The Wayward Pines Trilogy

Inspired by Twin Peaks, adapted under a single rule

After finishing the first novel, M. Night Shyamalan set one condition for producing its television adaptation, "As long as everybody isn't dead, I'm in", and called it his only rule. Blake Crouch, for his part, has said that his love of Twin Peaks, the 1990-1991 television series, inspired the novels.

The three books, Pines (2012), Wayward (2013) and The Last Town (2014), were published by Thomas & Mercer, and Pines first appeared in paperback and on the Kindle. The television series, broadcast by Fox from 2015 to 2016, was developed while Crouch was still writing the books, which Shyamalan said led to "all kinds of cross pollinating" between the two.

The Story

Ethan Burke, an agent of the United States Secret Service, arrives in Wayward Pines, a small town in Idaho, after a serious car accident. The residents do not know how they got there and are forbidden to talk about their former lives, while an electric fence surrounds the town and everyone is watched around the clock. Ethan cannot leave, and the trilogy follows him as he uncovers the town's secret.

That secret is revealed at the end of Pines. The television series reaches the same revelation in the fifth episode of its first season and devotes the five episodes that follow to the events of Wayward and The Last Town.

The Ideal Audience

Stacy Alesi of Booklist gave Pines a starred review, recommending it to fans of Stephen King, Peter Straub and F. Paul Wilson for its mix of suspense, horror, science fiction and dystopian nightmare. Ryan Daley of Bloody Disgusting put it in his top ten horror novels of 2012, while Publishers Weekly found thin characterizations and repetitive action in The Last Town.