Bad Things - Softcover

Marshall, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061434418 ISBN 13: 9780061434419

Publisher: Harper, 2010

Synopsis

"Marshall recalls Stephen King's ability to set a story in the world of the commonplace, then suddenly jolt it into a more hellish realm."

--New York Times

Bad things have always happened in Black Ridge, Washington--and Michael Marshall, the acclaimed, bestselling, Phillip K. Dick Award-winning author of The Intruders ("Scary brilliance" --Baltimore Sun) and Straw Men ("Brilliantly written and scary as hell" --Stephen King), lets readers experience all the exceptional nastiness. Marshall's Bad Things is an electrifying combination of psychological suspense, mystery, horror, and paranormal activity that no fan of ingenious, intelligent thrillers will want to miss.

About this title

Review:

"taut action and appealing characters" -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Fast-moving, sinister and highly accomplished.This is ferocious story-telling of the highest order, with corkscrew twists and turns that make it deliciously scary as the secrets unfold." -- Daily Mail (London) on BAD THINGS

"A genuinely scary thriller with satisfyingly malevolent villains."--The Sun Herald (Sydney) on BAD THINGS

"Marshall builds up suspense slowly . . . Black Ridge - like the Maine towns populated by Stephen King's characters - is not a place you want to visit."--Booklist on BAD THINGS

"taut action and appealing characters"--San Francisco Chronicle

"Fast-moving, sinister and highly accomplished...This is ferocious story-telling of the highest order, with corkscrew twists and turns that make it deliciously scary as the secrets unfold."--Daily Mail (London) on BAD THINGS

"This spooky tale shows Marshall...has a knack not only for the frisson of dread but also the telling psychological insight."--Publishers Weekly on BAD THINGS

"This is a psychological thriller guaranteed to keep you up at nights."--Arcadian Lifestyle

"Michael Marshall is the new Stephen King, to the nth degree. He successfully complements Carol O'Connell's tormented characters for roller-coaster-like psychological twists and thrills....BAD THINGS deserves six stars."--www.BookReporter.com on BAD THINGS

This spooky tale shows Marshall...has a knack not only for the frisson of dread but also the telling psychological insight. --Publishers Weekly on BAD THINGS"

From the Author:

Most of your novels are set in America – has this location in particular influenced your writing?
I spent a lot of time in America when I was young, and in a lot of ways it feels as much like home as the UK. I’ve lived in London for a long, long time now, however, and so maybe the US has become the place of my imagination, the realm where I go to make things up, and to dream. I also seem usually to come up with novel ideas that are, at least in part, about America, or at least facets of human nature and experience that are most starkly apparent there — and that’s probably the main reason my novels wind up being set there. Place is a character too.

How much of your life and the people around you do you put into your books?
I’ve never put a particular person into a book — not even myself. But you can’t help being influenced by your own take on the world, and by your observations of those who are both close to you, and strangers. Naturally you then take these raw materials and mix them into new combinations, twisting them into completely different shapes, usually without being aware that you’re even doing it. My books often contain at least a shadowed reflection of what’s going on in my real life — or in my real thoughts — at the time of writing; but real life and fiction are very different things.

You’re renowned for your twists and turns – do your characters ever surprise you?
They surprise me every single time. I start every book thinking I know pretty much how they’re going to behave, and then — bang: suddenly they’re taking their lives (and the book) in unexpected directions. I love it when that happens, despite the extra work and head-scratching and soul-searching it provokes. Real people always surprise us, after all, and the more characters in books do this (while remaining in character, of course) the more likely it is the novel will feel as if its being driven from within, rather than out of the mind of the writer. If I ever write a book where the characters never surprise me, then I’ll throw it away. Immediately.

Do you have a favourite character from your novels?
I’ve spent so much time with each of the main protagonists that they all feel like old friends. Stark from Only Forward came very naturally, as did Ward Hopkins in The Straw Men novels, and John Henderson from Bad Things. But I also really like Bill Raines from that last book, and a lot of others from earlier ones...

Which other writers have inspired you?
Stephen King was the first person who made me really want to write — though Enid Blyton deserves some prior credit there, along with Kingsley Amis and Raymond Chandler and PG Wodehouse. But there was also Ray Bradbury, and Philip K Dick and Jack Finney, and Martin Amis and Brett Easton Ellis, then Jim Thompson and James Ellroy and James Lee Burke... more recently, Richard Ford and Tobias Wolfe. And in the last few months suddenly there’s Richard Brautigan. There’s always someone new to find — and inspiration has to be kept fresh.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061434418
• ISBN 13: 9780061434419
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384