Product Description
Best known as the author of "Psycho", Robert Bloch is world-renowned for his stories of horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. Many of the 25 stories in this first volume of "The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch" have been unavailable for decades. The stories are in his classic style of gripping suspense, science fiction and fantasy.

As Bloch writes, "These stories in this collection have a common theme; they deal with monsters. Some of the monsters are human, some are not-- but all of them embody, in one way or another, the fears common to us in our dreams. We call these monsters by many names-- ghosts, vampires, extraterrestrials, changelings. But we recognize them for what they are; manifestations of the secret dreads and desires which lurk beneath the surface of consciousness."

"Bloch has become a virtual fixture on the popular culture landscape." --Publishers Weekly

"If you're not familiar with Bloch's short fiction, find someone to borrow this from; if you already are familiar, you know that you want to own these volumes." --Locus ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Two stars for good writing technique---no stars for content
Block can write, that's plain. He is able to enter into the mind of his character and speak with the appropriate voice. That said, these stories fail at their goal of inspiring either interest or dread.

From the first page the reader can predict the ending...well, maybe not exactly but close enough to make reading the rest a bore and reading the final twist anticlimactic.

When one of his characters is expected to be a vampire only to reveal himself as a werewolf in the last line, is this a payoff worth plodding through a long, bland story? It is not.

When a "man" describes his appetite for blondes for ten pages and then in the last page he reveals himself to be an alien who eats blondes, is this shocking? No. It's been expected from the first line and was not worth the long, hard slog through to the end.

As for the best part of any fiction or film, the part before the explanations, the part where you're asking yourself: where can this be going? how can this be? how can it all make some sort of sense?Well, that mystery is nonexistent in Bloch's writing, and that's a shame. Why suffer through a story only to be rewarded with a hackneyed, trite, expected ending?

It is well that many of the writers from the golden age of SF are being brought back into print, but some authors deserve to be allowed to fade into obscurity.

The sci-fi/horror authority
Robert Bloch was an incredible writer. He's mostly known for writing "Psycho." I didn't discover him until I took a literature class in college but he writes with an incredible kind of style that builds suspense until the very last pages of a story. If you like being mesmerized and scared at the same time you should definitely pick this volume up.

Master of the twist ending
This is the first volume of a 3 volume collection of Robert Bloch's short stories.However it is NOT complete.I have a 1960s collection of his short stories and none of them are in any of these three volumes.Still--this is probably as close as we're going to get:)

These are the early Bloch stories--from 1939 to 1956.He was a very good writer.His stories are direct and to the point.He doesn't waste time on descriptions or details.He gives you just what you need to know and goes full speed ahead.Not all of the stories are that great anymore.Some are cliched but you have to realize he INVENTED the cliches!None are bad at all--just a few are familar.Still they're quick, easy reads and always had a macabre twist at the end.The twist endings are just great--some you'll see coming but others come out of left field.Also it's fun to read these stories and remember how they were used for episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and movies.ALL the stories for the 1972 film "Asylum" are in this collection!They're slightly different though.An excellent thorough enjoyable collection.Highly recommended.

Fantastic literature at its best
Most people only know Robert Bloch for 'Psycho', but his career is way beyond that. He was a prolific writer, and the youngest member of the so-called Lovecraft Circle. This collection encompasses some of his best works, some of them heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. I'd suggest this tome to anyone who is into the Mythos or any kind of fantastic literature and fiction. I enjoyed it quite a lot, and I'm sure you'll do too.

A Bloch Party
Robert Bloch's first volume of complete stories is gruesome fun.Some of his most famous and chilling short stories can be found in this collection.Many of these stories were translated into either film by Amicus productions (The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, Torture Garden, Tales from the Crypt, etc.) or made into a radio play.Among the great stories contained are "Mannikins of Horror" where an insane nueroscientist plays god and breathes life into clay; "Frozen Fear" tells of a Cajun curse that will chill you to the bone; "The Man Who Collected Poe" is a fantastic tale of a man's obsession going beyond the mortal realm; and "I Like Blondes" deals with an individual's taste in women.This collection contains 27 stories, all of which are a blast to read.If you enjoy horror short stories without all the ambiguous endings that seem to plague the current market, this is the collection for you. ... Read more

Product Description

When the Bates Motel loomed up out of the storm, Mary Craine thought it was her salvation. The rooms were musty but clean, and the manager, Norman Bates, seemed like a nice enough fellow, if a little strange... .

Then Mary met Norman's mother. And the butcher knife.

The nightmare had just begun... .

... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Psycho
Great story if you've seen the movie this is better and you get that missing insight of Norman Bates mind. The story is page turner Bloch is good writer and has plotted the story well no sentence is wasted or boring. After reading Darkly Dreaming Dexter I thought I would try and get into rambling mind of a different kind of killer. Bates is obsessed with his mother wants to be like her And wants her to be part of him. Only read below if you know the story.


In the end alot of detail is left out in the movie that touches on the state of mind of Bates. He was transvestite schizophrenic who in blind range of jealousy killed his mother and her lover so that he could have his mother to himself. In the end out of guilt tried to revive his mother from dead having conversation with her skeleton and pretending she was alive until in his split personality she literally became part of him. He would become semi drunk and have and split where she became the driver and killed until he gained control again, then he would assume he just passed out asleep when she was in control. He was reading into satanism and metaphysics which is probably where he got the idea that he could bring back his mother from the dead and decided to unearth her body from her grave.

More Norman makes it worth a read
Psycho is my first experience with Robert Bloch (as I'm sure it is with most people). It's tough to review this one fairly because it is so tied to one of the most famous movies of all time. Getting Hitchcock's images out of my head while reading is a near impossible task, especially since the movie was such a faithful adaptation of the book. In fact the two were so close that the book almost felt like a novelization of the movie that overshadowed it.

But man the book is compulsively readable! I wish I didn't know what was coming, because the book is very well written. Bloch is a clever writer who managed to easily build tension and foreshadow just enough without ever going over the top. Knowing the twists that are coming muted the suspense, but I still looked forward to reading more of it.

I started the book in the morning on a work day and only read on breaks and at lunch, but was a hundred pages (or about half way) in by the end of the day. I read the rest the next morning in a marathon session.

Though everything from the famous movie is also in the book, Bloch goes into a lot more depth about Norman and his relationship with Mother. And knowing what I know, seeing how it was handled is very impressive.

I've already ordered another highly rated Bloch book: The Kidnapper. It will be fun to see how he does when I don't know the story ahead of time.

Excellent page-turner, bested by the film
I read this book through in a few short sessions, and I could certainly see reading it in full in one longer sitting.It's an American classic in horror as we all know, but having seen the film I could not help but make continuous comparisons to the film.

Often I prefer the book to the film, "The Shining" comes to mind, but here it's the opposite, I think anything left out of the film that was in the book was almost always the right thing to do.Some of the slower parts in the book helped to add proper atmosphere I suppose, but I still feel they could have been left out.Furthermore, the character of Norman Bates is more interesting as the tall, thin, shifty Anthony Perkins than the fat, be-speckled fellow we meet in the book.

Let me just brag a bit and say that when I first saw the film, the ending was unknown to me, I'm probably one of the few people still around who can say that, and it did make the film a lot more frightening at the time.That being said, if you're like I was, I'd recommend the movie first, read the book later, it will be a much more memorable experience.I did enjoy how Bloch subtly handled Normans interactions with mother, and that's all I will say.

meh
groundbreaking story and literary archetype? yes. that's why i give three stars. decently constructed narrative? sure. the writing, though? not good. it's worth reading because it's a classic of literary and pop culture, but to say bloch is a master writer of the genre is not only stretching it, it kinda makes me, oh, i dunno, want to go put on a dress and wig, get a straight razor and . . . make one hell of a ham sandwich.

EXCELLENT EXAMPLE OF NOVEL WRITING
PSYCHO is maybe the best example there is of how to construct and write a novel.

Norman Bates is as fragile as a soap bubble, and Bloch milks Bates' pathology and circumstances for every drop of mayhem possible.

But its the architecture of this book that is impressive. Schools should use it to illustrate how you write a masterpiece with chewing gum and duct tape. ... Read more

Product Description
Bloch, one of the most acclaimed horror writers of our century, take the reader from his early years in a suburb of Chicago to his first fateful encounter with the cult fiction magazine Weird Tales to meetings with famous Hollywood superstars, including Ray Bradbury, Vincent Price, and Boris Karloff. Photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a man, a fan, a life -- autobiography!
I had the good fortune to meet Robert Bloch at a small science-fiction convention in Atlanta in the late 70's/early 80's.He read one of his short stories, fielded questions, then we were treated to a screening of Psycho (I think he may have left by this time.)I remember how warm and funny, even self-depreciating, he was.This book is like that.From boyhood and adolescence in hard times, to being a political "spin doctor" (before the term was invented), to marriage and children, all the while remaining a fan -- Bloch had a life, though perhaps not notorious, which was well worth learning about, especially the way he tells it.I miss him greatly, but was thrilled to learn of this book, and get one more glimpse of his greatness.Even a marginal fan will enjoy this book.

A fond memory unmarred by ego.
When hyping this book on the Sci-Fi channel author Robert Bloch quipped "People will be surprised to find that I have done absolutely nothing of merit with my life." Ha-ha. The man wrote Psycho, the novel that inspired the movie made by whatshisname. But there is also a bitter truth in that statement, Bloch lived the real working writer's life. The one where he didn't get to go to a great many foreign lands, didn't win national acclaim or even fame (despite the success of Psycho), but worked hard, and mostly broke, at his craft for decades. Both the man and his writings really are overlooked national treasures, both to those who simply read him or those lucky enough to have known him. I miss you Mr. Bloch, you had a great life filled with merit.Highly recommended to those interested in a real working writer's life. ... Read more

Product Description
Psycho author Robert Bloch's seminal tale of The Ripper in then-contemporary times was originally published in Weird Tales in '43. Now it's getting adapted to comics for the first time ever by acclaimed writer Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale, and featuring art and colors by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kevin Colden (Fishtown). ... Read more

Product Description
The author best known for his fictional cross-dressing serial killer Norman Bates in Psycho has seen little critical review of his work. These 12 essays examine Robert Bloch's novels, short stories and life, as well as the themes and issues explored in his influential canon. Bloch's fascination with killers, man's inhumanity to man, the dichotomy of tragedy and comedy, and his contributions to screen adaptations of his work are here covered by leading scholars of fantastic literature. The volume charts the growth of Robert Bloch from a writer of amateur pastiches to an acclaimed author bridging the gap between H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Shouting FIRE In A Crowded Paperback
This feels like a Cornell Woolrich noir potboiler: neurotic hero struggles with weirdos to uncover a mystery.Who's the culprit?Might it even be... HIMSELF??Bloch is always fun to read, and this gives good pulp value for money-- the stuff about cults (our protagonist's area of expertise) is amusing, and the improbable plot twists (well, plot devices) keep things tumbling along until the finale.Everyone's a suspect!A bit dated (published in 1964), it's still fun-- suspend disbelief and keep tongue placed firmly in cheek while reading.

Standard stuff, but it keeps you reading
After reading books like The Kidnapper and Psycho, you cannot read Firebug and feel a bit let down. I mean I guessed the ending, and to do it on book by a writer respected for his cracker jack twist endings, well it's a little disappointing. But what makes the book worthwhile is Bloch's talent for getting you deep inside the psychotic mind. That alone is worth the price of any admission ticket. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert Bloch's Psycho captivated a nation when it appeared in 1959. The story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-lifestory of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released.

Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the Bates motel. One night Norman spies on a beautiful woman that checks into the hotel as she undresses. Norman can't help but spy on her. Mother is there though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For the Bloch aficionado, a fount of info..!!
This slim volume is an expertly written review of Bloch's oeuvre, covering all of his differing styles, periods and genres. I had no idea how much "Blochiana" was available to complete my collection. The author was a friend and associate of Bloch so he is able to write knowledgeably right from the start. Clearly this book is not intended for the casual reader. You gotta be nuts aboult the old Master like I am to invest some serious bread for a work as specialized as this. I'm glad I bought it. Do a Google for Randall Larson to find his other Bloch related writings. All-in-all I would describe it as useful, informative, entertaining and witty.
Thanks for your time!
... Read more

Product Description
A collection of three complete novels by the author of Psycho follows the continuing escapades of Norman Bates in Psycho, Psycho II, and Psycho House. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Psycho book
The book is great. It was what I expected and it came so soon after ordering. ... Read more

Product Description

The new Bates Motel is a tourist attraction, a recreation of the murder site, and the developers are already counting their profits. And there's a new exhibit, one nobody expected: the bloody corpse of a teenage girl crumpled in the front hall, stabbed to death. Among the avalanche of press and publicity is reporter Amelia Haines, true-crime book writer. She's studying the original Psycho killings and to Amy, the new murders are a golden opportunity-if she can be part of the investigation, perhaps track down the killer herself, then her fame, and her fortune, will be assured. But catching the madman won't be easy . . . the town is full of suspects, and Amy's best informants keep turning up murdered. If she isn't careful, Amelia Haines may be the next permanent guest at the Bates Motel. . . .

... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Psycho House
I read the book Psycho House by Robert Bloch. This is a horror book. I choose this book because I like horror books and it looked interesting. I also heard that Psycho and Psycho II were really good books.
The last line in the book was very interesting and made the book really good.
"When your done writing this book maybe you can write another about the asylum."
"In here"
"No out there"
This quote is Amy and the doctor talking and he means out there in the world because hes a doctor in the asylum.
I thought that this was a good book. It was very exciting and kept me guessing. The book was a about a journalist named Amy, who goes to a small town to do a story about a deceased murderer Norman Bates. Things get interesting when she comes to town and people start getting murdered. Everyones a suspect and everyone giving Amy information is dying. In the end the murderer turns out to be someone who helped Amy and was for a little while her friend. I never would have guessed it was him. I would recommend this book to anyone in high school or older.

The curtain closes on the Bates legacy.
With the novel Psycho House author Robert Bloch created a trilogy that closed with a typically witty examination of the obsession America has with its serial killer 'heroes'.Norman Bates has been quite dead for years, the insane killer from the previous novel is safely tucked away in an asylum, and the infamous Bates house and motel is set to become a wax museum that recreates the gruesome details of the crimes committed there.Too bad a teenaged trespasser has just been stabbed to death on the property.With all the usual suspects accounted for who can be killing now, and why?Geared more for fans of the novels than the films, this is recommended to old fashioned Bloch fans.Those looking for thrills with a harsher edge should look elsewhere.

Bloch almost at his best
There was no beating Psycho.Psycho II came close with the "is Norman dead or not" clause.Psycho House says, "Yes, Norman's dead, but try telling Norman that."Even after the death of Robert Bloch, Norman Bates still lives on.Psycho House shows us that.It shows us that even if the body of a person is no more, his legend lives on forever.An Excellent novel with a few loose strings that now, since it's creator has died, only our imaginations are left to fix.

Ok
A disappointment after reading the first two, but still good.A fair read, with a great last line.

Terrific
I bought this little gem about five years ago, I've read it 15 times and it still gives me goose bumps.Bloch weaves a mystery filled tale with stunning ease.With red herrings abound, Bloch grips you from page one and never lets go.A terrific book.Buy it, you won't be sorry.It's all the more relevant following Bloch's death. ... Read more

Product Description
“Next to Genesis, no book in the Hebrew Bible has had a stronger influence on Western literature than the Song of Songs.”
–The New York Review of Books

One of the greatest love poems ever written, The Song of Songs celebrates the sexual awakening of a young woman and her lover and the intoxicating experience of falling in love. Composed more than two thousand years ago, this book of the Old Testament is not only an essential religious and literary text, but also a source of inspiration to modern-day poets and lovers. Enhanced by an Afterword by the esteemed scholar Robert Alter and a new Foreword from the noted translator Stephen Mitchell, this definitive volume showcases Chana Bloch and Ariel Bloch’s sensuous translation which has “a lyrical purity that is delightful” (W. S. Merwin).Amazon.com Review
Ariel and Chana Bloch's new translation of the Song ofSongs--the most sexually explicit and sensually rich book of theBible--is pure delight from beginning to end. Its introduction is anaccessible, sophisticated, entertaining, and comprehensive orientationto the literary and religious history of the Song of Songs. TheBlochs say the speakers in this poem "don't suffer love, they savorit." Their translation, overflowing with full--almost to the point offlorid--feeling ("Feast, friends, and drink / till you are drunk withlove!"), arrives at a time when many Jews and Christians are openingthemselves to the religious dimensions of sexuality and humanlove. Song of Songs has a great deal to teach us; thistranslation is sure to attract many eager students. --MichaelJoseph Gross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Authentic & Beautiful - Capturing the Mystery of Love
The best translation, hands down, is this Modern Library Classics by Bloch and Bloch. The layout is very user-friendly, with the original Hebrew on one side, with the English translation on the other. Anyone who knows or is studying Hebrew will appreciate this feature. Also the Song jumps between voices and narration without the typical "he said"/"she said" obtrusions that are common to modern writing. Using context clues it is not too challenging to figure out if the lines belong to the Lover or the Beloved, but the translators' use of italics and bold, makes this distinction clear and renders a very smooth reading.

What makes this translation supreme is Bloch and Bloch's great command of Biblical Hebrew combined with their artistry in maintaining the poetic beauty of this text. They took great care to translate this text as closely as possible to the original Hebrew, but still made some artistic adjustments when a too literal translation would be awkward.

This edition includes a wonderful introduction which discusses the various historical interpretations of this text, as well as their own take. A detailed commentary follows which explains in minutiae the justifications for various translation decisions. For example the word "love" in 5:1, Bloch and Bloch argue has in Hebrew really the specific meaning of "love-making" as opposed to other Biblical terms for love such as the NT Greek "philos," or "agape," or the OT Hebrew "chesed" all of which can have meanings quite different from the act of coitus implied in "love-making." But the Blochs are careful to point out that the same Hebrew word used for love in 5:1 is used elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, and in those instances is very clearly in the context of romantic lovers spending the night together.

The Bloch translation manages to capture the mystery, the beauty, the sensuality of the language, in a way that is fresh, readable, and true to the Hebrew.

Absolutely would buy from this seller again!
Absolute satisfaction with this transaction.I would definitely buy from this seller again. From start to finish I say A+ service & product!

Gorgeous book
You want to be scholarly and sexy all at once? Looking for the perfect book for an important anniversary or a gift for that intellectual you have your eye on? Look no further.
The very first verse sets the tone:
"Kiss me, make me drunk with your kisses!
Your sweet loving
Is better than wine."
In their introduction, the Blochs note that the woman's viewpoint predominates in this amazing collection of love poems. Most of the lines are hers and she is more forceful than her lover. the two of them live in an earthly paradise, thriving in nature, exulting in their youthful sexuality.
Later of course, the rabbis justified this book's inclusion in the biblical canon by pretending it was an allegory of love between God and the Jewish people or the Jewish people and the Torah. Christianity saw it as an allegory of the love between Jesus and the church or somesuch nonesense.
This translation casts aside these perversions and reclaims this wonderful celebration of human sexuality for what it is. I can't recommend it too highly.
For more on me and my book, The Nazi Hunter: A Novelgo to www.alanelsner.com.

Profoundly Sensual
How wonderful you are, O Love,
how much sweeter
than all other pleasures!

But to try to quote from the Song is like hunting for a rabbit's foot.Or trying to cook only a spoonful of soup.The lovers are stoked with the such desperate passion, that no matter the circumstance, the politic, or the law, they bestow on themselves and, now, thanks to the translation, on us, a profound innocence.In that split moment before tears begin to well.Before pain is translated into reaction.Or desire hits the brain.No wonder the Song flaunts such a pure animal presence.The lovers living between the heartbeats.I can see the Shulamite stealthing around the city at night.Silent, almost rolling, footsteps.The lovers collision always in the softlight of dawn.The air cold.

Hurry, my love! Run away,
my gazelle, my wild stag
on the hills of cinnamon.

Good Modern Version to Complete Older Ones
I enjoyed the evocative language. I thought the authors did a good job of organizing the speech and assigning words to the most probable speakers...only in one or two places did I prefer the KJV arrangements. The commentary was very informative, although I respectfully disagree on a few points, as I tend to a more conservative Christian approach to the text. My view is that, while obviously singing the praises of human sexuality, you cannot avoid some sort of allegorical/symbolic approach to this book. While the Bible is not anti-sexuality, nor would it ideologically be against healthy portraits of sexuality in righteous contexts, the book's presence in the canon of Scripture demands us to look for a prophetical meaning in the text. The Jews have seen it as an allegory of God's love for Israel. The Church has seen it as an allegory of Christ's love for the Church. Understood rightly, it is BOTH! The Shulamite is Israel, yes, but Israel was divided between the northern kingdom and the south. The norther kingdom of Ephraim eventually was lost and assimilated to the gentile world. I can't help but see the way in which the Shulamite is described as being a portrait of Ephraim. It is as if Solomon represents the greater son of David, the Messiah, who goes out among the nations and falls in love with Ephraim of old and brings her back. It is my view that Ephraim today is represented in the gentiles who have become Christians. Consider that most of the spices used to describe her are foreign imports, and many of the geographical places used to describe her are in the north. She is dark and lovely, like the tents of Kedar. She is foreign and exotic, like a mare in Pharoahs chariots. She is contrasted with the daughters of Jerusalem, who would be the southern kingdom who stayed faithful to the house of David.

... Read more

Product Description

You remember Norman Bates-the shy motel manager with the fatal mother fixation. Now, years after his bout of butchery that horrified the world, Norman is at large again, breaking free from the psycho ward, cutting a shocking swath of blood all the way to Hollywood-where, so it happens, they are making a movie about Norman's life and crimes. A movie that suddenly and terrifyingly becomes a lot like real life....

... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not Free SF Reader
Also possessed by sequelitis.


While the first Psycho novel is a pretty good book, this one is only half the book the first was, at least in quality, as you can see by the rating.

Norman escapes and goes all Slasher, which is really not why it was interesting to start with.

A first?The movie is better than the book!
How about that?Usually you watch a movie and go, "nyah.. the book was better." And, oddly, Psycho is that rare breed where both the first movie and the second are better than the books. Of course, the original Psycho is a good story, and the movie is a flawless masterpiece. But this is something different altogether - now we can say "yeah, the movie's pretty excellent actually. But the book? Gah - what the Hell was Bloch thinking?!"

Trust me, this is one time you'll be glad Bloch didn't get a say in the making of the movie (the story is 100% different). Whereas the movie has Norman going back to the motel and taking up where he left off, in this there's an (admittedly ahead of its time) idea ofthe original story of Psycho being made into a movie, (eat yer heart out Scream 2). But instead of making Norman, like, a PART of the story, they turn the whole book into some stupid who-dunnit filled with boring characters and really stupid plot devices. And the ending will have you throwing the book straight out the window.

I really wanted to like this, because I've enjoyed the entire Psycho movie series (even the fairly naff fourth part). But Bloch succeeds in taking Norman Bates and completely ruining him. Thankfully this book has been largely ignored, because it really doesn't deserve to be part of the Bates' legacy.

Stick with the movies.

The_Curmudgeon_Hates_You@yahoo.co.uk

An under-rated book and author
If you loved Psycho then you will also love Psycho II.Psycho House isn't bad either.Readers just get so absorbed in Bloch's writing and storyline.This story is set for the current day, or rather the day the book was written, and takes you from the dark and rainy mental hospital to the glamour of Hollywood.It keeps you guessing all the way to the end and you will find yourself running back to the bookstore (or logging on)to get the 3rd installment.I just wish there was a 4th!The character of Norman Bates is incredible!

Disappointing
This sequel to Psycho starts off quite strongly with Norman Bates escaping from the Mental Hospital and leaving a horrible body count in his wake and ambiguity over whether he survived his escape or died in a mysterious fire. The Police think he is dead, but Norman's doctor thinks he's alive and on his way to Hollywood to kill the cast and crew of a movie based on his life and crimes.
Sadly after the first 100 pages or so, The story sags badly. Norman Bated disappears from the book (Whether or not he appears at the end is part of the mystery), and the reader must wade through 150 pages of dull story about the cast and crew of the film deciding whether to make the movie or cancel for fear of Norman coming to kill them. This segment of the book is devoid of suspense and could have really been trimmed down. Also, many of the characters spout long anti-violence speeches and criticisms of the cruelty and hypocrisy of Hollywood life, and the glorification of violence in gory 1980's splatter films. These detours stick out like a sore thumb, and do nothing to further the plot.

This book warrants *** due to the great first part of the book, but the good ending doesn't justify the sagging middle. I hope Psycho House, the final installment in the trilogy, is better than this.

Must give Blotch credit,, but I think the movie is better
The movie is more relateble to he Psycho I,,,, Anyway this is pretty good it has the classic touch, it is event sead just like Alferd Hitchcock did this inspired Psycho II,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
The differnce here is Norman is more cold blood guy, Mother isnt in it thoe 22 years of mental rehab payed off it seemed like.
In the movie,, Norman is him nice,tender self if your nice to him and his motel, and mother hs a big play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good stories but not great book
I saw this book along with the first volume and after looking at the list of stories included in both volumes, I realized that anyone who would buy this books would be wasting their money when they can buy the Del Rey version which has all of these great mythos stories as well as an additional one- Discovery of the Ghooric Zone by Richard A Lupoff.

Surprisingly Strong Additions to the Cthulhu Mythos
The weakest of the lot here are two by Brian Lumley:"The Sister City" and "Cement Surroundings".As usual, one part of your mind, while reading, is noting which Lovecraft stories and ideas Lumley is recombining this time -- and he believes in reusing all of Lovecraft.Yes, these are pale imitations of his model and provide only a tiny bit of Lovecraft's cosmic paranoia, but they're still more engaging than August Derleth's work.

Plotwise, the teenaged Robert Bloch's 1934 effort, "The Shambler from the Stars", doesn't have much to offer.However, there is the fun of a thinly disguised Lovecraft who meets a grisly end.The master returned the favor with his last story, "The Haunter of the Dark", which has one Robert Blake meeting a horrible end after uncovering a fearsome alien artifact in a Providence church.Bloch's 1951 story "The Shadow from the Steeple" completes the trilogy and shows how much Bloch developed as a writer in those 17 years.There's no imitation of Lovecraft's style here, but Lovecraft and his characters from "The Haunter of the Dark" show up and Cthulhuian horrors are effectively moved to the atomic age.Bloch also makes nice use of Lovecraft's poem "Nyarlathotep".Another Bloch work, "Notebook Found in a Deserted House", uses an old Lovecraftian standby -- a journal desperately documenting horrors closing in onits writer.But here the narrator is a type Lovecraft never used:a twelve year old boy telling us about the monsters in the woods around his aunt and uncle's farm.

J. Ramsey Campbell aka Ramsey Campbell started out with Lovecraft pastiches set in England, but the style of his "Cold Print" isn't Lovecraftian nor is its unseemly, vague linking of sexual taboos with Cthulhu entities.Here a teacher is lead to a mysterious London bookstore where something a mite stronger than the bondage and discipline porn is offered.

James Wade's "The Deep Ones" brings Lovecraft into the sixties with a John Lily-like researcher studying some decidely sinister dolphins, a Timothy Leary-like professor warning against it, and a telepath with some family ties to Innsmouth.It's quite good.

Surprsingly an even better story is Colin Wilson's "The Return of the Lloigor".Surprising because Wilson's earlier attempt at writing a Mythos story, _The Mind Parasites_, was so bad.Wilson uses his erudition to create a plot melange of Welsh crime, Mu, Arthur Machen, H. P. Lovecraft, the Voynich Manuscript, the Kabbala, Aleister Crowley, and Charles Fort.Mixed in is some delightfully absurd metaphysics about the sinister and congenitally pessimistic Lloigor.This clever story may use some of the themes and furniture from Lovecraft and his work, but it's no accident that the hero is a Poe scholar because the tone is that of the latter author in his hoaxer mode.

Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos
This is the BEST book i have EVER read!If you love sci-fi/horror books, you'll LOVE it. When i read this book i couldn't put it down!THIS IS A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE! ... Read more

Product Description
Robert Bloch's Psycho captivated a nation when it appeared in 1959. The story was all too real-indeed this classic was inspired by the real-life story of Ed Gein, a psychotic murderer who led a dual life. Alfred Hitchcock too was captivated, and turned the book into one of the most-loved classic films of all time the year after it was released.

Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past twenty years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. He has lived with Mother ever since leaving the hospital in the old house up on the hill above the Bates motel. One night Norman spies on a beautiful woman that checks into the hotel as she undresses. Norman can't help but spy on her. Mother is there though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife. ... Read more

Product Description
Deals with the devil, circus freaks, time machine, and atomic bombs are some of the ingredients in this Horror Master's recipe. Elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror co-mingle into a unique flavor that can only be Robert Bloch. Eleven stories of that will leave you up at night! Stories included are: Black Bargain, Founding Fathers, The Past Master, Daybroke, Fangs of Vengeance, Death is an Elephant, The Old College Try, Philtre Tip, Method For Murder, A Good Imagination and Untouchable. From the author of Psycho! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful stories, horrible edition
I greatly enjoyed Bloch's short stories, however the Kindle edition is horrible. There are many typographical errors that are quite distracting (mostly missing words) and there are two different versions which overlap each other with a total of 13 stories between the two of them.This version includes 7 stories and they are Black Bargain, Founding Fathers, The Past Master, Daybroke, The Hungry Eye, The Old College Try, and The Cloak. I bought them both since I really enjoyed the author and they were only $3.99 each, but I wasn't happy about it.If this was a complete edition that wasn't editted so poorly, I would have given this 5 stars in a heartbeat.However, with the mess that this is, it only gets 3.Sorry Mr. Bloch, my rating has nothing to do with your excellent writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Science-Fiction ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Prime Bloch
In a throwback to the old "Ace Doubles," Hard Case Crime has elected to put two shortish Robert Bloch novels into one volume.Bloch was always one of the very best of the 1950s pulpsters, though unlike some, he had a genuine take on Hollywood.Both of the short novels in this volume have a Hollywood theme."Shooting Star" is perhaps the more conventional of the two:it's a standard murder mystery set in Hollywood, with a not-entirely unpredictable denouement, but Bloch's observations on the film capital along the way remain unsurpassed."Spiderweb" is the more interesting of the two short books, a tweak on William Lindsay Gresham's "Nightmare Alley" (a work Bloch admired), with a sly allusion to that old mother Hubbard's Dianetics in the mix.This one is a little more bizarre, but infused with just as many pithy lines about the film capital, and some delightfully Blochian characters.These two little-known Bloch novels together in one book make this a genuine bargain.

Paperback Grindhouse
SPIDERWEB starts out like a Jim Thomsonesque tale of a desperate loser, than shifts to a more conventional blackmail phony psychic tale. Nightmare Alley this isn't, but it's fast fun.

SHOOTING STAR is a pretty standard P.I. book with our one-eye hero hunting a killer in the world of Tinseltown reefer heads with an improbably high body count.This one isn't as interesting as the earlier book, but a little wittier with sharper writing.

A worthwhile twofer.

Brain candy
I love these Hard Case Crime books.They are exactly what I need after an exhausting day at work.Lot of plot, lots of fun, no political correctness.(To be fair, this particular book is from the 50's.But what I say is true of all sven or eight of the titles I've read.)

Enjoyable (but unspectacular) pair of crime novels
It's at first a little surprising that Hard Case Crime would reprint a Robert Bloch novel, let alone two, since he is best known for writing the novel that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Psycho. Though Bloch then became known as a horror writer, that book was just one of 20 he wrote throughout his career, covering other genres like science-fiction and, the appropriate one here, crime.

Shooting Star appears in this volume along with Spiderweb, packaged together in a form reminiscent of the old Ace Doubles -- two complete novels printed back-to-back and head-to-tail with a separate cover for each one. You read one novel, then flip the book over to read the other. Each one has its own copyright page and cover art. It's a gimmick, to be sure, but a great one.

This presentation is perfect when you consider that Shooting Star and Spiderweb actually both first appeared as part of the Ace Double line (each runs just over 150 pages). Not together, though: they were published in 1958 and 1954, respectively. (Spiderweb was backed by a David Alexander novel, and Shooting Star was backed with a collection of Bloch's short stories.)

When an old friend asks him to solve an old murder, a one-eyed, down-on-his-luck literary agent becomes a one-eyed, down-on-his-luck private eye. After Mark Clayburn had the accident that lost him an eye (and gained him a patch), no one came to visit him -- not even Harry Bannock, though they were pretty close at the time.

Now Bannock wants a favor: for Clayburn to solve the murder of Dick Ryan (Clayburn has a PI license and gun permit to help with research on true-detective yarns) so Bannock can cash in on a TV deal for Ryan's series of 39 Lucky Larry movies. (Ryan was found with "reefer butts" at the time, and the TV people are wary of closing the deal due to the scandal.) Clayburn only agrees because he could use the money. But the threats begin right away, and the police are less than helpful.

I often enjoy novels set in old Hollywood. In fact, just before beginning Shooting Star, I had just read two others -- What Makes Sammy Run? and Rude Mechanicals -- and I thought my brain was primed for the experience. But, as one might expect, Bloch shows a different side of Hollywood. No bright lights here, expect for the occasional muzzle flash. Clayburn can't trust anyone, not even the people he has to depend on most.

What I didn't expect was conventionality. Though few of them are genuine classics, all the other Bloch novels I've read were nonetheless intriguing in their pursuit of original ideas. But, apart from a couple of interesting details -- namely, the one-eyed protagonist and the antidrug message (with repeated talk of "reefer addicts") -- Shooting Star is like a lot of other private eye novels. Plus, the solution is so predictable that it's practically given away before the book begins.

Even Spiderweb offers a very typical noir-fiction plot: greed gets a guy in over his head with some shady dealings, and he has to find a way out. Eddie Haines had a promising career in Iowa. The star of the senior play, they all said, "You oughta be in pictures." When he got a crackerjack idea for a TV series, he headed for Hollywood. Two months and $300 to an agent later, after not a single bite, Eddie is standing in front of his bathroom mirror with a straight razor in his hand and shaving the farthest thing from his mind when a Peter Lorre lookalike knocks on his door with $100 and the opportunity to become someone else.

The only different between this and any other typical crime novel is Bloch's use of psychology as a theme. Fortunately, that difference goes a long way toward making Spiderweb the more entertaining of the two. My guess is that it was the novel actually selected to be reprinted but that it was too short by itself and Shooting Star was picked to fill out the page count. Either way, I still hope Hard Case Crime produces more dual volumes like this one and the one they published early on, collecting Max Allan Collins's first two novels -- I have to admit I like getting "two for the money."

Double hitter
This was fast-paced fun and a great way to get back up to speed after reading "Zero Cool," the only dud put out by Richard Aleas at Hard Case Crime. What a wonderful idea -bringing back those old two-in-one, upside down cover paperbacks of my youth. Richard Bloch is always a sure thing.Thank you Hard Case Crime for putting me back on track. Do some more of these. This is cool!Too cool!Two-in-one action! ... Read more