A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons is a pulse-pounding crime horror epic about a criminal on the run, the deadly family secrets she unearths along the way, and the sinister monster from her past that has gotten a taste for her blood—and won’t sleep until she’s dead.

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...

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Praise for this book

“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

“A wild, heartrending ride.”

—Erika T. Wurth, author of White Horse

“A Mask of Flies is a riveting story of shocking violence and the terrible mysteries that families leave behind like scars in your skin. It’s desperation, loneliness, and the knock on the door by things that are better off dead.”

—Richard Kadrey, New York Times bestselling author

“A delicious mix of crime and horror. Somehow beneath the blood, the nastiness, and the deep, uncanny terror of this novel, Lyons has spun a story of friendship, love, and kindness that will touch your racing heart.”

—Wendy N. Wagner, author of The Deer Kings

“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 spiraling nightmare of criminals, cops, cabins, cults...and the terrors hiding just beyond the spotlight of memory.”

—Nat Cassidy, author of Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings

“Matthew Lyons’ bare knuckle prose is brutal enough to split skin, split lips, split the reader’s soul straight down the middle. A Mask of Flies pulls no punches and finds a particular poetry in its bloodshed that resonates long after you’ve been knocked out.”

—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“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

“A Mask of Flies has all the propulsive momentum of a crime thriller, with the vast, unknowable dread of cosmic horror waiting just below the surface. Terrifying, romantic, and above all, Matthew Lyons’s best book yet.”

—Lindsay King-Miller, author of The Z Word

“[A] ruthless display of skill, carving a raw and screaming path down into the abyss. It’s like Lovecraft and Laird Barron by way of Tarantino and Cormac McCarthy.”

—Gemma Files, award-winning author of Experimental Film and In That Endlessness Our End




About the AuthorMATTHEW 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.
Title: A Mask of Flies
Author(s): Matthew Lyons
ISBN: 9781250889836
Copyright 2024
Release Date: August 06, 2024
Publisher: Tor Publishing Group
Countries: United States, Canada | Learn more about available countries
Language: English
Format: None available | Learn More about our supported formats
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