Robert Bloch (ed.) - Psycho-Paths

[andydecker]

Robert Bloch (ed.) – Psycho-Paths (Tor Books, 1991, 295 p.)

Seventeen masters of terror, their stories collected and edited by Robert Bloch, the Grand Master of them all, explore the dark side of the human mind, the true seat of horror. From the darkly comic "Them Bleaks" by Gahan Wilson to the twisted psychology of manipulation in "Dreaming in Black and White" by Susan Shwartz, each of these terrifying tales is a uniquely chilling face-to-face confrontation with one of the infinitely various – and horrifyingly real – faces of the madness that kills, the faces of …
PSYCHO-PATHS

Content:
Introduction - Robert Bloch
Them Bleaks - Gahan Wilson
Remains to Be Seen - David Morrell
No Love Lost - J. N. Williamson
Confession of a Madman - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Jesse - Steve Rasnic Tem
Enduring Art - Robert E. Vardeman
A Determined Woman - Billie Sue Mosiman
Kessel's Party - Michael Berry
Him, Her, Them - William F. Nolan
Clutter - Brad Linaweaver
Dreaming in Black and White - Susan Shwartz
The Secret Blade - Edward D. Hoch
Kin - Charles L. Grant
Call Home - Dennis Etchison
Waste - Kathleen Buckley
Red Devils - Hugh B. Cave
Pick Me Up - David J. Schow

I only read the introduction, which is quite long and bit rambling. A essay about the genre, about the human condition, Machen, Lovecraft, horror movies, splatterpunk, but nothing about the contributing writers. It is not without interest. Most of these writers are no longer with us, but it is a solid line-up. Alas with the exception of Nolan and Etchison not one of them was reprinted. Only in collections.

[dem bones]

Seemed appropriate in the circumstances.

Robert Bloch [& Martin H. Greenberg] [eds.] - Psycho-Paths (Daw, Dec. 1993: originally 1991).

Bill Sienkiewicz

Cover credits Bloch as sole editor, but copyright page has Psycho-Paths as © "Robert Block [sic] and Marin Harry Greenberg." Bloch's intro includes the by now mandatory gripes at hippies, rock music, and Night of the Living Dead plus John Waters' Pink Flamingo's, S&M in film and print, and "Splatterpunk" (his inverted commas).

Fictional content off to a good start

Gahan Wilson - Them Bleaks: It takes a certain, special kind of person to live in Commonplace, Le Piege County, and Sheriff Olsen is wondering if he made a mistake in recommending horror author Robert Bleak and his family to the community. The Bleaks have taken over the old Worper place, notorious on account of young Wendall Worper having been committed to an asylum for multiple axe-murders, grave-robbing, and corpse-defiling. Hardly have they moved in than the newcomers are complaining about the neighbours, but Olsen needn't worry, them Bleaks soon prove themselves Commonplace people through to the bone.

David Morrell - Remains to Be Seen: Before they make separate escapes from the City, the Great One, leader of the failed revolution, entrusts a large oblong wooden crate into the care of the loyal Carlos who swears to guard it with body and soul. Carlos smuggles the box across continents, losing several of his men, his wife, their unborn child and his sanity in the process. He has long realised who rests inside the box and, come the glorious day he at last catches up with His Excellency in exile, it's not so easy to part with one he's come to love above life itself.

[dem bones]

Edward D. Hoch - The Secret Blade: Pierre Frayer, who gets a huge thrill from attending public executions, constructs a guillotine from materials retrieved from the junkyard behind a carpenters shop. Of course, now he'll need to test it on ... a sheep? Too expensive. Perhaps he should try a stray dog. Or maybe his lover, Rosette. Or ... I think Hoch may have used Bloch's own The Head Hunter as his model for this one, relocating the action from Nazi Germany to Paris, 1792. Three stories in, we've had necrophilia, taxidermy and everyday gory exploits during the Reign of Terror, so no complaints from me.

Hugh B. Cave - Red Devils: Bored Florida rich kids turn to thrill mugging for kicks. Their leader, Colin Casserly, selects the wrong victim from his parents' Wedding anniversary guests. Across town, private detective Roger Randall, former Viet Vet turned private detective, wakes up the following morning with a rare hangover and little recollection of last night's events save they culminated in a descent into Hell. Suspenseful, but ending unlikely to appeal to those of us came here for horror and misery.

David J. Schow - Pick Me Up: Killer trucker and psycho hitcher meet a two-man ambulance crew. Exhumed the following year for Stephen Jones & David A. Sutton's Dark Voices 4. Schow's guns, mirror-shades, black leather, rock an' roll shtick not dating well.

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Michael Berry - Kessel's Party: Michael Wheaton, a brilliant young chemist, loans $100, 000 from his grandfather to settle his debt to the ruthless businessman. In lieu of the money, Dennis Kessel has been blackmailing Wheaton to manufacture a new designer drug, and is not best pleased when the boy settles up. Konrad Fleischer, the rich granddad who made his fortune in cutlery, warns Kessel to accept the cash, let go the boy unharmed or the consequences will be unpleasant. The crime lord ignores him. He's promised the hangers on a blast they'll never forget at his Christmas pinata party. during the course of which he intends to propose to Catherine Weathers, his supermodel fiancée ...

Billie Sue Mosiman - A Determined Woman: Patrol Officer Charlene Beatty wages war on Lauderdale's paedophiles following the rape and murder of her eight-year-old niece.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Confession of a Madman: An apothecary unwisely disputes that the Plague is God's retribution for our sins, arguing that it is spread by vermin and appalling sanitation. 'Brother Rat' is dragged before the inquisition as a heretic and tortured accordingly, though nothing can rid him of his crackpot delusions.

Kathleen Buckley - Waste: A mutilation murderer has taken to dumping corpses in the ravine. Mildred finds this especially irksome as, not only does she pass the spot each morning on her pre-school jog, it is where she detains her more troublesome pupils.

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J. N. Williamson - No Love Lost: On the death of their father, Craig Addams commits his psychotic elder brother into the care of an old college chum, Daniel Flurry, at his private clinic. Several accidental deaths later, we realise the "sane" brother is the more dangerous of the two.

Charles L. Grant - Kin: Before a chance meeting in a Boston convenience store, neither Suzanne nor our narrator had ever met another like themselves. For once, both are happy to live and let live.

Robert E. Vardeman - Enduring Art: Martin Arthurs, legend in own brain, etc, constructs giant sculptures from discarded materials. Alas, not a single soul on earth recognises his genius. When his Iranian flatmates are shot dead as terrorists, Arthurs drives their explosive-laden van into the mountains to create his final masterpiece.

William F. Nolan - Him, Her, Them: Things have come to a pretty pass when even a fine, upstanding serial killer can't stalk the streets in safety.

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Dennis Etchison - Call Home: Phone rings in middle of the night. A scared little girl. "Daddy? Is t-that you?" He isn't her father, doesn't know who she is, but she's in trouble and needs help! On being asked where she's calling from, the kid mentions a rooster sign — that must be the gas station on Pico Boulevard! He gets in the car, heads off on a mercy mission ...

Etchison's work often flies above my head, but there are exceptions, and for me, Call Home is Psycho-Path's finest, creepiest story thus far.

Steve Rasnic Tem - Jesse: John, sixteen, thinks lots about women in their underwear, dead women in their underwear, him removing their bra's and stuff ... Jessie, his secret best friend, fixes it for the frustrated young so-and-so to live out his fantasies.

Brad Linaweaver - Clutter: On his parents' tragic road deaths, fourteen-year-old Paul Kraft is given into the care of his Aunt Rose. The spinster, a librarian in her mid-fifties, despises books, Paul's sci-fi paperbacks in particular, as he has way too many, they're nasty, they make his room look untidy, and they collect dust. As Paul adds to his collection, so their relationship deteriorates, until, to get him out of the house, the old woman insists he attend a classmate, Barbara Struther's birthday party. Despite his reservations, Paul thoroughly enjoys himself. Barbara is a real smasher — she even gifts him a very pre-loved copy of Bradbury's Dark Carnival! Aunt Rose, greatly distressed at this terrible development, loses it in spectacular fashion. "We will take the books to the porch. There's a barbecue grill there."

Susan Shwartz - Dreaming in Black and White: Stephanie finds the strength to split from manipulative, oh-so-perfect Sheldon, who true to form, refuses to allow the slightest disruption to his meticulously laid plans. Set against a backdrop of the televised Joel Steinberg/Hedda Nussbaum child murder trial. Another worthy best-of-book contender.

Amazed and very pleased to have enjoyed Psycho-Paths so much more than anticipated.