How did a community of 150 souls disappear and leave no trace behind? As abruptly as the crew of the Mary Celeste, they went missing from their lonely Island in the Hebrides without a single clue as to the nature of their departure; doomed to remain an enigma forever. ...Until media magnate Alexander McIntyre decides to harness his prodigious energy and bottomless wealth in solving the New Hope mystery once and for all. He gathers a crack team of experts, sparing no expense in his pursuit of answers. What they discover is as terrifying as it is inexplicable... Are some mysteries safer left unsolved? F.G. Cottam is the author of five previous novels of paranormal terror including Times Book Club choice and Children of the Night award winner The House of Lost Souls. The Colony is his new chilling masterpiece.

    But the results are so ominous that the program is cut short. Now a monstrous presence is in the subjects' lives, a creature created by their group dream eleven years ago, drawing them inexorably into its awful vortex.

    Life is made up of enjoyable work, long, lazy weekends, and the company of good neighbors. Then, to their shock, construction starts on the vacant lot next door, a wooded hillside they'd believed would always remain undeveloped. Soon, though, they come to realize that more is wrong than their diminished privacy. Surely the house can't be "haunted," yet something about it seems to destroy the goodness of every person who comes to live in it, until the entire heart of this friendly neighborhood threatens to be torn apart.