The Hamelin Plague — A. Bertram Chandler

It began with a few small items in the newspapers - dead dogs and cats, a mutilated child, a series of unexplained fires. Then suddenly it exploded into a full sized catastrophe.

Huge mutants - half rat, half man - began to take over the world, stealing children for slaves and destroying their populations.

Only a few people escaped, among them Tim Barrett, his wife Jane, and a handful of survivors. Alone on the high seas in a small ship, they set off to find the island where Dr. Theodore Piper had been experimenting with a sonic death ray.

They knew Dr. Piper was their only hope for personal and world survival - if he was still alive... if the King Rats hadn't forced him to serve their evil purpose... and if he could find a way to stop the spreading horror of invasion.