Cover art, blurb and excerpt for The Ritual

I really enjoyed Adam Nevill's Apartment 16 earlier this year, so am excited for his upcoming novel The Ritual. Here's the gorgeous cover.

Not sure about the tagline, but I love the atmosphere that oozes from this cover. Wonderful stuff.

Here's the blurb:

When four old university friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But Luke – still single and living a precarious existence – cannot identify with his companions any more. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artefacts decorate the walls; bones are scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. Death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .

Sounds very interesting, rather Blair Witch-esque, which is a good thing in my book. Apartment 16 was notable for the excellent prose and sense of terror that Nevill managed to evoke, so I'm expecting good things from The Ritual in this regard.

You can check out a short teaser excerpt here. And here's a very short story that Nevill wrote for the Tor website.