By Tony Jones 
I have no idea how Masterton can keep churning out these outlandish plots with such frequency and even though some of the police dialogue and Cockney rhyme comes across as outdated and hammy, it was easy to get carried along by the incredulous plot. There is no rest for the wicked and I hope the ‘Ghostbusting’ team of Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel return for further adventures.
The ‘Ghostbusting’ London detective duo are back for their fifth adventure
House of Flies: Graham Masterton’s Ghostbusting Duo Returns in a Buzz-Worthy Nightmare
Over the last decade Scottish horror legend Graham Masterton has been on a fine run of form with The House of a Hundred Whispers (2020), The Soul Stealer (2022),The House at Phantom Park (2022) amongst my favourites. His supernatural crime series featuring London detectives Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel, opening with Ghost Virus (2018) and now totalling five books is equally gruesome fun.
Whilst most authors who have been in the horror game since the mid-1970s have retired to enjoy pipe, slippers and whiskey bottle, Masterton remains scarily prolific. In 2024 he also resurrected his other crime horror Katie Maguire sequence, with book twelve Pay Back the Devil, the first new entry in a few years. I have read a few of those also, but Masterton has been too prolific for me to keep up!
House of Flies is the fifth entry in the Pardoe and Patel series, of which I have read the first three, interconnected by two detectives who specialise in investigating paranormal London, nicknamed the ‘Ghostbusters’ by their colleagues. In Ghost Virus they faced possessed killer clothing and in book two The Children that God Forgot freaky deformed kids, nasty pregnancies, and witchcraft oozing from the London sewers causing havoc. The third outing, Shadow People, topped its predecessors for sheer brutality, a gleefully violent romp featuring multiple sequences of cannibalism and torture with punters being nailed to the walls and worse.
Even though I missed book four, What Hides in the Cellar (2023), easing back into the narrative was simple, with occasional references to previous cases. If you are new to the series then they are read to read as standalone horror murder mysteries. Masterton abandons heavy character development (Pardoe and Patel change little over the course of the five books, except for a promotion) in favour of outrageous plots and fast moving action. Always ridiculous, cheerfully harking back in style to the brand of crazy horror hitting the bestseller shelves in the eighties.
Just when you think it might be impossible to top the antics of its predecessors, Masterton gives it his best shot in House of Flies. After so many years in the game I am constantly amazed this author can continually dream up such scenarios and is an absolute master of trashy B-movie style horror. I buzzed through this romp over a couple of easy reading days, devouring it with little lull in the fly filled action.
House of Flies delivers an unsettling and original premise blending police procedural with a developing supernatural narrative. Opening with the brutal murder of a clergyman, the story fans out into a series of highly disturbing events, including dead bodies climbing out of graves, decomposing bodies close to brutal crime scenes, with everything connected to the unusual activity of seemingly intelligent flies. The yuck factor is seriously high and if you have ever swallowed a fly, things are a million times worse here.
Detectives Patel and Pardoe are tasked with solving the case (and because nobody else wants it!), but the mystery deepens after the appearance of a strange figure who caught on camera, moving at unnatural speed without moving their legs. The murders continue and edge into the personal lives of both detectives, taking them into the orbit of both the local ganglands and a local exorcist. There is outstanding escalation with well-known London locations becoming the sites for mass murders.
The pacing keeps the narrative jogging along nicely without any mid-story slumps. Whilst it does not rely heavily on twists or major cliffhangers, the unsettling imagery, murders, smart set pieces and threatening menace turn it into a solid page-turner. As I have lived in south London (including Broomwood Road, mentioned as close to one of the murders) for many years I found it particularly enjoyable, as the locations were familiar and nicely mapped out. I cycle past some areas every day for work!
I have no idea how Masterton can keep churning out these outlandish plots with such frequency and even though some of the police dialogue and Cockney rhyme comes across as outdated and hammy, it was easy to get carried along by the incredulous plot. There is no rest for the wicked and I hope the ‘Ghostbusting’ team of Jerry Pardoe and Jamila Patel return for further adventures.
Tony Jones
House of Flies by Graham Masterton
‘God, he’s good.’ STEPHEN KING
IF YOU SEE THEM – RUN…
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?
And can they stop the swarm before they themselves are consumed?
For fans of Joe Hill, Peter James and Stephen King, Graham Masterton is a master of the horror genre whose books have sold millions of copies across the globe.
ALSO IN THE PATEL & PARDOE SERIES
#1 GHOST VIRUS
#2 THE CHILDREN GOD FORGOT
#3 THE SHADOW PEOPLE
#4 WHAT HIDES IN THE CELLAR
#5 HOUSE OF FLIES
Praise for Graham Masterton:
‘One of the most original and frightening storytellers of our time’ Peter James
‘Suspenseful and tension-filled… all the finesse of a master storyteller’ Guardian
‘One of Britain’s finest horror writers’ Daily Mail
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