A Black and Endless Sky

Starred review from January 3, 2022
Lyons (The Night Will Find Us) burnishes his reputation as a rising horror star with this über-creepy thriller. An opening tease shades what follows; in the Mojave Desert, a team of engineers makes a bizarre discovery—“a massive stone triangle pressed flat into the earth” that appears to be some kind of door. When breaching charges crack the entrance open, black smoke emerges, choking those present and causing multiple fatalities. Lyons then shifts gears to introduce troubled siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot. Jonah’s just gotten divorced, and, with no alternative, heads home to New Mexico from the Bay Area. Nell, with whom he’s had an often-fraught relationship, agrees to split the drive and keep him company on the road. But both Talbots’ reckless streaks emerge after Nell picks a fight in a biker bar, and their subsequent flight leads them straight to the deadly desert location from the prologue. As with the best in the genre, nuanced characterization makes suspending disbelief almost effortless, and Lyons keeps the pages flying with fast-paced chills. Fans of Laird Barron will be especially delighted. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency.

June 1, 2022

Lyons (The Night Will Find Us) serves up a slice of bleak cosmic horror drenched in noir. What began as a road trip across the desert for estranged siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot becomes a bloodstained nightmare as they are not only pursued by a ruthless biker gang, but Nell's body is possessed by something inhuman that could destroy the world. While Nell and Jonah try to stay one step ahead of their human pursuers, they must also try to contain the monster within Nell before it consumes her. There is plenty of horror in this piece, especially as readers see the terrible visions shown to Nell, but the thrumming engine of this book is straight-up noir. All of these characters, voiced by multiple narrators, sling words sharper than any knife or talon, and much of the novel's violence comes from human hands. VERDICT This has some truly disturbing elements of possession and cosmic horror, but the real darkness here has more terrestrial origins.--James Gardner

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