The Nest; New York

The 36th novel from acclaimed author Conrad Jones

It’s 2025. Beneath the glittering towers of Manhattan, something is stirring in the dark. Homeless people are vanishing from the forgotten subway tunnels, their absence buried beneath bureaucracy and political indifference. Garbage trucks sit idle in picket lines. The rats—once vermin—are now something far worse.

Larger. Smarter. Organized. Hungry...

As the city teeters on the edge of chaos, the truth begins to emerge: this is no infestation. This is an invasion.

What the reviewers are saying;

Review: The Nest by Conrad Jones

From the very first page of The Nest, Conrad Jones grips you in a relentless nightmare of fear and suspense that doesn’t let go. This is horror at full throttle—adrenaline surging, nerves fraying—as monstrous rodents claw their way beneath your skin and gnaw their way into your bones. Set against a crumbling New York City backdrop, the story unfolds with terrifying precision as the city descends into chaos. No one is safe—men, women, children—all fall prey to the rising tide of carnage.

What’s truly chilling is the calculated, almost surgical intelligence of these creatures. Engineered and crossbred by the most depraved members of society, these rats mutate into something far more dangerous than nature ever intended—fast, cunning, and terrifyingly organised.

At the heart of the fight is Emily, a brilliant biologist racing against time. Alongside a team of elite scientists, she works tirelessly to decode the behaviour and biology of the enemy. As the situation spirals, the authorities deploy everything—police, military, FBI, CIA—all turning to Emily for answers. Her expertise in cognitive and social animal behaviour becomes the last fragile thread holding the city from collapse.

This isn’t a casual read—it’s immersive, visceral, and utterly gripping. If you crave high-stakes, pulse-pounding fiction that pulls you deep into a world on the brink, The Nest delivers in spades. Conrad Jones conjures a world so disturbingly real, you’ll swear you can hear the scratching behind the walls. The fear, tension, and sheer panic echo long after the final page.

You won’t forget this one.

In 1974, James Herbert unleashed The Rats, a nightmarish vision that would go on to haunt generations of readers. The trilogy, Rats, Lair, Domain are Conrad’s favourite books from that era. Fifty years later, inspired by that same legacy of terror, comes The Nest; New York—a chilling homage from a writer who knows that time is precious… and the clock is always ticking for all of us.

This concept was something Conrad always wanted to explore for the sake of nostalgia, but the time was never right, until now. Written during a personal battle with cancer, The Nest is not just a story—it is a reckoning. A letter of sincere thanks to the horror writer that shaped his career, and a roar into the darkness from an author who refuses to go quietly just yet...

The rats are back...And this time… they’ve evolved.