Psycho

 Psycho (1959) by Robert Bloch

Mary Crane is a young woman who has grown tired of waiting for her young man to pay off his father's debts so they can get married. When a golden opportunity to walk off with forty thousand dollars comes along, she takes it and drives 800 miles through a rainy night to give Sam Loomis the good news of her sudden "inheritance." But as she nears Loomis's hometown of Fairvale, she takes a wrong turn and realizes she's too tired to try and figure out how to get there that night. When she sees a glowing vacancy sign at a motel along the road, she decides that she just needs to stop for the night...

Norman Bates is the caretaker of the isolated Bates Motel--bought with his mother's proceeds from the sale of their family farm. He hasn't expected anyone to come along this late on a stormy night and is surprised when the young woman comes in and asks for a room. Then when she asks about somewhere to get something to eat, he impulsively asks her to share his dinner. But Mother isn't pleased and she's even less pleased when Norman uses a spyhole in the wall later to watch the young woman undress and get ready for a shower...

A week later, Mary's sister Lila shows up at Sam Loomis's hardware store looking for Mary. She tells him that Mary has disappeared along with $40,000 and she thought her sister might have come to see Sam. But Sam never saw her as he tells both Lila and the private detective Milton Arbogast who is also looking for Mary. Now the three of them are wondering what happened to Mary Crane between her hometown and Fairvale....

This is the novel behind one of Hitchcock's most famous movies. A movie I have never seen--but you don't have to have seen Psycho to know the basic premise. It is a movie that has seeped into popular culture and everyone's consciousness...by osmosis, apparently. I have to wonder what it would have been like to have read this in 1959 before the movie was made. It would have had much more impact on me if I hadn't known the ending in advance. 

But that said, it was still an interesting and absorbing read. Bloch is a master and we get great insight into the characters of Norman and Mary--less so with the others, though the detective is also interesting even though he's not on the page much. An excellent examination of Norman's psychology and the motivations behind the events at the Bates Motel that fateful night.... ★★★★

First line: Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him.

Last line: Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly...

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Deaths = 6 (one auto accident; one natural; two stabbed; two poisoned)