I really enjoy Michael Marshall Smith's writing style, and heartily recommend one of his earlier novels, THE STRAW MEN. But THE INTRUDERS is pretty much a middling effort, at least when it comes to the plot. The first half of this novel is certainly well written, but the plotline is disjointed and makes little sense. Smith keeps on shifting perspectives and deliberately keeps the reader off-balance. While some readers may enjoy this type of storytelling, I prefer novels with straightforward narratives. Smith tries to tie everything together toward the end, but his "explanation" is so silly and contrived that I felt cheated. In the end, I felt the whole story was pointless. THE INTRUDERS is further weakened by the lack of a truly likable character. While all the characters are intelligent, most of them are dour and anti-social. There are also too many characters to keep track of, and some of them are just stereotypical (the world-weary hit man for example). Still, Smith is a terrific writer of prose, one of the best out there in genre fiction. There are many passages in thsi novel that I re-read because I was struck by their cleverness and insight. I recommend THE INTRUDERS if you enjoy good writing, but if you want a great story, you should try THE STRAW MEN instead
There are also too many characters to keep track of, and some of them are just stereotypical (the world-weary hit man for example)