Pig Island

Book excerpt: A “profoundly creepy and creepily convincing thriller” of religious fanatics and hoax debunkers from the Edgar Award–winning author of Hanging Hill (Publishers Weekly, starred review) Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes, but when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island, everything he thought he knew is overturned. Following the trail of a strange creature caught briefly on film, so deformed it can hardly be human, Oakes crosses a border of electrical fencing, toxin-filled oil drums, and pig skulls to infiltrate the territory of the groups’ isolated founder, Malachi Dove. Their confrontation, and its violent aftermath, is so catastrophic that it forces Oakes to question the nature of evil—and whether he might be responsible for the heinous crime about to unfold . . . This latest entry from the acclaimed British author of the Jack Caffery novels “taps into the current fascination with all things supernatural and questions our assumptions about a number of subjects, from faith healing to cultish religious groups and society’s definition of evil” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review). “[Hayder] remains one of our most adventurous, unpredictable and ambitious writers.” —The Guardian “Hayder offers both a riveting story and a nuanced, distinctly modern look at secrecy and publicity, belief and skepticism, normal and taboo, (in)sight and blindness.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An adventurous, edgy, literate writer.” —Kirkus Reviews