Product Description

The third Dark Arts Books release is Sins of the Sirens, a compilation of 14 new tales and rare reprints from four of horror's most provocative authors: Maria Alexander, Christa Faust, Loren Rhoads and Mehitobel Wilson.

The seduction of an angel; the lure of the lash; the touch of psychic hands; living ropes that wind and bind... these are just a few of the alluring sins of these sirens. Look inside, but be careful they don t lure you in too far...

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1119689 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

Review

Loren Rhoads has a taste for the most breathtaking insights to be found in macabre topics...Her work is at once arresting, haunting, unsettling and gorgeous.
-Thomas Roche,
editor of the Noirotica series

Maria Alexander's stories are darkly funny and deliciously addictive.
- Jon Evans,
Arthur Ellis Award-winning author of Dark Places

Mehitobel Wilson is, in fact, the Real Deal, and reading her prose is like getting a red hot wire raked across your tenderest flesh.
- Fangoria Magazine

Christa Faust's voice will haul you outside and kick your ass. And you'll love every minute.
- Michael Marshall,
author of The Intruders

--Blurbs

If you've ever been told that dames are into the hearts-and-flowers, caress-my-inner-Goddess brand of eroticism, crack a copy of Sins of the Sirens and take a taste of .44-caliber love and stiletto desire. --ErosZine.com

My first thought in reviewing this book is that there is a level of deeply honest eroticism and fantasy to these stories that you seldom see in fiction. These aren't stories for the faint of heart. They are also not stories men should read if they have to stand up in public. They ARE stories that will stick with you.... this is a very strong, very intense and emotionally charged collection from some of the most talented ladies of darkness working in the horror and speculative fiction fields today. --MacabreInk.com

About the Author
A former fundamentalist turned simple fatalist, since 2000 Maria Alexander currently has had a number of her dark fiction tales have been published to some acclaim, as well as a collection of horror poetry. Her credits include stories in Gothic.net, Chiaroscuro Magazine and Paradox Magazine, as well as a number of anthologies. Almost all of her works have garnered either Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. The BBC radio occasionally invites her to talk about blasphemy, her favorite subject. She lives in Los Angeles with a French boyfriend, a pervasive sense of doom and a purse called Trog.

Christa Faust is the author of nine novels, including Control Freak, Triads (with Poppy Z. Brite), Hoodtown and her latest, Money Shot forthcoming from Hard Case Crime.

For ten years, Loren Rhoads was the editor of the cult nonfiction magazine Morbid Curiosity. Before that, she wrote about cemeteries for Gothic.Net. Her fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance, City Slab, Not One of Us, etc., and in the chapbook Ashes & Rust. She's written erotica for Unzipped, Sex ToyTales,and Noirotica 4, with varying degrees of honesty.

Mehitobel Wilson has been publishing horror fiction since 1999. She is a Bram Stoker Award nominee, and many of her stories have been granted Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series. Bel's been a dog groomer, an industrial painter, a runway model, a belt worker in a factory, a cigarette girl at a movie theater, an audio/visual technician, a Latin tutor, a truck dispatcher, and a waitress, among other things. She's lived in the backwoods and on the streets. Now she lives (in a house) in the Deep South, prefers Jack, beer, and Marlboros, and inflicts Hong Kong rap music on the unwary.

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Customer Reviews

(Chaud, chaud, chaud!) Hot, hot, hot!
Well I am French and love good food and wine. These Sirens are the equivalent of a five star meal in Paris: balanced yet surprising, beautiful,well paired, stylish... What else doesone want? Ah ok... good food is like good erotica it teases you to no-end... Well guess what: eroticism and fear are two main ingredients of their dishes... So for the fraction of a price of that good meal in Paris you can own this great anthology (plus you do not have to put up with arrogant Parisians like me!). Run do not walk... these kind of deals do not last....

Sexy and scary!
Anybody who is expecting a collection of tales here of cuddly vampires seducing shy Goth chicks by candlelight is in for a seismic eye opening. SINS OF THE SIRENS offers up (mostly) erotic horror stories by four of the best femme writers in the genre, and these little gems are anything but cuddly.

Loren Rhoads kicks it into high gear with a quartet of stories which reach delirious heights with "Still Life With Broken Glass", an incredibly tense and disturbing story about a female photographer whose death obsession takes some unwholesome turns. Loren's "Sound of Impact" is a quiet piece with a sock-to-the-gut ending, and would be right at home in any Joyce Carol Oates collection.

Next up is Maria Alexander's trio, the centerpiece of which is the novella-length "Pinned", a trip through L.A.'s BDSM scene which feels so real it's almost too real - Alexander's writing makes you equally experience every prick of a needle or shiver of pleasure. "The Dark River in His Flesh" is a tasty reprint oozing fog and absinthe, as the author paints an evocative portrait of Victorian London.

Mehitobel Wilson offers up four of the volumes most downright squirmy works, especially "Close", in which the twist endings reverse themselves at least once after examining the psychology of a hotel employee who hides under a bed to become part of the sex happening above him. "The Wild" and "Parting Jane" both effectively examine the American club scene with a twist of Southern Gothic.

Rounding out the volume are three tales from Christa Faust, including "Love, La Llorona", which mixes a south-of-the-border setting with Japanese-style video obsessions to create one of the creepiest stories in the book. The big surprise here is Faust's "Firebird" a long tale which is more science fiction than horror, as a young woman in a bleak future sets forth on a urban quest to find the source of a new lethal drug. The story, which is both superbly imagined and emotionally detailed, should be a welcome addition to any book, regardless of genre.

The sheer craftsmanship in SINS is uniformly good, and occasionally dazzling, with all four Sirens demonstrating style to burn and chills aplenty.

The book is attractively designed, and kudos are also due to editor John Everson for an insightful introduction.