Anne Heller is a criminal badass: a sharpshooter and a fast thinker who is even good at removing bullets from a wounded comrade. But when a big bank robbery goes horribly awry, it sets off a chain of events that are both humanly and supernaturally violent and forces Anne to confront the childhood trauma she has forgotten for decades. Matthew Lyons’ A MASK OF FLIES is a horror-thriller that follows Anne as she runs toward her past in order to finally leave it behind.

Anne remembers almost nothing about her early life, but unfortunately she does recall the night her mother, Beverly, died --- with her in the car --- in a terrible accident. They were fleeing in the middle of the night, and six-year-old Anne wasn’t quite sure why. But some of the images of that night haunt her nightmares, even if she can’t connect them to anything in her waking memory. The mental toughness she needed to deal with her loss (not to mention the gun that she walked away with from the accident) sets the groundwork for her adult life as a thief and thug.

"It is action-packed and bloody, with more of the damage coming from guns, fists and knives than ghouls or demons. While there are no plot twists, Lyons offers some fun turns along the way."

While she tries to keep her work and personal life separate, Anne has fond feelings for some members of her crew. There’s Jessup, their wise leader, and Gem, with whom she is in love. In their last bank job, Iris and Travis (unbeknownst to the others) have their own plan to kill everyone else and take the entire haul for themselves. But Anne gets out, finds Jessup badly wounded, and takes a police officer named Dutch hostage. The three of them then head for the Colorado cabin where Anne had last lived with her mother. Her return seems to draw the attention of a malevolent figure. In order to survive, Anne must partner with Dutch.

The only thing standing in the way of their success, and Anne’s reunion with Gem, is a cult with a bloodthirsty leader who has a monster at his command.

Anne and Beverly had been part of Winston Hofman’s cult, the Passage of Divinity, in the mountains of Cabot, Colorado, until a night of unbelievable horrors in an abandoned mine shaft caused them to run away. It turns out, though, that Winston and his abhorrent creature have been hunting Anne for decades. Finding herself back in Cabot, face to face with Winston, Anne is fighting for her life on two fronts --- from the cultists and the remnants of the bank-robbing crew --- and everyone seems to want her dead.

The book is perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be. It struck me that Lyons doesn’t explain who paid for Beverly’s cabin for 20 years. This small detail is indicative of other holes in the telling that may or may not detract from the overall reading, depending on the reader. Still, his descriptions are showy and entertaining. Anne’s head spins like an amusement park teacup ride. A monster’s skin is shed and sloughs away, “the wreckage of a ghost ship rent apart and dragged under violent waves.”

A MASK OF FLIES leans far more to the “thriller” than the “horror.” It is action-packed and bloody, with more of the damage coming from guns, fists and knives than ghouls or demons. While there are no plot twists, Lyons offers some fun turns along the way.