#BookReview The Devil's Colony by Bill Schweigart @DelReyBooks

The Devil's Colony by Bill Schweigart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The greatest monster is man. From the author of The Beast of Barcroft and Northwoods comes a chilling descent into the depths of horror and human depravity.

Ben McKelvie had a good job, a nice house, a beautiful fiancée . . . until a bloodthirsty shapeshifter took everything away. Ever since, he’s been chasing supernatural phenomena all across the country, aided by dedicated zoologist Lindsay Clark and wealthy cryptozoologist Richard Severance.

Now they face their deadliest challenge yet. In the New Jersey Pine Barrens, a man named Henry Drexler operates a private compound called Välkommen, which is Swedish for “welcome.” Indeed, Drexler welcomes all visitors—so long as they’re racists, neo-Nazis, or otherwise in cahoots with the alt-right. But Drexler is no mere Hitler wannabe. Once he was Severance’s mentor, and his research may well have summoned a monster to the Pine Barrens.

To find out the truth, Ben and Lindsay must enter the camp incognito. There, under the watchful eyes of Drexler’s bodyguards and sociopathic son, they will learn that the most dangerous beasts lurk in the human heart.

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I'm sorry to say that The Devil's Colony is just not as good as the two previous books. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised about how lackluster this book is. It's like all the energy was put on the two first books and nothing was spared for this book. Characters that I previously cared for did I find uninteresting and quite frankly very flat. I wanted to learn more about Severance when I read the previous books, but in this book did he feel like such an uncharismatic person and his love story felt really, really off. And, Ben and Lindsay, I didn't care a bit about them, and I was really worried about them in the previous book Northwoods. Even when they got in trouble didn't I feel a thing for them.

The story, well, compared to The Beast of Barcroft and Northwoods was the story in this book just way too dull and actionless. Ben and Lindsay's undercover mission was just not that interesting to read about, and the things that happened in the woods around the camp didn't for a moment race my pulse. I loved the horror of Northwoods, but there was no horror in this book. Just a lot of boring talk and even when everything started to go wrong did I find myself not engaged in the story.

The Devil's Colony is a book that didn't work for me. The Beast of Barcroft and Northwoods are great books, but the conclusion of this trilogy was unfortunately not a strong ending.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy through NetGalley for an honest review!