The Pain Colony

Not a bad read - particularly in the early chapters, there are some really spooky elements. I feel like that mood is somewhat undermined later when events feel rather contrived to allow a neat ending that answers all questions and wraps up the story in a nice little bow.

Also, I felt like the male characters were given the great bulk of the point of view, with the female characters more often functioning as objects to drive the action of the male protagonists. That started to grate as I got into the second half of the book.

Having read two of Cottam's novels, I think I'll seek out any shorter fiction he's done. I think he could maintain a creepy mood better over a short story, and perhaps that form would also be more amenable to an ambiguous conclusion?

This is a fast-paced, quick, captivating read.

Alexander McIntyre thinks that aliens kidnapped the entire population of the mysteriously abandoned New Hope Island Colony back in 1827, and he wants to take an expedition to the island to prove it. The expedition will include a couple of reporters from his newspaper, a beautiful virologist, a famous cosmologist, a beautiful psychic, a heroic archeologist, and a hard-fighting exorcist to cover all bases. Because while McIntyre hopes it was aliens that caused the disappearance of the population of the colony on an island in the cold, rain-swept island in the Hebrides off the coast of Scottland, his investigator, Lassiter, uncovered a most unusual film clip that shows that the last inhabitant of New Hope island was scared off by a young girl who seemed to be floating off of the ground.
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This story would make a great movie. Its opening scenes concoct tension and horror with the spooky girl in the film. Then, there is an attractive female student who keeps popping up, even though she died in 1971. Characters are picked off one by one and there is a fantastic last minute climax. Good stuff all around.

One nit that I would pick is that the pace is almost too fast. After building up the expedition, we see major characters picked off almost immediately after the expedition had been on the island for less than a day. It seems like the suspense could have been allowed to build up a bit more, but the pace did provide a hook for keeping the pages turning.

It is a fairly quick read, but quite enjoyable for anyone who likes the horror genre.