Product Description

A uniquely dark and elegant tale that illuminates the loneliness of childhood, the pain of loss and the power of imagination. It will charm and haunt its readers in equal measure. Eleven-year-old Mark is bored. He spends his days on the Brighton sea-front, practicing on his skate-board. His mother is too ill to leave the house, and his stepfather is determined that Mark shouldn't disturb her. So when the old lady who lives in the flat downstairs introduces him to rock cakes and offers to show him a secret, he's happy to indulge her. The old lady takes a large, old-fashioned key and leads Mark down a dusty corridor to a heavy door. Beyond the door is a world completely alien to Mark's understanding. For behind the old lady's tiny apartment, the house's original servants' quarters are still entirely intact, although derelict. Mark finds himself strangely drawn to this window onto the past, and when, the next time he visits, the old lady falls asleep, he steals the key and goes to visit the servants' quarters alone. And suddenly Mark's life takes a bizarre turn, as the past seems to collide with the present, dreams invade reality and truths become apparent to this hitherto unperceiving boy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149205 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Talk about a protean career! The writer Michael Marshall, one might think, already has more than enough strings to his bow: As Michael Marshall Smith, he created some of the most inventive and quirky of cutting-edge science fiction novels; dropping the ‘Smith’ (as Michael Marshall), his bestselling crime fiction is among the most technically adroit and pulse-racing in the field. But here he is with yet another hat on – and as M M Smith, he proves to be just as accomplished a writer for younger readers. The Servants is an absolute spellbinder: a wonderfully engaging yarn that will rivet the attention of both younger readers and those adults lucky enough to pick it up.

11-year-old Mark is well aware – even at this tender age – of the fragility and insecurity of life. After his move from the bustle of London to the more bracing seaside air of Brighton in the winter, he finds he is not enjoying himself. His mother’s illness is distressing, and, worse, he cannot stand his new stepfather. The house he lives in is a strange place, with, what’s more, a strange elderly woman in the basement. The sands of reality are about to shift for the vulnerable Mark, and he may have to rely for help on some people who may not even be real.

Smith’s mastery of the fantasy genre is, thankfully, a skill he has not allowed to wither on the vine, and this is intelligent, allusive writing; both disturbing and evocative. Let’s hope MM/Michael/Marshall/Smith finds time to revisit the genre in between his flesh-creeping adult thrillers. --Barry Forshaw

Review
'Superb, offbeat contemporary fantasy ! Smith portrays a child's irrational anger with devastating accuracy, and Mark's visits to the surreal and intensely symbolic world of the servants are powerfully depicted' Publishers Weekly 'A touchingly sweet book that refuses to give easy answers or cheap twists. A perfect rainy-day read that'll leave you with a lump in your throat' SFX 'Damn good storytelling !beautifully conceived and utterly real' Fortean Times 'This moving parable delivers strong psychological insights into a child's powerlessness and anger' Entertainment Weekly 'A charming and eerie fantasy' Sun Herald (Australia)

From the Author
WHAT IS IT?
The Servants is a short novel about a boy who's forced to leave his home, friends and father in London to come live with his mother and her new husband. He doesn't get along with his step-father, he's bored and lonely, and his mother is unwel, and getting worse. But one night Mark meets the old lady who lives in the basement of their house, and his life starts to change...

WHERE?
The book is set in Brighton, on the south coast of England. A town with a dodgy past - someone once described it as a place that looked like it should be helping the police with their enquiries - but very striking Regency architecture. It's in one of these houses that Mark discovers the old servant, and begins to wonder if it's as abandoned as everyone thinks...

WHY "M. M. Smith"?
Because it's quite different to the conspiracy thriller novels I write under "Michael Marshall". This novel is about a young person coming to terms with changes in his life, the first foreshadowings of impending adulthood, and learning to trust his own imaginings and intuitions. In some ways it's closer to the short stories I've written under the name "Michael Marshall Smith", but it's perhaps even more personal than those. So please allow me to introduce you to... M. M. Smith. I hope you like it.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining Ghost Story
'The Servants' is around 230 pages long, but such is the modern preoccupation with length (oo-er missus!) that it's classed as a 'short' novel or novella, rather than simply the `novel' it undoubtedly is.

MM Smith has previously written novel length science fiction under his full name Michael Marshall Smith, and conspiracy thrillers under the shortened name Michael Marshall. Last year's excellent 'The Intruders' - containing supernatural elements - was also published under the latter moniker.

Now there's another variation on his name - MM Smith - which he's used for this modern-day ghost story. Michael himself has commented that this latest book is more akin to his excellent far-ranging short fiction than his longer stuff - hence the new name.

Enough of my preamble - is this book any good? Well, yes. It's beautifully told in clear, simple prose and it won't take the reader long to finish it.

Mark is an 11-year-old boy who's moved down to Brighton from London with his mother and new stepfather. Naturally he hates his step-dad, because like most boys of that age he clings to an idealised view of his birth father, that no other man could compete with.

Once in Brighton, Mark leads a loner's existence, practicing his rudimentary skateboarding skills, until he meets the old lady who resides in the basement of the big property he lives in. She shows her rooms to him, reveals what lies behind an old locked door, and explains that the whole basement forms the old servants' quarters. Immediately Mark's curiosity is piqued. At this stage his mother's health is also deteriorating alarmingly...

To give away any further plot details would be unfair so I'll leave it at that, but I will comment that the book unfolds at a perfect, just-right pace and has a very satisfactory ending - Michael doesn't believe in short-changing the reader!

The portrayal of Mark is very perceptive and touchingly told. We gradually see his viewpoint towards the step-dad shifting, and if it never achieves a volte-face, he at least comes to appreciate him a bit more. Naturally we, the reader, can tell the step-dad is a decent man almost from the very beginning, but then we're not emotionally attached to him.

Michael Marshall is a huge fan of Stephen King - another writer who has written the occasional subtle ghost story featuring a young protagonist. I hope he'll be flattered if I say this is almost a British equivalent of the lovely literary stuff King writes when in a certain mode. I wholeheartedly recommend this intelligent book to Michael Marshall Smith newcomers and old fans alike.

An exquisite book, in all ways
This is a clever, subtle, beautiful little book, somewhat reminiscent of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME, in that it's voiced by an engaging young protagonist and hides a dark, surreal and rather disturbing secret world inside what seems to be, very recognizably, our own. I won't spoil the surprise (which creeps up on you throughout the story) but must say I found it both haunting and touching, and it also made me laugh out loud from time to time. I recommend it for readers of any age. It's also a very beautifully packaged book, with head and tail bands, a ribbon and a classy cover, so it makes a lovely gift - and it's short, too, and SUCH an easy read.

An entertaining and touching read...

I came across this book while I was reading the reviews in the Fortean Times - a great place to sniff out new fiction!

This book is about a young boy called Mark. He's eleven years old and is desperately trying to come to terms with the fact his mother has now married another man, David, who Mark resents. He feels that David is an intruder in their lives who is trying to come between him and his sick mother. They are living in Brighton, a long way from the London that Mark sees as his real home, and his real father. Mark discovers an old woman lives in the basement flat under their house (the old servant's quarters) and she has an interesting and spooky secret she wants to share with him that will open Mark's eyes and change the way he thinks forever.

I really liked this book. It is insightfully told from Mark's eleven year old point of view: how he feels about being taken away from his old life and thrust reluctantly into a new one and how he interprets everything his stepfather does as a plan to annoy him and come between him and his mother.

This is a traditional kind of ghost story but is also touching and very well written, keeping you interested right to the end.