The Infestation by Matt Shaw

This is the story of Ethan. On his way to work one day he gets caught up in a traffic jam which he soon finds out is a road block. No one has any answers except that there is rioting in the city, and it is not safe to go there. Fearing for his wife and children, he abandons his car and makes a run for it. On the way he is nearly crushed by a downed airplane, and he runs into a military convoy bound for a safe camp. Unwilling to go with them, they knock him out and take him anyway. At the camp, he meets Fiona, a teacher at his daughters school. Between them they decide to escape and make for Ethan's house to find out what is going on. When they get to his house however, their troubles really begin, and the truth is far more horrific than they could have imagined.....

Despite having a terrible fear of spiders I went into this with both eyes open. The story itself is an expansion of a short story Matt wrote for his Literature-Ly You service. Despite being billed as a spider infestation book, there isn't really much full on spider action (to my relief), Matt decided more to play on the psychological side of things, with the break down of society and the chaos that then ensues. Yes, there are one or two parts that creeped me out but by and large there weren't many 'bad' bits. The story itself was well paced, belting along. The characters were solid, and I wanted to invest my time in them. The ending was typical for a Matt Shaw book, and I was not disappointed. If you are a fan, you will know what I mean, if not, well you will just have to wait and see!!