Robert Bloch

A strikingly designed, deluxe hardcover edition of Psycho, one of the most iconic horror novels of the 20th century, featuring a translucent jacket, debossed case, special endpapers, and edge-staining. It was a dark and stormy night when Mary Crane glimpsed the unlit neon sign announcing the vacancy at the Bates motel. Exhausted, lost, and at the end of her rope, she was eager for a hot shower and a bed for the night. Norman Bates, the manager, seemed nice, if a little odd. Norman Bates loves his Mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better though. Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her 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. If you love to be scared or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock's taut, shocking scarefest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based. It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.

The landmark first collection by one of the masters of 20th-century American horror fiction, back in print at lastThough he published over 350 short stories and more than thirty novels, most of Robert Bloch's work has long been out of print, and many readers today know him only as the author of Psycho. This new edition of his classic first collection, The Opener of the Way (1945), is the first in a series of Bloch reprints from Valancourt which aims to restore Bloch to his rightful place as one of the key 20th-century American writers of horror fiction.This volume features twenty-one early Bloch stories, most of them originally published in the famous magazine Weird Tales. Included here are such classics as the oft-imitated "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," the chilling title story "The Opener of the Way," in which an expedition to an Egyptian tomb goes horribly awry, and "The Shambler from the Stars," a Lovecraftian tale in which Lovecraft himself appears as a character. This edition also features a new introduction by one of today's greatest horror writers, Ramsey Campbell."Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters."-Peter Straub"A seminal influence on just about everybody. Any time devoted to studying this master is time well spent."-Fangoria

The author of Psycho takes on the famous unsolved slayings of Jack the Ripper Robert Bloch gave us fiction's most famous knife-wielding maniac in Psycho's Norman Bates, and in The Night of the Ripper (1984), this master of horror fiction offers his own unique take on history's most infamous unsolved murder case.Whitechapel, 1888. A madman stalks the foggy streets, murdering prostitutes in acts of unimaginable horror and brutality. Two men - Frederick Abberline of the Metropolitan Police and Mark Robinson, a young American doctor - are determined to find the killer, but the list of suspects is a long one. With the help of a supporting cast of characters that includes Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Elephant Man, the two sleuths must solve the puzzle before it's too late and the Ripper strikes again "Might be Bloch's best book yet . . . the sort of book that just grabs you and makes you read it." - Peter Straub"May well nudge out Psycho as Bloch's most popular novel." - Washington Post"A must for mystery and horror fans." - Fantasy Review

FIFTEEN STORIES ABOUT THE MOST HEINOUS CRIME OF ALL...Of all the crimes humankind can commit, the act of murder-of cold-bloodedly taking another human life-is often the most shocking, and can tear couples, families, and even entire towns apart.Mystery Writers of America is proud to present this volume in the Classics series, featuring fourteen stories by acclaimed writers, all exploring the terrible crime of murder. From chill-master Robert Bloch comes a story of outwardly domestic bliss, but with rotten secrets at its core. Mystery master Dorothy Salisbury Davis takes us to a small town where the killing of a mean-spirited landscaper makes the local sheriff question everything he knows in his pursuit of justice. Joe Gores visits the harsh, unforgiving land of South Africa, where a farmer is forever chased by the sins of his past. Patricia McGerr invites us to the White House, where a foreign dignitary's gift to the First Lady may have deadly consequences. And Ellery Queen solves a curious conundrum of a murdered boxer...and also how his own jacket got stolen while at the match.Fifteen stories of plots, plans, and perfidy-all in pursuit of the perfect murder...Featuring stories by: Robert BlochDorothy Salisbury DavisStanley EllinRobert L. FishJoe GoresAllen Kim LangPatricia McGerrRoss MacdonaldWilliam P. McGivernWilliam F. NolanCharles NormanEllery QueenLawrence TreatHillary WaughDonald A. Wollheim

A frighteningly possible future world as seen through the strange and demonic imagination of Robert Bloch.

This is a classic science fiction novel by Robert Bloch. It tells the story of an overpopulated Earth and its perilous problem of diminished resources. However, the government have a plan. Will it work? Find out in this wonderful example of prophetical science fiction. This work is part of our Vintage Sci-Fi Classics Series, a series in which we are republishing some of the best stories in the genre by some of its most acclaimed authors, such as Isaac Asimov, Harry Harrison, and Robert Sheckley. Each publication is complete with a short introduction to the history of science fiction.

She was a fugitive, lost in a storm. That was when she saw the sign: motel - vacancy. The sign was unlit, the motel dark. She switched off the engine, and sat thinking, alone and frightened. She had nobody. The stolen money wouldn't help her, and Sam couldn't either, because she had taken the wrong turning; she was on a strange road. There was nothing she could do now - she had made her grave and she'd have to lie in it. She froze. Where had that come from? Grave. It was bed, not grave. She shivered in the cold car, surrounded by shadows. Then, without a sound, a dark shape emerged from the blackness and the car door opened. Psycho is not a tale for queasy stomachs or faint hearts. It is filled with horrifying suspense and the climax, instead of being a relief, will hit the reader with bone-shattering force.

Psycho is the original thrilling novel from multi-award-winning author Robert Bloch--and the basis for the classic film from Alfred Hitchcock. "Icily terrifying " --New York Times Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though. Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her 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. If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock's taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based. It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born. "Psycho all came from Robert Bloch's book." --Alfred Hitchcock "Robert Bloch is one of the all-time masters." --Peter Straub

THE WORLD GONE PSYCHOHarry Collins is an ad-executive in a future Chicago on an Earth whose population has exploded beyond imagining. Crazed by the pressures of overcrowding, he seeks escape with a suicidal leap from a skyscraper. Stopped, he is hustled off for psychiatric treatment in a odd encampment where he meets an falls in love with an accommodating nurse named Sue. But who is the strange Dr. Leffingwell, performing experiments on the premises? Harry's horrific discoveries in the secret lab cause him to flee into the outside world -- flee into the forces that would help change and shape this tortured world. But then, years later, when his assassin's rifle is trained on Dr. Leffingwell himself, he is halted by the mutant product of that fateful lab. His own son. Here is an exciting work of science fiction by an acknowledged master of suspense and horror, Robert Bloch.

Norman Bates (and his mother) run the Bates Motel by an isolated road side. Norman has a particular interest in taxidermy. Alfred Hitchcock directed the Hollywood film, starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.