You’ll find some very strange short stories in Angela Slatter’s The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories. Being a fan of Lovecraft’s work, I enjoyed “Reading Off the Curriculum” which features a conniving student who decides he can use The Necronomicon without his professor’s approval. “Lavinia’s Wood” takes Lavina Whatley from Lovecraft’s famous story, “The Dunwich Horror,” and gives her a new eerie story.
Jack the Ripper stories have mined most of the possibilities of that tale, but Angela Slatter decided to see what would happen if a woman explored the Ripper case. “Ripper” presents a different kind of of investigator with surprising results. “Ripper” is the longest story in the book and takes its time to unfold with unpredictable results.
I also enjoyed Slatter’s “Author’s Notes” where she writes about how each story in The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories came about and what effects she was trying to achieve. Angela Slatter is certainly a new author to keep an eye on. I’ll be buying her next book. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Previous Publication Credits xi
Introduction 1
The Soldier 5
Egyptian Revival 21
Neither Time nor Tears 49
No Good Deed 65
The Little Mermaid, in Passing 87
But for an I. 97
Ripper 119
Better Angels 211
The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners 225
Our Lady of Wicker Bridge 239
Reading Off the Curriculum 255
Change Management 267
Lavinia’s Wood 281
Finnegan’s Field 295
Author’s Notes 327
I have read some of her short stories and have liked them. I have a couple of her earlier books on my kindle but haven’t read them yet.
Steve, I want to read more of Angela Slatter’s work. I’ll track down those ebooks. Thanks for the heads up!
I’ve enjoyed the few stories by her that I have read and plan to read a lot more!
Jerry, Angela Slatter can be more scary than Hurricane Sally!
Jerry, you’re OK?
Slatter looks like someone I’d like, but never heard of. From the picture above, this appears to be a very thick collection. My library has none of her books, just two anthologies in which she has a story.
Michael, THE HEART IS A MIRROR FOR SINNERS AND OTHER STORIES is 332 pages. Worth every penny!
Michael-she is a Australian writer and none of her collections have U.S. publishers. All are from Australian or British publishers. A couple of her early collections from Tartarus press can be found on Amazon for a fairly low price on e book.
Steve, my copy of THE HEART IS A MIRROR FOR SINNERS AND OTHER STORIES is published by PS Australia, an imprint of PS Publishing of England.
New to me too but I don’t often read horror.
Patti, there’s a lot of “psychological” suspense in Angela Slatter’s fiction. And some horror, too.
I’m with Michael. I read a ton of short stories, as you know, but I never heard of her. Might be interesting.
I’m currently reading two very different writers – Laurie Colwin and Joe Hill. Also have collections by Rex Stout, Ed Hoch, and Erle Stanley Gardner waiting next.
Jeff, I’m ordering a couple new books from Crippen & Landru. Art Scott might be interested in that Rex Stout collection.
I figure Art has it already. It came out four or five years ago but I just discovered it.
I bought Slatter’s first novel (which has been compared to The Dresden Files) for Jackie for 99 cents on Amazon. Sounds like the kind of stuff she reads – half human, half non-human, works in both worlds, etc. Set in Brisbane.
Jeff, sounds like my kind of stuff, too! I’ll download it.