A Mask of Flies

This has a lot going on that I'm not usually inclined to pick up - organized crime, forced cult involvement, brutal imagery. But this worked for me anyway, with the main character compelling the story on and making decent choices (as far as her life of crime goes) to keep surviving. The supernatural elements were great too.

Matthew Lyons is one of THE best of the newer horror authors going right now. I devoured his first two novels, and this one didn't disappoint either. I'm still thinking it through, but it may be his best so far. It's hard to tell, because it's a very high bar.

I'll leave the synopsis to others. Crime story. Bank heist. Crazy horror. That's all you need to know.

But Lyons is a master of character, of dialogue, and damn, when he turns up the horror, he turns it all the way up.

So, here's my take. I read a lot of books. Most of which are books I wouldn't write, but I love to read...non-fiction stuff, mysteries, SF, fantasy...all of that. That's the bulk of what I read.

Then there's the stuff that I love, and only WISH I could write. Kind of a show more "Damn! I wish I wrote that!" sort of situation. Matthew Lyons' s novels fit firmly into that category. He writes horror. Yes, I write horror too. And while I really like the horror I write (hell, I write it to please myself first), I LOVE the horror that Lyons puts out. If I was a better author, I'd write what he's writing.

And honestly, that's the highest compliment I can give a fellow author. show less

This book was a wild ride. It's marketed as horror but to me it is more like a crime novel with a shape-shifting monster.

The main character, Anne, is a tough woman who is used to solving her problems with a gun. Despite this, she isn't a one-dimensional character. She evolves over the course of the novel.

It dragged a little bit towards the end but overall I loved it.

*ARC from Edelweiss*

A generic horror story dressed up with some decent descriptive language and hobbled by too much padding. A good editor would have tightened up the verbiage and made the story more propulsive.