deal with the devil

The Devil of Echo Lake by Douglas Wynne

April 17, 2014 by Bob Leave a Comment

I love rock n’ roll horror. It’s an under appreciated subgenre rich with untold stories. There isn’t enough quality musical fiction out there. Joe Hill’s Heart Shaped Box is an obvious exception. Anne Rice’s Vampire Lestat fronted a rock band in The Queen of the Damned, as did the pre-emo bloodsucker of S.P. Somtow’s Vampire […]

Filed Under: Ebooks, Ghost Stories, Horror, Novels, Supernatural Thriller Tagged With: deal with the devil, devil of echo lake, douglas wynne, evil producer, ghost story, great god pan, haunted church, haunted studio, musical fiction, rock and roll horror, rock star, satyr

Torn to Pieces by Joseph M. Monks

September 12, 2012 By Bob Leave a Comment

We’ve all read gritty, NYC crime dramas and police procedurals before, but Joseph M. Monks’ Torn to Pieces, hits harder and cuts deeper than most. The chemistry between Detectives Jack Whelan and Burton Carver is similar to Joe R. Lansdale’s brilliant Hap Collins and Leonard Pine novels; I hope Monks has more Whelan/Carver tales to […]

On Writing – A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King

July 7, 2014 By Bob Leave a Comment

I recently downloaded a digital edition of Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft after reading the hardcover more than a decade ago. I planned on skimming my ebook edition, looking for a few pointers, but I was immediately drawn in by Big Steve’s affable style, and I wound up re-reading the book in its […]

The Two Sams by Glen Hirshberg

September 14, 2012 By Bob Leave a Comment

You won’t find any vampires, werewolves or other traditional monsters in Hirshberg’s horror fiction. You’ll barely even find horror in The Two Sams. What you will find are five stories laden with human sorrow and a palpable atmosphere of dread. These stories are not so much written as they are crafted. You can practically see […]

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki

February 28, 2014 By Bob Leave a Comment

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is a collection of Zen and pre-Zen writings compiled by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki. First published in 1957, the book remains a comprehensive and relevant introduction to Zen philosophy. According to the publisher: Zen Flesh, Zen Bones is … a collection of accessible, primary Zen sources so readers can struggle over […]

The Passage by Justin Cronin

August 23, 2013 By Bob Leave a Comment

Justin Cronin’s The Passage is an impressive work. The first book in a planned trilogy, The Passage reads like a series of short novels and novellas stitched together, creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. There are shades of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises here. The Passage is a long, sprawling, […]

Monsters: A Halloween Short Story by Stewart O’Nan

October 26, 2012 By Bob Leave a Comment

While Garton and Lansdale bring lighthearted EC-style chills to their Halloween tales, Stewart O’Nan takes it to a deeper and darker place in his coming-of-age tale, Monsters. O’Nan gives us some meat to chew on in this short tale—the lost of innocence, the power of guilt, the purpose and function of religion and prayer, and […]

Scratch by Brian Keene

October 20, 2012 By Bob Leave a Comment

Brian Keene fans have seen these characters and situations before—a blue-collar family struggling to survive in the face of a monstrous supernatural presence. Those elements, combined with Keene’s patented action-packed pacing, and B horror movie thrills, blend pleasantly in Scratch. This is a brief but engaging novella, similar in style and theme to Keene’s The Conqueror […]

Rob's books

The Bone Worms

by Keith Minnion

Minnion's supernatural police procedural reminds me of the work of Graham Masterton. Minnion's characters may no be wholly original -- the emotionally unstable cop, his doting ma, his long-suffering gal, his trusted partner -- but they'r...

Waltz of Shadows

by Joe R. Lansdale

Joe Lansdale is a master storyteller and Waltz of Shadows is no exception. Like many of Lansdale's novels, this is a tale of family, and the bonds that tie us to one another. It's also the story of death-defying thrill seekers, cheating ...

Burial to Follow

by Scott Nicholson

Scott Nicholson often writes about the strange burgs and creepy backwaters found along the Appalachian Trail, and Burial to Follow is no exception. I'll admit, I didn't understand everything that was going on in this novella - something ...

The Painted Darkness

by Brian James Freeman

A man in a remote locale is driven insane my personal demons, delves into strange artistry, and turns on his family. Oh, and he needs to keep an eye on a potentially explosive boiler too. No, it's not Stephen King's The Shining, though B...

Elsewhere

by William Peter Blatty

Sometimes good writers produce crappy novels. Such is the case with William Peter Blatty’s Elsewhere. Blatty is a master of supernatural and horror fiction. Hell, Stephen King might have remained a high school English teacher if Blatty h...

The Devil of Echo Lake by Douglas Wynne

Born of mud.

Made for murder.

Get A Job, Son!

“Spine-Tingling Tales Of Musical Terror!”

“Bloodcurdling Historical Horror!”

New Release!

Spoken Word + Ambient Music =

Blog On It!

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