The Colony

Two years after a geneticist releases a huge queen ant in Manhattan’s Riverside Park, New York City comes under attack from a vicious new species of ant in Colucci’s exciting thriller debut. As the death toll rises, the ambitious mayor calls on Paul O’Keefe, a leading ant expert, for solutions. When Paul is stymied, the federal government snatches his ex-wife, entomologist Kendra Hart, from her research project in New Mexico. Kendra, who has just developed a method of destroying ant colonies by using pheromones to get its members to turn on each other, joins Paul in a race against the clock to find an answer for the catastrophic devastation the insects cause. While Colucci resorts to some old chestnuts of the subgenre, she makes what could have been a silly premise plausible, and balances scares and science nicely. Michael Crichton fans will hope that this is but the first of many such outings from the author’s pen. Agent: Adrienne Rosado, Nancy Yost Literary. (Nov.)