The Intruders by Michael Marshall. Marshall's latest horror-thriller isn't a direct sequel to the fantastic Straw Men trilogy, but it does bear some of the same hallmark themes. Like the earlier titles, he takes three separate threads and weaves them together with a Finney-esque “you are not who you are” premise. A former cop with an erratic wife is drawn in to a potential murder investigation that began with a strange bequest, while a 9 year old girl that's acting much too old runs away from home after an encounter with a strange man on the beach. Secret precolonial cabals, a 'ghost machine' and a pervasive paranoid streak make this a compelling supernatural secret history. It's a solid tale, and reminded me quite fondly of a Tim Powers short called “The Way Down the Hill” that can be found in the excellent collection Strange Itineraries .