The Lonely Dead picks up a few months after the end of The Straw Men. Ward is looking for answers while trying to stay off the radar, Nina's back at the FBI, and John Zandt - well, he may have lost his mind. The Upright Man is still out there, somewhere, and a new plot line takes us to the Pacific Northwest, where a lost man sees something incredible. The Lonely Dead features the same strengths that pulled me into the first book: well-developed characters, good dialogue, and mysteries that never seem to get fully unraveled. Though I didn't love it as much as The Straw Men, the second book in this series is still excellent, and it's an enjoyable chapter in the Straw Men series.

This is what happens when you have certain expectations about a book. The book was well written, I thought the pacing was on par with other suspense/thriller type books and since it is the second book in a trilogy the characterization is there. So what's my problem? (Granted, 3 stars isn't a bad rating but I really felt like giving it 2 stars as soon as I finished.)

This was not the direction I wanted the book to head. How egocentric is that?

The two parts of the first book that I really enjoyed were the idea of The Straw Men and John Zandt and neither one played prominent parts in this volume. Zandt was peripheral, popping up here and there throughout the story. There was a moment where The Straw Men were discussed in relation to the lost settlement of Roanoke and the mysterious Croatoan but that was about it. This story was primarily about Ward and Nina and the search for the Upright Man.

So this is really one of those times where I have to take the blame for not enjoying a book. If I start a book with certain ideas but the author goes in a different direction, how can I blame anyone but myself?

Its part two of a trilogy about a group of people called the 'straw men', who are basically demented serial killers and the efforts of an ex cop/an actual cop/a random bloke to stop them. I love the first book, must have read it 20 times, but had never got round to getting the second.

I really enjoyed this. I love how Marshall used miniscule details to describe a place, pointing out the sort of things you never notice until they aren't there anymore. Plot wise its a pretty straight forward 'hunt for the whack' job, but it cuts around between differnet sets of events that don't seem to be related until the last couple of chapters - although there is enough there to guess a couple of the links. He often uses this as a change of pace tactic, cutting from a dramatic point in one strand to introduce someone new or catch up with someones mundane existence. Most of the characters have a good depth to them, although in a couple of cases this depth is established more in the first book, which I would definitely say should be read first
7.5/10