Technically, Silk is the less polished novel - sometimes I felt a little bogged down by the writer's gift for florid, tactile descriptions, and wished for things to just move along a bit faster. In Murder of Angels the prose is no less poetic, but Ms. Kiernan has matured as a novelist, and the story is in motion from the very first, moving at a satistfying and sometimes thrilling pace.

Honestly, the end of Murder of Angels was puzzling to me. There was less denouement than I expected. Because of the vividly realized other world the author created I had to wonder if the story arc had really come to an end after all. I've seen no mention of a third book continuing this story line, but it's easy to imagine Caitlín R. Kiernan wanting to delve further into this fantastic world she's constructed and live a little while longer with these characters, particularly the enigmatic, mystic Spyder Baxter.

If you love southern Gothic you will like these books - particularly Silk. If you like the works of Lovecraft, Machen, Harlan Ellison, Poppy Z. Brite, and Stephen King, you will be at home with both novels. If I were to give you a caveat about reading anything by Caitlín R. Kiernan, it would be that unlike many mass-market horror novels, hers are not for the intellectually lazy who want quick, forgettable entertainment. Writing like this demands that you take time with it, ingest it, let it work on you. Maybe even creep into your dreams.

However, the dreaming is worth it, if you ask me.

(*note ~ Caitlín R. Kiernan's blog can make for some very interesting reading for anyone who wants an idea of the realities of a full-time writer's life. I highly recommend it as well as any of the novels I've mentioned here. - www.caitlinrkiernan.com/journal.html-)