Robert Bloch's Psychos

The late, great Robert Bloch (author of Psycho) was a master of macabre humor: he was fond of clever, grisly one-liners, often used as twist endings. He also liked to write about psychotic and psychopathic killers. This solid anthology, put out by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and completed after Bloch's death, honors his legacy with 22 tales about murderers and crazies of various stripes. A good many of the stories, most memorably Esther Friesner's "Lonelyhearts," have Blochian twists at the end. The weakest of the bunch have no other flaw than predictability, and the strongest, such as Ed Gorman's powerful "Out There in the Darkness" are classics of traditional storytelling. You'll find excellent stories here by Denise M. Bruchman, Del Stone Jr., Edo van Belkom, Gary A. Braunbeck, and others. Stephen King contributes a little gem of a tale in which the narrator finds himself in an autopsy room: "It fits. It fits everything with a horrid prophylactic snugness. The dark. The rubbery smell.... Dear God, I'm in a body bag."Contents:Autopsy Room Four by Stephen KingHaunted by Charles GrantOut There in the Darkness by Ed GormanPlease Help Me by Richard Christian MathesonThe Lesser of Two Evils by Denise BruchmanPoint of Intersection by Dominick CancillaDoctor, Lawyer, Kansas City Chief by Brent MonahanGrandpa's Head by Lawrence Watt-EvansLonelyhearts by Esther M. FreisnerLighting the Corpses by Del Stone Jr.Echoes by Cindie GeddesLifeline by Yvonne NavarroBlameless by David Niall WilsonDeep Down There by Clark PerryKnacker Man by Richard ParksSo You Want to Be a Hitman by Gary JonasThe Rug by Edo van BelkomInterview with a Psycho by Billie Sue MosimanIcewall by William D. GaglianiA Southern Night by Jane YolenThe Forgiven by Stephen M. RaineySafe by Gary A. Braunbeck

From Publishers Weekly

Before his death in 1994, Bloch, author of the horror-suspense classic Psycho, lent his imprimatur to this anthology created by the Horror Writers Association (formerly, the Horror Writers of America). Like the selections in his previous anthologies, Psycho-Paths (1991) and Monsters in Our Midst (1993), these 22 stories emphasize psychological over supernatural or physical horrors. Stephen King sets the tone with "Autopsy Room Four," a nail-biting nod to Poe's "The Premature Burial," in which a victim of paralysis struggles to alert dissecting pathologists that he is not yet a corpse. Less ghoulish but no less gripping is Ed Gorman's "Out There in the Darkness" (one of the collection's two previously published stories), about neighborhood vigilantes stalked by the vengeful cat burglar they think they have murdered. Not surprisingly, some of the best contributions delve into the motives of Norman Bates types. In "Lighting the Corpses," Del Stone Jr. follows the thoughts of a serial killer who torches his victims. Both Edo van Belkom's "The Rug" and Gary Jonas's "So You Wanna Be a Hit Man" paint darkly comic portraits of people for whom murder becomes an irresistible pastime, while Bloch's favorite real-life psychopath, Jack the Ripper, shows up in both Denise Burchman's "The Lesser of Two Evils" and Richard Parks's "The Knacker Man." With one foot planted in horror, the other in crime, and its diverse hands skillfully restraining potential excesses, this volume proves that the most effective horrors are often those all in the mind. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The legend of Jack the Ripper inspires a pair of tales by Denise Bruchman ("The Lesser of Two Evils") and Richard Parks ("Knacker Man") in this collection of 22 original stories that explore the dark corners of the psychopathic mind. This new anthology presented by the Horror Writers Association also includes contributions by Stephen King, Esther Friesner, Charles Grant, and other genre veterans. Ranging from psychological terror to splatter fiction, this uneven collection of stories belongs in libraries where the demand for horror is high.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Who better to edit a horror anthology than America's dean of horror (and the author of the Psycho story that Hitchcock made famous), Robert Bloch? In this volume he presents 22 grisly tales by some of today's most popular authors. Among the offerings are "Autopsy Room Four," by Stephen King, in which an unfortunate snake-bite victim gets firsthand experience in what life is like during an autopsy. Ed Gorman takes a look at what happens when a neighborhood watch group goes bad in "Out There in the Darkness." In "Grandpa's Head," by Lawrence Watt-Evans, a devoted grandson discovers that there is a serial killer in the family, and that it just might run in the family as well. There is a different sort of serial killer in Dominick Cancilla's "Point of Intersection," where a time machine allows a man to kill the same woman time after time. Horror fans should find these and the rest of the stories good, macabre fun. Eric Robbins

From Kirkus Reviews

Showcase horror anthology: 22 original tales by Stephen King, Charles Grant, Ed Gorman, Richard Christian Matheson, and lesser lights, presented by the Horror Writers' Association. No piece by Bloch himself, alas, and no preface to explain how the book came about, although it apparently honors the famed penman and smiling motherstuffer of Psycho himself, this perhaps being Bloch's last chip, or--as the bouncy, irrepressibly loopy Master himself might pun--his last time around the Bloch. (Indeed, it was Bloch who, at 77, wrote in his unauthorized autobiography: ``Why anyone would want to be known as the author of Psycho is beyond me.'') King leads off the sheaf with a tour de force, ``Autopsy Room,'' a first-person tale about a golfer in a body bag who died on the course and is wheeled into the medical examiner's for an autopsy. Grant's ``Haunted'' tells of a knife-wielding killer who haunts a park and steals victims' faces. In Gorman's ``Out There in the Darkness,'' four middle-aged poker players kill a burglar whose escaped buddy then begins killing them. Matheson's first-person ``Please Help Me'' is truly scary: Three robbers of a 24-hour market take a hostage, bind and gag him, throw him into their trunk, and drive off. His fate would satisfy Edgar Allan Poe--dig? Dipped in deep purple, Denise M. Bruchman's ``The Lesser of Two Evils'' shows what happens when a mass murderer of prostitutes goes to a gypsy witch to have the ghost of Jack the Ripper extracted from his body; little does he know that the gypsy collects the blood of mass murderers, including that of the top one of this century. Jane Yolen's ``A Southern Night'' puts a new twist on the Susan Smith murders of her children. Nice stuff, but not a story rises above narrative and strives to be as stylish and memorable as Lovecraft, Poppy Z. Brite, or like masters of a fearful eloquence. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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