Released earlier this year, Shock Rock combines two of my favorite things: music and horror fiction. The collection has twenty short stories, all with a musical theme - but the similarities stop there. Graham Masterton's "Voodoo Chile" suggests that Hendrix might have faced a fate even worse than his drug-related death. Michael Garrett's "Dedicated to the One I Loathe" lives up to its title, telling the story of a killer whose murders are based on songs. R. Patrick Gates' incredible "Heavy Metal" offers a new method for noise control. F. Paul Wilson's "Bob Dylan, Troy Jonson and the Speed Queen" makes people resist the temptation of building a time machine, going back into time and pretending that the songs from the future are their own. "The Dead Beat Society" by Don D'Ammassa is my favorite story in the book, and is about a young man who takes revenge on his murderer through a rock video.

There are some forgettable stories in this book, but there are enough good ones to make it a worthwhile collection. I'd recommend it to any fan of horror stories, especially if you're also interested in music. Shock Rock is published by Pocket and costs five dollars. n