Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Fiction Horror

The Troop

by (author) Nick Cutter

Publisher
Pocket Books
Initial publish date
Jun 2023
Category
Horror, Thrillers, Genetic Engineering
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781476717753
    Publish Date
    Feb 2014
    List Price
    $9.99 USD
  • Downloadable audio file

    ISBN
    9781442369580
    Publish Date
    Feb 2014
    List Price
    $32.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781476767376
    Publish Date
    Feb 2014
    List Price
    $18.99
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781476717715
    Publish Date
    Feb 2014
    List Price
    $29.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781476717722
    Publish Date
    Jul 2014
    List Price
    $9.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781501144820
    Publish Date
    Aug 2016
    List Price
    $24.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781668019467
    Publish Date
    Jun 2023
    List Price
    $12.99

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

The acclaimed national bestseller that is “old-school horror at its best” (Stephen King) follows a scout troop as it is unexpectedly caught up in an isolating and utterly terrifying fight for their lives.

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.

About the author

Nick Cutter is the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller The Troop (which is currently being developed for film with producer James Wan), as well as The Deep and Little Heaven. He is the pseudonym for Craig Davidson, whose much-lauded literary fiction includes Rust and BoneThe Saturday Night Ghost Club, and most recently the short story collection Cascade. His story “Medium Tough” was selected by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jennifer Egan for The Best American Short Stories 2014. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Nick Cutter's profile page

Excerpt: The Troop (by (author) Nick Cutter)

The Troop
Headline from The Weird News Network, online edition, October 19:
THE HUNGRY MAN OF PRINCE COUNTY!
By Huntington Mulvaney
Fearsome news, dear readers, from one of our loneliest outposts—the tiny fishing community of Lower Montague, Prince Edward Island. A forlorn, foreboding spike of rock projecting into the Atlantic Ocean.
The perfect location for devilry, methinks? Thankfully for you, we have eyes and ears everywhere. We see all, we hear all.
Sadie Adkins, waitress at the Diplomat Diner in Lower Montague, had her late-model Chevrolet truck stolen from the restaurant’s lot last night by an unnaturally emaciated thief. Adkins placed a call to our toll-free tip line after her entreaties to local deputy dawgs were cruelly and maliciously rebuffed, deemed—and we quote—“ludicrous” and “insane.”
“I know who stole my damn truck,” Adkins told us. “Starvin’ Marvin.”
An unidentified male, with close-cropped hair and baggy clothing, entered the Diplomat at 9 p.m. According to Adkins, the man was in a severe state of malnourishment.
“Skinny! You wouldn’t believe,” Adkins told our intrepid truth-gatherers. “Never in my life have I seen a man so wasted away. But hungry.”
Adkins reports that the unidentified male consumed five Hungry Man Breakfast platters—each consisting of four eggs, three buttermilk pancakes, five rashers of bacon, sausage links, and toast.
“He ate us out of eggs,” Adkins said. “Just kept shoveling it in and asking for more. His belly must have swelled up tight as a drum. He . . . well, he . . . when I came back with his third platter, or maybe it was his fourth, I caught him eating the napkins. Ripping them out of the dispenser, chewing and swallowing them.”
The unidentified man paid his bill and left. Shortly thereafter Adkins went outside to find her truck stolen—yet another malicious indignity!
“I can’t say I was too surprised,” she said. “The man seemed desperate in every way a man can possibly be desperate.”
She fell silent again before adding one final grisly detail:
“I could hear something coming from inside him—I’m saying, under his skin. I know that sounds silly.”
The unidentified man remains at large. Who is he? Where did he come from? The people who know—and longtime readers know who we’re talking about: the government, the Secret Service, the Templars, the Illuminati, the usual shady suspects—aren’t forthcoming with info . . . but we’re beating the bushes and scouring secret files, investigating every legitimate tip that arrives at our tipline.
Something evil is afoot in sleepy Prince County. No man can be that hungry.
IF YOU LIKED THIS ARTICLE YOU MAY ALSO ENJOY:
• CHEESEBURGER KILLS SPACE ALIEN!
• BEEZLEBUB CAPTURED BY GI’S IN IRAQ!
• HELLSPAWN BABY RUNS AMOK IN TUPELO!
• EL CHUPACABRA DRAINS TODDLER’S BLOOD IN PUBLIC PARK!

Editorial Reviews

"Nick Cutter brings a bone-chilling spin to a classic horror scenario in The Troop. It's Lord of the Flies meets Night of the Creeps, and I enjoyed it immensely."

Mira Grant, New York Times bestselling author

"Suspenseful….sinister….horrifying."

Library Journal

"Lean and crisp and over-the-top....Disquieting, disturbing."

Scott Smith, author of The Ruins and A Simple Plan

"Some thrillers produce shivers, others trigger goose bumps; Cutter's graphic offering will have readers jumping out of their skin…intense…packs a powerful punch….Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly-populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional."

Kirkus Reviews

"Brilliant, and dialed to eleven on the creepy meter – an absolute blast."

Robert Pobi, author of Eye of the Storm

"Nick Cutter pulls out all the stops in The Troop. This is a brilliant and deeply disturbing novel that you absolutely cannot put down. Highly recommended."

Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Code Zero and Dead of Night

"The Troop scared the hell out of me, and I couldn't put it down. This is old-school horror at its best. Not for the faint-hearted, but for the rest of us sick puppies, it's a perfect gift for a winter night."

Stephen King

"A grim microcosm of terror and desperation…haunting."

Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author

Other titles by