For over a century, the mystery of the New Hope Island vanishing has tantalized the world. How did a community of 150 souls disappear from the face of their earth and leave no trace behind? As abruptly as the crew of the Marie Celeste, they went missing from their lonely Island in the Hebrides without a single clue as to the nature of their departure.
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 bringing them together to mount an expedition to the island. They will investigate and they will finally discover the truth.
He hopes running the story as an old-fashioned rolling exclusive will revive the ailing fortunes of his flagship news-stand title. He hopes to find conclusive answers to questions that have teased a curious world for decades. And he wants his own secretly nurtured theory about the New Hope vanishing triumphantly vindicated.
But all is not as it should be on the island. A cine film shot by a loner trying to eek out a living as a crofter there in the 1930s proves as much. Rediscovered and restored, it reveals something as terrifying as it is inexplicable.
And there are the things seen there in the here and now by one of the security team sent to safeguard McIntyre’s exclusive by securing the island for the experts’ arrival. What this veteran of the war in Afghanistan witnesses, is a nightmare far beyond battle trauma.
Events have their own momentum. Clever expedition members gather and prepare to play their part in answering the New Hope enigma. But as they discover to their gruesome cost, there are some mysteries that are far 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.

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