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by Matthew Lyons
In Matthew Lyons' pulse-pounding crime horror, A Mask of Flies, a criminal on the run after a failed heist must confront dark family secrets and demons from her past made flesh.
THE PAST HAS TEETH
In the grisly aftermath of a botched bank heist, career criminal Anne Heller has no choice but to return to her family's cabin – a secluded shack in Colorado's San Luis Valley, and the site of her mother's untimely death.
Along for the ride are Jessup, Anne's badly wounded partner, and Dutch, the police officer she's taken hostage. As they wait for help, Anne discovers strange relics from her mother's past and begins to unfold the mystery of her childhood at the cabin.
Then Jessup goes missing, only to turn up dead. Anne and Dutch bury her friend, but that night, he comes back and knocks at the cabin door.
Not a dream, not a hallucination, but not exactly Jessup, either. Something else. Something wearing her friend's face. Something hungry...
"Lyons wows in this atmospheric horror novel. Evocative prose enhances a riveting noir plot populated by expertly shaded characters. Add in some Lovecraftian overtones, and this proves an addictive thrill ride." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This visceral novel is filled with shoot-outs, body horror, and cults, and yet, ultimately it is a story defined by love and acceptance." ―Library Journal
"A Mask of Flies blows through the intersection at Horror Street and Crime Avenue and doesn't let off the accelerator as it takes you on a white-knuckled ride to places you do not expect." ―Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Black River Orchard
"Cinematic, gruesome, hyper-violent, and fun as hell, A Mask of Flies fits perfectly in that nexus between propulsive crime fiction and scream-your-head-off horror. I loved every page of it." ―Keith Rosson, author of Fever House
"A gory crime novel smashed up against a harrowing tale of cosmic horror―but beneath the thrilling action scenes, grisly violence, and unimaginable terrors, readers will find a beating heart full of love, ready to hope even in a seemingly hopeless world. Matthew Lyons is the real deal." ―Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
This information about A Mask of Flies was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Matthew Lyons is the author of the novels A Mask of Flies, A Black and Endless Sky, and The Night Will Find Us, as well as over three dozen short stories, appearing in the 2018 edition of Best American Short Stories, Tough, Southwest Review, and more.
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