re:mote voices

Title: Blood Of Angels
Author: Michael Marshall
Publisher: Harper Collins

Blood Of Angels is the third novel in the trilogy by Michael Marshall, following from his debut with Straw Men and the sequel, which was known as The Lonely Dead in his native UK and The Upright Man in the US. In terms of connectivity, it feels like there are less explicit references backwards with Blood Of Angels than there were with the previous novel. Though in saying that, this is one of those trilogies which builds and ties together over the sequence in such a way that they really should be read in the correct order.

In Straw Men we were introduced to our narrator Ward Hopkins, a man who had been involved with intelligence/security work but kind of drifted away from that. However the death of his parents had really been what tipped his life upside down. Leading him to the discovery of the existence of an influential group going by the name of The Straw Men. At the same time this leads him to John Zandt and Nina Bayman, a homicide detective and FBI agent respectively, involved in a serial killer case. The serial killer responsible for these particular crimes is known as The Upright Man, the name of the American version of The Lonely Dead. After clashing with the Straw Men, the trio are looking deeper into their nature and the conspiracy behind them – though with the second novel they are brought into closer confrontation with the Upright Man.

With the start of Blood Of Angels, six months have passed since the conclusion of the second novel. Hopkins has become involved with Bayman and the pair are using a cabin they came across in the previous novel as a hideout – avoiding drawing attention to themselves. The Straw Men are still out there, and are still a serious group that wield real power. Zandt on the other hand is missing, feeling that they should take the fight to the Straw Men rather than hide a rift has opened up – Zandt is stalking his enemy, gathering all the information he can and killing each of their representatives he comes across.

Hopkins and Bayman are becoming restless, they have been hiding too long, and they know it can’t last. Which is when Bayman’s boss arrives, a new serial killer in a small town, tempting her back to active duty. But with that comes the news that the Upright Man is back, indicating the Straw Men are preparing something. From there, the novel works back and forward - as with the previous two novels Hopkins narrates his sections in first person, while the actions of other characters come in third person – following the explorations of the leads, while building up the plot of the Straw Men.

For the first half of the book you kind of wonder where this is going, more so than the previous novel the other strands of the story feel a little wondering. Though of course it all slowly starts to tie together, kicking off about half way through, so that we start to get the sense of something bad waiting to happen. Zandt’s investigations give a further depth to the Straw Men, building up on the ideas of this thousand of years old conspiracy that was proposed in the previous novel. While the novel works it’s way to the biggest confrontation with that enemy that we have seen so far.

While touring to support The Lonely Dead, Marshall described these novels as a trilogy, at least as far as his thinking at the time suggested. With that Blood Of Angels comes with a punch, Marshall presents this idea of evil in the shape of the Straw Men, and with this novel he sets about proving his point. The conclusion of Blood Of Angels is such that it would take some topping to go further. This isn’t a closed book ending; there is still scope for coming back to this territory in the future, though there is that requirement for a kind of escalation for that to work.

Also as part of that promotional tour, Marshall speculated that with the conclusion of the trilogy he might be inclined to do another novel under the name Michael Marshall Smith. Which is the identity he originally used to write his first three, pre-Straw Men, novels. That would be interesting to see. Regardless of whether he is writing as Michael Marshall or Michael Marshall Smith he has a definite writing ability. One that means his writing just flows easily for the reader, keeping us go through the build up to delivery, through the weird off-kilter science fiction of Smith to the conspiracy/serial killer thrillers of Marshall.

Whether Marshall returns to Ward Hopkins and co. or not, I bet that we will see much more written under that name in the future. His success, in the UK at least, is undeniable – with each of the novels by Michael Marshall getting ever more promotion, an ever-greater profile.