Flock

From J. Todd Scott comes a chillingly engrossing thriller about a cult survivor who must confront the horrors of her past to ensure the safety of the future.Ten years after a fiery raid kills her family, former cult member Sybilla “Billie” Laure has a completely new identity. She’s settled in rural Colorado with her daughter, hoping for a quieter life. But the world has other plans.With wildfires raging and birds dropping from the sky, Billie wonders if her cult leader father’s apocalyptic predictions are finally coming true. When an intruder murders her husband and kidnaps her daughter, Billie has no choice but to confront the secrets of her past. But Billie’s journey has other perils, too—namely, a police chief hot on her trail, determined to expose the dangers of the defunct doomsday cult.To save her daughter, Billie will have to go back to where it all began—to the ruined compound in New Mexico where the real threat is the truth.

Praise for The Flock “In this riveting postapocalyptic thriller from Scott (Lost River), the world has been rocked by multiple catastrophes, including a terrible new disease that’s ‘a silent killer of children across the globe that now affects adults.’ Admirers of Justin Cronin will want to check this one out.” —Publishers Weekly “It’s all here: doomsday cults, innocents and grifters, unexplainable phenomena. Heartache and regret. A chance at redemption. What sets The Flock above your average thriller is the absolute ring of authenticity from this twenty-plus-year career DEA agent. You got the real deal right here.” —Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor and The Hunger “Scott lays out his short, propulsive chapters like a trail of breadcrumbs you can’t help but follow. This one will keep you up late turning the pages.” —Brian Freeman, bestselling author of Thief River Falls “We live in a world of bent truths, tribal divisions, and conspiring realities—and you’ll find a dark, mesmerizing reflection of this in J. Todd Scott’s latest thriller, The Flock. Scott writes with a terse poetry and builds a relentlessly paced plot, but it’s the superbly drawn characters who will wreck you in the best possible way.” —Benjamin Percy, author of The Unfamiliar Garden Praise for J. Todd Scott “Mr. Scott, as it happens, has been a federal agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than twenty years, which surely contributes to the authenticity of this convincing saga.” —Wall Street Journal “Scott’s twenty-year career as a DEA agent infuses his work with realism, and his writing chops will make readers wonder why he waited so long to launch his literary career.” —Associated Press “The author exploits his decades of experience as a federal agent to create a powerful, realistic picture of crime.” —Kirkus Reviews “Scott writes beautifully, dreaming up intriguing action scenes, which those who are focused only on thrills will wish kept going and going. But patient readers will recognize and appreciate Scott’s endgame: showing us a world where thieves, murderers, and sadists are everyday folk.” —Booklist “J. Todd Scott’s series reads like equal parts Don Winslow and Ace Atkins. Having spent twenty years working with the DEA, Scott knows his stuff, adding instant credibility to his stories, which are well written and hopelessly addictive.” —New York Journal of Books “As addictive as the best crime show.” —Newsweek “The poetic and bloody ground of [the west] has given birth to a powerful new voice in contemporary western crime fiction.” —Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire series “J. Todd Scott is the real deal.” —Michael McGarrity, New York Times bestselling author

J. Todd Scott was born in rural Kentucky and attended college and law school in Virginia, where he set aside an early ambition to write to pursue a career as a federal agent. His assignments have taken him all over the United States and the world, but a gun and a badge never replaced his passion for stories and writing.His previous books include The Far Empty, High White Sun, and This Side of Night in the Chris Cherry / Big Bend Series, as well as the Appalachian crime novel Lost River.For more information, find Todd at www.jtoddscott.com.