A Mask of Flies

Dammmmmmmnnnn… that was one hell of a ride!

This book has it all! A botched bank robbery, a kidnapping, lots of murder, a super creepy human impersonator thing, a cult, lots of double crossing, a cute cat, and even just a very tiny little bit of romance!

It was awesome!!! I loved the writing style, the short chapters, the characters (both good and evil), and the wild adventure!

I felt like I went on an incredible journey through several states (and possibly other worlds/dimensions?) and man, it was smart, exciting, and suspenseful.

There is SO MUCH action in this book. There is just never a dull moment. Bank robberies, shoot-outs, fight scenes, fires, the hideous impersonator, and breaking and entering. It’s just one thing after another, after another. It was really hard to put this book down, because I always wanted to see what would happen next.

I don’t think there is one thing I would change about this book. It was absolutely perfect!

A bank robbery gone sideways, a friend who's hanging on for his life, and a kidnapped cop turns Anne's world upside down. On the run and knowing they've been betrayed from the inside, she goes on the run to a cabin. The same cabin where her mother died when she was six.

Despite being wanted and despite her betrayers chasing her down looking for the money, something much more horrific awaits her. Something supernatural, hungry, and something that smells her blood anywhere she goes.

This is an awesome high octane, action filled, and bloody novel. The author mixes crime with horror and the narrative leaves you breathless. There are twists, turns, and even more terrors around every corner as the body count rises and the body parts fly.

Anne, despite being an almost life long criminal, is a sympathetic and deep character. You can't help but to feel her pain as events from the past which she can't remember come full force into the present, further complicating an already harrowing situation.

I was completely into the narrative and read it in two sittings because I had to know what was really going on. This is a novel I highly recommend.

A Mask Of Flies
By: Matthew Lyons
Pub Date- Aug.6, 2024 TorNightFire
This Book! What an absolutely insane, gritty, violent, & visceral story. Part Crime Horror, part isolation cult. The past has teeth and Anne Heller is about to find out how sharp the past can bite. A devious bank heist gone wrong thrusts us into the utter chaos that is Anne Hellers life in the aftermath….crew members dead and missing, a buried past that comes back with a vengeance and a doomsday isolation cult that has been waiting in the shadows. This was a crazy, intense and bloody read that I could have never guessed what was coming next! I absolutely could not put this book down and devoured it! The Past Has Teeth and Anne Heller is the Dentist!

This horror book is really good, I had really a good time reading it ,It has a good plot, if you like horror, crime and cult this is definitely a must read.

Whew. This book is a ride, y'all. Bank heist? Check. Monster? Check. Cult? Check check check. This kept me guessing from start to finish, I never knew whether I was about to encounter a shootout or a bloodthirsty attack.

This novel was brutal, beautiful, horrifying and touching, sometimes all on the same page. This was one of those reads that kept me engrossed, sometimes I forgot that I was reading and it was like watching a movie play out in my head. From Anne to Travis to Darlene, every character jumped off the page. And don't even get me started on Murph, what a badass little feline.

I loved this book, it was a true portrait of grief and healing and tackling demons from the past. There are two reasons I've taken it down half a star. First, sometimes the whiplash of going from crime to supernatural was a bit overwhelming. Second (and I know how stupid this is), multiple times I wondered "where is the cats litter box? Where is he pooping?" And maybe that's just the cat lady in me, but every time I thought about it, it bothered me.

This book was fantastic. Do yourself a favor and go pick it up, you won't regret it. By the end, you too will be saying "All hail Anne Heller, our Lady of Perpetual Destruction!''

This review was rounded up from 4.5 to 5 stars for NetGalley.

I enjoy crime thrillers that have strong supernatural horror elements and this was a perfect blend of both of those, equally plot and character driven this was reminiscent of Kings The Outsider, the realistic crime drama element adds a touch of realism to the cosmic horror, a visceral read with plenty of graphic violence and body horror, fans of the spooky and eldritch will rejoice in this story that felt like it was straight from a 80s horror movie

Leaving five stars --- I’m not well-read in the genre (very new in my horror reading journey) and am unable to contextualize the expected audience reaction.

The cover is disturbing (in a good way), the premise is awesome, but I didn’t find myself personally engaged in the writing style. It was surprisingly flowery for a thriller, but I realize Lovecraft (which is like pinnacle of horror?) is also extremely flowery in writing, so I think it’s leaning that way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

Once A Mask of Flies hits the bookshops it would be a major injustice if we do not start hearing serious chat and buzz around the writing of Matthew Lyons in the horror community. I read both his earlier novels The Night Will Find Us (2020) and A Black and Endless Sky (2022) but believe this latest to be his strongest work to date, which fully deserves to be a breakout hit. Equally impressive is how different his three novels are; his debut sees a group of kids being menaced by an ancient presence in a remote forest and in his second two siblings have a nightmare inducing road trip across Nevada with threats everywhere.

A Mask of Flies seamlessly blends crime, heist, action, road novel, religious cults and ancient supernatural horror into a brutal intoxicating cocktail. It also does so with incredible skill; the clash of hardboiled pulsating shootout action merging with a shapeshifting monster (all on the same page) was unmatchable yet, within the parameters of the story, totally believable. Once this book began to motor my eyes were nailed to the page and she sheer level of brutality on offer was awesome. Faces are shot off, brains are spilled, friendships broken, a huge body count mounts, limbs are shattered and that’s before we even get to the shapeshifting monster.

The ferocious action plays out in the remote, mountainous and smalltown areas of Colorado and opens with a gunfight which is cool enough to close out a Sam Peckinpah western epic. In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller is double crossed by another gang member, trying to save her wounded friend and accomplice, has no choice but to return to her family’s abandoned cabin – a secluded shack in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother’s untimely death many years before.

The scenes with Anne on the run, hiding out in motels, avoiding police patrols, plugging wounds, and dodging nosy public as her face is plastered all over the television news made for fantastic reading. Truly desperate, she ends up at the old cabin and awakens an ancient force which has unexplained connections to her childhood. To say Anne was damaged would be a huge understatement, and the flashbacks to her childhood and the death of her mother give a good reason why. Considering Anne would not think twice about blowing somebody away (which she does) she is an incredibly sympathetic character and I loved how she went to any lengths to protect her pet cat. Matthew Lyons puts his main character through a metaphorical meatgrinder, but Anne keeps on swinging and I was cheering along with every broken tooth, fractured arm, stab wound, and punctured lung. She makes some terrible choices, but on many of these occasions the options were non-existent.

The creature, a shapeshifter for want of a better term, drifts in and out of the action and I did wonder how good this book would have been without the monster. Still pretty damned powerful I would say. It reminded me of the T2 in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, totally unrelenting, ruthless and with one sole objective, get Anne Heller. Like the T2, the monster even has the ability to wear the faces of others and soon Anne cannot trust anybody. This is all beautifully set to the backdrop of Colorado ghost towns, dangerous pitstops, and unpredictable weather, whilst being hunted by the other members of the gang looking for the cash. Oh, and don’t forget the shapeshifter.

I do not want to say much about the origins of the creature as it heads into spoiler territory, however, Anne has very little memory of the horrific events which led to the death of her mother until she finds an old video cassette in her family shack. After watching the film, things start coming back, the hunt is on and the cult come knocking. A Mask of Flies is littered with memorable characters and set pieces; there were two shootouts in a diner and a police station which were as good action sequences as anything I have read.

After completing A Mask of Flies I was exhausted and felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the face. This was a gory, visceral, pulsating and exhilarating novel and I love the way in which the author brings to live these remote and dangerous parts of Colorado blending crime and supernatural horror to near perfection.

Matthew Lyons has written a tight, terrifying horror/thriller (holler? I’ll workshop it).

A botched robbery forces career criminal Anne Heller and companions to flee, and the only place she can think of to go is her childhood home – which she and her mother fled one night with tragic conse-quences. This choice leads her and her companions to dig into just why she and her mother had to flee and what her mother was running from.

I loved this book. The horror and thriller aspects are perfectly balanced and the plot moves at break-neck speed. (Although I think I need to stop reading horror set in rural areas, now that I’ve moved back to a rural area.)

Absolutely recommend this to older teens and up.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

A huge thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the eARC!

Establishing an exciting tempo from page one, A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyon is a genre blend of the darker sides of life defined by pain, violence, and grief. Anne is a felon, one who has taken part in a bank robbery gone sideways. In an effort to lay low, she flees to her dead mother’s cabin, a place best remembered by the violent demise Anne witnessed there. With one cop taken hostage and a friend she’s trying to save in her party, Anne unearths more than she could fathom in this cabin in the woods. The result is a boldly bloody venture into criminal enterprises, repressed family memories, and the struggle to see another day.

A Mask of Flies is a horror crime novel that’s best thought of as a marathon rather than a sprint. At 448 pages long, Lyons proves that this is an endurance exercise, showcasing gnarly body horror, unthinkable gore that leaves you wincing, and vivid imagery of pain, both emotional and physical. The breakneck pace established at the novel’s outset is hard to maintain, and rightfully so. It’s hard to top the adrenaline of a high-stakes bank heist gone wrong that results in unwanted hostages and festering gunshot wounds. This intensity ebbs and flows, resulting in mixed speeds of pacing but delivering intense bouts of action and sheer horror.

Lyon’s “monster” bares its sharp teeth repeatedly with an insatiable hunger for Anne, feeling rather symbolic of her forgotten childhood. Of course, the air of mystery surrounding this being and its unrelenting warpath of violence works quite well to build suspense. Yes, there are cops and felons abound in this story, but the matter that deserves investigation is Anne herself. We meet a slew of characters along the way that help to shed light on the fog of her past. Yet, each newcomer provides the opportunity for more death and more bloodshed as this thing carves its way through the shambles of Anne’s life. This novel reads like a Tarantino movie mixed with a healthy dose of The Evil Dead and maybe a guest star appearance by Jim Jones?

With this many moving parts, there is more than enough room for this story to lose its way. And while some parts read much faster than others, Anne’s grit and tenacity keep things grounded enough to ensure our investment. Remember this being a marathon and not a sprint? Lyons balances the propulsive nature of violence and action to explore the wounds of Anne’s past, accelerating her character growth and development. You can’t help but root for this beaten and battered felon who refuses to stay down in the midst of all this mess.

A Mask of Flies combines the gritty compulsiveness of a crime thriller with the chilling, horrifying imaginings of horror to deliver an entertaining, expansive tale. Anne’s character complexities keep this wild novel from spinning too far out of control in the mix of multiple conflicts and plot lines. It’s a busy novel that Matthew Lyons writes with a great emphasis on gory detail and violence displaying visceral terrors. This is a solid novel, through and through, one that just may leave you breathless.

4.5 stars.

Oof, this one started off with a bang. It gave me Terminator and The Thing vibes, and would have made a kick ass movie. It was thrilling, gory and gritty, nonstop action with a high body count. Full of blood, guts, and body parts, like Kill Bill and Ready or Not. It had a motley crew of dynamic characters. Especially STRONG, badass, female characters. It had me rooting for the criminal. It ended up being a little long winded, but it was an enthralling mix of Crime Thriller and Eldritch Horror, with twists and turns galore. And, there was a cat. 😻

Thank you Tor Nightfire and Netgalley for the e-arc!

Okay, wow. A Mask of Flies far exceeded my expectations. It was so good! Captivating from beginning to end and impressively flew by for a horror book that’s almost 450 pages. It’s actually crazy how much I came to love our villainous bank-robbing lead, Anne Heller. This book took so many twists and turns (I foolishly went into this one thinking what would end up being just part one was the entire book’s plot). Extremely action-packed, think supernatural crime caper. And it’s so brutal! Lots of gruesome kill scenes and a really creative book with strong King vibes. This book is the very definition of anxiety inducing because I spent the entire time on the edge of my seat and I loved every second of it.

Overall, highly recommend to all my fellow horror lovers! This is sure to be a treat for anyone who loves bad ass heroines who are more bad than good, LBGTQIA+ characters, animal companion done right, and childhood trauma coming back to haunt you.

Absolutely incredible. This was a five star read from the first chapter to the last. One of the most captivating stories I have read in a very long time. I was so connected to each and every character, even the ones who weren’t around as long as I’d hoped they’d be. Anne was such an incredible MC even if she isn’t your picture perfect, law abiding, good natured woman. I truly have no notes. I am running to read Lyons’ backlist.

I’m going to be honest, I did not expect to love this book as much as I did.

A thrilling ride from start to finish, A Mask of Flies follows career criminal Anne dealing with a present-day botched bank heist, who then has to face the demons from her past to try and find a way out.

Just when I thought I knew where the story was headed, I was wrong. It made me gasp, pause, and re-read a few times. The vivid descriptions in this book made me feel like I was right there alongside the characters.

Spine-chilling, eerie, supernatural horror at its finest. I loved how the supernatural elements were woven seamlessly into the story. I am looking to forward to reading more by Matthew Lyons.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Easily one of my favorite horrors that I know I won't stop thinking about for a LONG time. The vibes here consisted of Reservoir Dogs + Jim Jones + The Thing. This creepy, gross, action packed read kept me at the edge of my seat the entire way through. The cult vibes were simply irresistible and I keep thinking about all of the weird phenomenons in this world. I also very much loved how this was equally character and plot driven and I didn't feel that it was lacking at all. While this one was a big more chonky, there was never a point where I thought the story could have been cut down. I truly enjoyed this read from start to finish.
Thank you Tor Nightfire for my gifted ARC. This was fantastic!

A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons
5/5
ARC via Netgalley

This review can be pretty simple.
BOY was this a good read!
If you don’t want to read on, that’s really all you need to know.
It does not start off slow at all, with a little girl and mom fleeing from a cabin in the middle of the night, only to be attacked by…. Something. Then we move to the girl, all grown up, running from a botched bank robbery, trying not to be killed or captured by the police. If you need to be eased into things, this probably wouldn’t be the story to you.
Bank robberies, revenge, cults, escapes, a very gory creature, flies, family secrets, lost memories, a cat companion, oh and a dash of lustful romance (but really it’s only a dash). Looking for gore? It has it in gooey, dripping, squishing, revolting, fly infested descriptive bucketfuls.
The only downside for me, which was minor overall, was that I felt I needed to suspend my disbelief that a bank robbery could happen in modern day the way it took place. I guess maybe it could? To me the kind of bank robbery that they attempted to pull off seems like something that would happen years ago before modern technology and the saturation of social media. Honestly it didn’t bother me that much because I didn’t realize this was supposed to be set in modern time, however then there was a brief mention of DoorDash. That small sentence caught me off guard and threw me off enough I had to pause to reset the setting of what was happening. Honestly, that was the only other indication I picked up that it was taking place in the “now”, so I decided to pretend that didn’t happen and kept reading. It ended up being a good idea to do so.
There was a moment where I almost felt it could have had an ending and been made into a duology, but having finished it I think that it would have hurt the story more to have gone that route, and likely made the ending weaker in comparison. The ending itself was a clean one and I think was almost perfect for the story, but because I’m how I am, I was expecting it to go a different route. Having said that, I wasn’t disappointed with it at all, and think this is going to be a good read for horror lovers.

Few things give me the heebie jeebies quite like descriptions of bugs crawling in and out of orifices. However, as gross as this book sometimes got—and believe me, as a body horror it definitely went there—I just could not put it down.
As someone who has suffered loss and never really “got over it,” as they say, I understand the depictions and manifestations that A Mask of Flies presents. How grief can be a selfish presence, haunting you and destroying all manner of peace and comfort you may find. To have that then given fictional flesh and present as a live monster within the narrative itself, only to hunt down and force the protagonist, Anne, to confront the trauma of her past feels both symbolic and cruel—but at the same time cathartic. A Mask of Flies is not a story you will relate to. You will not find yourself in the morally grey characters, or feel any sense of achievement at solving the mystery before the conclusion resolves. Yet, the sense of determination and spite it invokes in the face of death definitely feels universal. And as unlikeable as Anne sometimes is, you will be cheering for her by book’s end.
Personally, as a horror I really loved how visceral and dirty this story was. The plot didn’t feel methodic, and the haphazard way in which it was structured perfectly reflected the frenzied mood of the characters. This added to the ambience of the overall narrative in a really interesting way I found particularly effective. As such, I think A Mask of Flies has definitely slotted itself in amongst my favourite horror novels I have ever read. Five stars, and one hundred percent a recommended read in my opinion.