"The Jewelled Hand and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre" by Lionel Sparrow

I first heard the name of Lionel Sparrow nearly twenty years ago via James Doig, whose first anthology of Australian weird fiction, Australian Gothic (2007), contains two stories by Sparrow. It is fitting now that Doig has published a collection of twenty-four of Sparrow's tales, bracketed by those two stories. The first, the titular story, appeared in August 1887, and the second, "The Vengeance of the Dead," appeared in July 1907.  All of the twenty-four stories in the collection appeared in the national periodical, The Australian Journal, from 1887 (when Lionel Sparrow was about 20) through February 1910 (when he was about 43). 

The tales are what might be termed Poe-drenched--that is, the themes of Poe are foremost in Sparrow's tales. In his Introduction, Doig writes: "What is particularly striking about these stories is their excessiveness--we have violent murder, mutilation, disfiguring disease, and torture (both physical and psychological)." Sparrow (1867-1936) was active throughout his life in newspaper work. The Gothic-styled tales in The Australian Journal seem an aberration from much of the rest of his output; the stories really would not have been out of place in Weird Tales magazine, founded in 1923. Indeed there is a finesse to the writing and the atmosphere that elevates them a bit above most of the stories that appeared in Weird Tales. 

The Jewelled Hand and Other Tales of Mystery and the Macabre came out in late October, in trade paperback and Kindle from Valancourt Books, who have excellently designed the print volume. .  

Since 2007 Doig edited other books (including a collection of stories by Ernest Ferenc)  and anthologies of Australian stories.  I made, initially for my own use, an index of which stories appeared in which books, and posted it here on Wormwoodiana.  Doig has also published one volume of his own fiction, the excellent short story collection Friends of the Dead (2015) from Sarob Press. It was limited to only 200 copies and hasn't been reprinted. I keep hoping that there will be a follow-up volume, and perhaps coinciding with it, a paperback release of the first collection.