Bad Things: A Novel (edit title)

• Rated 5 stars

“Taking place in Black Ridge, WA, four year old Scott Henderson disappeared into a jetty over a lake' leaving his father changed and devastated, obsessed with his loss. Three year later, an anonymous email lures him back to Black Ridge with the promise of the truth of what happened to Scott. Unbeknownst to him, his travels will unleash a harsh and cruel sequence of events that could take all he cherishes from what remains of his life since the incident. You never know where evil lurks .....or when it will reach out to grab you......An excellent book and fast read. Adventurous and fun. Great horror with paranormal activity.”

• Rated 5 stars

“The first pages of this book gave me the shills. The loss of the main characters son is so well described that I really wanted to put the book away and never keep reading.

after that Marshall tells a very grim story with supernatural stuff. He doesn't go into details about them, which makes it all even more dark.

I'm gonna read more by this writer.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Reminded me of Stephen King. Well-written with some intriguing plot twists. Scary, but not gory. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“I really like the way he writes. He makes the obvious daily business of human emotions come into a clearer focus. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, although I'm not sure where else it could have gone. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“I liked this, but I didn’t love it. It is a slow builder, which is fine, but I think I was looking for more of an underlying, subtle creepy feeling like I got from reading Rosemary’s Baby. I never felt like John was in real danger until the end.

John himself is an interesting character. He does what needs to be done without a lot of emotional wrangling, but it’s hard to get a good feel for why he is the way he is. Was he always this way, and just masked it when he was married? Or did the death of his son considerably change him? He’s very Jack Reacher-ish.

Overall, I liked the concept, and a rather complicated plot is wrapped up pretty nicely in the end. I just thought the execution could have been a little bit better.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Three years after the death of his son, John Henderson is still struggling to forget the life he once had. So when he receives a phone call from a woman in the town where the incident occurred, he decides it might be time to face his past. The woman in question has been recently widowed and believes that the death of her husband may be linked somehow to the death of John's son. John thinks it may be grief talking, but admits that the woman seems to be in some danger from her strange in-laws. He decides to stick around and dig deeper, but that's just what the force behind these deaths wants.

Excellent read! Michael Marshall (Smith) combines gripping suspense with just enough of a supernatural element that this read should appeal to both regular and paranormal thriller readers as well as horror lovers. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“I enjoyed the book for the most part. Got a little bogged down near the end. ”