James Herbert’s Lair is the second novel in the bestselling horror classic series, the Rats trilogy

Lair is the second repulsive entry in the Rats trilogy, following Rats. They can be read in any order. The horror continues in Domain.

The “Outbreak” was a tragedy London thought it had buried. But deep within the ancient, shadowed groves of Epping Forest, a new terror is feeding.

Investigator Lucas Pender – haunted by the family he lost to the first wave of mutants – recognizes the chilling signs: mutilated livestock and an eerie, unnatural silence in the woods. These aren’t mere scavengers; they are immense, intelligent predators with a reawakened lust for human blood. Led by a grotesque, two-headed master and a cunning, scarred survivor, the pack begins a coordinated massacre that defies every known poison.

As the forest becomes a military slaughterhouse, Pender must plunge into the subterranean darkness to confront a biological horror faster and hungrier than anything humanity has ever faced. The natural order is shifting – and we are no longer at the top.


Praise for James Herbert:

‘The Rats is splatterpunk deluxe’
– Stephen King

‘Lean, mean, and nasty as punk’
– Grady Hendrix

‘A one-off; a true horror original’
– Peter James