I am an absolute sucker for horror novels with strong music references and so when I heard Brom’s Evil in Me was taking a dive into this most hallowed of waters, I jumped at the chance of unpacking my air guitar for just one more solo. Should you be new to selling your soul to the devil for fame and fortune (or a hundred variations of this ancient theme), here are some top tips for further investigation: Scott Leeds’s debut Schrader’s Chord, Grady Hendrix’s We Sold Our Souls or Robert McCammon’s non-supernatural The Five, which is an ode to taking your guitar on the road. However, my two personal favourites are poles apart but equally impressive: Leo Darke’s really dumb horror comedy Lucifer Sam, where the late Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious comes back from the dead for one final gig, and David Peak’s magnificent Corpsepaint, one of the bleakest and most nihilistic horror novels about music ever written.

Gerald Brom, generally known in the literary world as Brom, is as well known for his work as a gothic fantasy artist and illustrator, role-playing games and comics as he is a novelist. I previously read Slewfoot (2021) and was impressed by this tale of witchcraft, which is backed up by sets of his highly striking illustrations. Evil in Me follows the same blueprint, however, this time we abandon puritanical New England times and head to the early eighties, where there are whispers of the Satanic Panic and the main character is a huge fan of legendary psychobilly punk band, The Cramps.

I, too, am a fan of The Cramps and have fond memories of watching them play at the Aberdeen Music Hall, way back in 1991. Hell, in the front row against the stage, I even briefly held hands with iconic vocalist Lux Interior. Beat that Brom! In one of Evil in Me’s many entertaining scenes, aspiring musician Ruby Tucker (who is doing community service at a Christian group) gets into trouble with her boss after teaching her little kids The Cramps classic ‘Garbageman’ instead of traditional gospel music. I enjoyed the many punk, new wave and mix tapes references, which are a nice diversion to the horror, however, non-music fans might not find them so involving.

Throughout the book, Ruby makes one dumb decision after another, but remains endearing whilst she tries to escape the trap of her small hometown for Atlanta and finding a way of extracting the cursed and powerful ring which ends up stuck on her finger. The ring belongs to an ancient demon, and when Ruby wears the ring, it brings her closer to the demon and her minions, which are pretty funny. Even though Evil in Me generally plays it straight, it does have a sense of humour. How could it not when one of the demons ends up playing drums in Ruby’s band!

Evil in Me has a terrific opening hook, jumping back several generations when somebody else has the misfortune of having the ring find their finger. Hallucinating and under the control of the demon, the poor victim goes on a killing spree before chopping off his own fingers and eventually cutting his own throat. Not to be messed with, the ring provides a gateway to Hell and even though the demons are not scary in the slightest, this is a million miles from the types of demons you might get in an Adam Nevill or Ramsey Campbell novel; they become entertaining and easier to root for than some of the human characters, some of which are rather one dimensional.

Ultimately, the story is as old as the hills, rock ‘n’ roll really can save your soul. “Can I hear a “HELL YEAH! All the way at the back!” I also enjoyed the fact that by wearing the ring (I’ve read Lord of the Rings too), it acts as a beacon for evil and draws all sorts of nastiness onto her doorstep, including a serial killer. This killer is given a bigger role than he deserves (is scarier than the demons), but adds little to the plot until the finish. Throw in a dysfunctional family and some caricature characters, and it is no wonder Ruby is running to Atlanta to track down her old bandmate and former best friend.

I dug the way the music scenes come together and would have loved to have been at the gig, which is crucial at the end of the story. This scene is very cool, and I have been at a thousand gigs at tiny toilet-sized venues where Ruby’s band sang to save their very souls. Evil in Me is a neat change of pace from Brom and is satisfyingly different from Slewfoot, which music fans will enjoy, but other readers perhaps less so.