Pre-Pub Book Buzz: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

I had a computer free day yesterday, never even turned it on. It was a pretty good day, too. Not just because I wasn't on the computer all day :) Ran some errands, went to lunch, saw Chronicle, came home and read a bit and then husband cooked supper while we caught up on the DVR. Today should be equally relaxing.

Anyway, the book I'm buzzing about this week is a UK crossover that will hopefully be a launch for Adam Nevill Here. Nevill is a British horror author whose first book, Banquet For the Damned was released here via the Virgin records pubbing imprint. His second book, Apartment 16, was one I special ordered from the UK. Ritual, his latest, is due out next week via St. Martins Press. Here's a bit about the book from Nevill's site:

And on the third day things did not get better. The rain fell hard and cold, the white sun never broke through the low grey cloud, and they were lost. But it was the dead thing they found hanging from a tree that changed the trip beyond recognition.

When four old University friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But when Luke, the only man still single and living a precarious existence, finds he has little left in common with his well-heeled friends, tensions rise.

With limited fitness and experience between them, a shortcut meant to ease their hike turns into a nightmare scenario that could cost them their lives. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn't possibly get any worse.

But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artefacts decorate the walls and there are bones scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. And as the four friends stagger in the direction of salvation, they learn that death doesn't come easy among these ancient trees...

Creepy! I love the fact that SMP has been bringing more foreign horror Stateside: John Ajvide Lindqvist, FG Cottam, David Moody..., keeping some fresh new life in my favorite genre!