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." Note: the two previous HWA anthologies are Under the Fang, edited by Robert R. McCammon, and Peter Straub's Ghosts, edited by Peter Straub. --Fiona Webster Contents: Autopsy Room Four by Stephen King Haunted by Charles Grant Out There in the Darkness by Ed Gorman Please Help Me by Richard Christian Matheson The Lesser of Two Evils by Denise M. Bruchman Point of Intersection by Dominick Cancilla Doctor, Lawyer, Kansas City Chief by Brent Monahan Grandpa's Head by Lawrence Watt-Evans Lonelyhearts by Esther M. Friesner Lighting the Corpses by Del Stone Jr. Echoes by Cindie Geddes Lifeline by Yvonne Navarro Blameless by David Niall Wilson Deep Down There by Clark Perry Knacker Man by Richard Parks So You Wanna Be a Hitman by Gary Jonas The Rug by Edo van Belkom Interview with a Psycho by Billie Sue Mosiman Icewall by William D. Gagliani A Southern Night by Jane Yolen The Forgiven by Stephen M. Rainey Safe by Gary A. Braunbeck