilla Kristine Kathryn Rusch Michael Marshall Smith Wayne Allen Sallee Ramsey Campbell Ed Gorman Stefan Dziemianowicz Peter Crowther

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010

Darkness surrounds us. We can find darkness anywhere: in a strange green stone etched with mysterious symbols; at a small town’s annual picnic; in a ghostly house that is easy to enter but not so easy to leave; behind the dumpster in the alley where a harpy lives; in The Nowhere, a place where car keys, toys, people disappear to; among Polar explorers; and, most definitely, within ourselves. Darkness flies from mysterious crates; surrounds children whose nightlights have vanished; and flickers between us at the movie theater. Darkness crawls from the past and is waiting in our future; and there’s always a chance that Halloween really is a door opening directly into endless shadow. Welcome to the dark. You may never want to leave. This inaugural volume of the year’s best dark fantasy and horror features more than 500 pages of dark tales from some of today’s finest writers of the fantastique. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories are as eclectic and varied as the genre itself.

Zombies: The Recent Dead

You can’t kill the dead! Like any good monster, the zombie has proven to be ever evolving, monumentally mutable, and open to seemingly endless imaginative interpretations: the thralls of voodoo sorcerers, George Romero’s living dead, societal symbols, dancing thrillers, viral victims, reanimated ramblers, video gaming targets, post apocalyptic permutations, shuffling sidekicks, literary mash ups, the comedic, and, yes, even the romantic. Evidently, we have an enduring hunger for this infinite onslaught of the ever hungry dead. Ho*ards of readers are now devouring zombie fiction faster than armies of the undead could chow down their brains. It’s a sick job, but somebody had to do it: explore the innumerable necrotic nightmares of the latest, greatest, most fervent devotion in the history of humankind and ferret out the best of new millenial zombie stories: Zombies: The Recent Dead.

The End of the Line

This collection of stories from some of horror fiction’s best authors will glue you to the page, but watch out; it may leave you too afraid to take the metro to work. In deep tunnels something stirs, borne on a warm breath of wind, reeking of diesel and blood. The spaces between stations hold secrets too terrible for the upper world to comprehend and the steel lines sing with the songs of the dead. Jonathan Oliver has collected together some of the very best in new horror writing in an themed anthology of stories set on, and around, the New York subway, the London underground, the Metro and other places deep below.