Stunning in every way. The only mistake I made with this book was to read it during the hazy season of high summer with the occasional fly buzzing around me. Terrifying and made me exceptionally jumpy to say the least.

Graham has a fantastic skill for summoning the supernatural and combining it with the real world to a point where anything he writes is entirely believable. At times the reality was so expertly blended that I was unsure whether I was reading horror, police procedural or passages from religious text with probably several more genres combined.
He has a great knack of quickly setting scenes and investing us in new characters only to gruesomely kill them off pages later. The descriptions are entirely addictive and I was pulled through the book quickly, always wanting to read just a bit more to see what would happen, fantastic storytelling indeed.

Definitely one of my favourite authors, I can always rely on being entertained and horrified at the same time along with being unimaginably impressed by his never ending imagination and creativity in the storylines. I have no idea how you sleep at night but thank you for yet another stunner. I’m genuinely gutted that I’ve finished this.

House of Flies delivers an unsettling and original premise that blends police procedural with an edge of the supernatural. The story opens with the brutal murder of a clergyman in his own bed and quickly spirals into a series of increasingly disturbing events — bodies vanishing, decomposed corpses clawing their way out of graves, and witnesses swearing they have seen swarms of flies at every scene.

Detectives Patel and Pardoe are tasked with uncovering the truth, but the mystery deepens with the appearance of a strange figure caught on CCTV, moving at an unnatural speed without moving its legs. The investigation forces them to consider whether the culprit is even human, as the swarm seems to grow stronger and more dangerous with each attack.

The pacing is excellent, keeping the narrative engaging from start to finish without the typical mid-story slump some detective tales fall into. While it does not rely heavily on twists or high-tension cliffhangers, the unnerving imagery and strange, creeping menace make it a compulsive read. Fans of Masterton’s dark imagination will find this both inventive and satisfyingly creepy.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Received a copy from Netgalley to review, below is the blurb:

"A clergyman is murdered in his bed in the dead of night, triggering a chilling chain of events, each more bizarre and unnerving than the last – brutal killings, corpses vanishing, decomposed bodies digging their way out of graves.
These shocking events seem unconnected but, at each scene, people report witnessing swarms of flies – hundreds, thousands, even millions of them.
As DI Patel and DS Pardoe hunt for the mastermind behind these atrocious crimes, they are forced to ask: is this person human – or is all of this linked to the mysterious figure caught on CCTV, running at speed without moving its legs?"

Before I start my review I should say that I have read most if not all of Graham Masterton's horror and he is one of my favourite authors. I think I have read all of the Patel and Pardoe books and I thought this one was one of the better ones. It kept me hooked and a little on edge. The deaths are many and gory and flies now make me nervous. Don't want to give too much away but don't worry if you haven't read any other of the previous books as it is readable as a stand alone novel.