Jack Murphy and his family need a vacation. This one might just kill them.
After a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear, something even more deadly happens. Masses around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These “Can Heads” grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT-style police protection become absolutely necessary to live.
After one attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded and his partner dead, Jack takes his wife and kids on a vacation far up north, to the Paterville Family Camp, a fortress-like compound in the mountains where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake.
At first, it’s idyllic. There’s plenty of food, fun stuff for their children, and another nice young couple with kids of their own. And when the camp suffers a Can Head attack, Jack even helps defend it. He’s immediately offered a job in security. His family wants to stay.
But Jack slowly comes to realize that there’s something else going on at Paterville Family Camp, and when he makes a gruesome discovery, he will be forced to get his family out, no matter who—or what—stands in his way.
Matt Costello’s award-winning and bestselling work—across all media—has meshed story, gameplay and technology.
His novels, spanning genres, have been published all around the world. His classic horror novel, Beneath Still Waters, was filmed by Lionsgate. His novel Vacation was a major release from Macmillan, who also released the sequel, Home, as well as his epic SF novel, Star Road.
He cocreated and coauthors, with Neil Richards, the hit mystery series Cherringham, which has sold over 1,000,000 copies worldwide. With Neil Dudgeon (Midsomer Murders) reading, the series has become a bestselling audio series, also with over 700,000 sales. Cherringham has also been sold globally, in many languages. His latest series with Neil Richards, set in 1929—Mydworth Mysteries—has also quickly become a bestseller, with Wolf Hall actor Nathaniel Parker performing the audiobooks.
He has also written and designed dozens of award-winning and bestselling games including The 7th Guest, G-Force, Aladdin, Just Cause 1&2, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Time magazine said of Doom 3, which he scripted, “The story is delivered with unusual art.” Rage, which Matt also wrote, won the most Game Critics Awards at E3, including Best Console Game’. He continues to write and help create groundbreaking games worldwide, most recently the interactive film Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier. This March brought the release of Resident Evil 4 2023, one of the most anticipated games of the year, scripted by Matt, which sold 4 million copies in its first two weeks.
Matt has also written episodes and created TV formats for PBS, Disney, SyFy, and the BBC. He consults on story, creativity, games and multiplatform projects around the world.View all by Matthew Costello
