PSYCHO
by Robert Bloch

If you expect that PSYCHO, the book, would be a “sloggy” and intricate look at the psychology of a psychopath because the author had all those pages and time that the 1960 film by Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have to really get into the nuts and bolts of it and dazzle us with his research on the human mind, you’d be happily wrong (because, woah, that sounds like a boring read as novels go).

If you’re looking for the novel version of a crime journalism show, you won’t get that either, and hopefully that’s also not bad news. The idea for this book came from real-life serial killer Ed Gein, about whom I don’t want to say too much because it could spoil the book, but this book is not a Truman Capote–esque, IN COLD BLOOD–like look at Ed Gein, IN COLD BLOOD, of course, being Capote’s novelized version of a true crime, about which I won’t say much either, except to say it’s a most excellent read you might demolish in one sitting. For PSYCHO, Bloch simply borrowed the notion of someone living like Gein and folded that one kernel into a much broader, clearly fictional novel. Oh, and it’s a page-turner.

Find out more in this video review.