A Mask of Flies

I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Published by Macmillan Audio, Tor Nightfire on August 6, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Horror
Length: 13 hours 16 minutes
Pages: 448
Format: ARC, Audiobook
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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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...

“An addictive thrill ride.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

I really enjoyed this book. This is the first time I have picked up any of Matthew Lyons’s work so I am thrilled I decided to give this book a chance. The story was full of surprises and I was never quite certain in which direction things would turn. I appreciated the fact that this book straddles the line between genres, containing elements of horror, paranormal, thriller, and mystery in a single story.

As the story unfolds, we first see Anne as a small child facing her mother’s death. As we fast forward to Anne’s adult years, we see her working with a crew on a bank robbery that goes horribly wrong. The group gets split up and Anne is left with her injured partner, Jessup, and Dutch, the officer she kidnapped as they fled. She retreats to the same cabin she stayed in with her mother just before her death to try to put the pieces back together. It doesn’t take long before things take a strange turn at the cabin. I couldn’t wait to find out what really went wrong with the heist and to learn more about the mysterious entity that seems to be following Anne.

Saskia Maarleveld is an amazing narrator and her talents shine in this book. She does such a great job of bringing this vast cast of characters to life through the use of voices and just the right amount of emotion. I felt like I was right there with Anne as she navigated the challenges thrown at her. I am certain that her performance added to my overall enjoyment.

I would recommend this book to others. I loved the twists and turns that the story took. There were some pretty big surprises worked into the story that only added to my enjoyment. I liked Anne a lot and wanted to see her come out of everything okay. I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio.

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