Psycho is a suspense novel by Robert Bloch. It was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock's seminal 1960 film of the same name. Norman Bates is a middle-aged bachelor who is dominated by his mother, a mean-tempered, puritanical old woman who forbids him to have a life away from her. They run a small motel together in Fairvale, California, but business has floundered ever since the state moved the highway. In the middle of a heated argument between them, a customer arrives, a young woman named Mary Crane, who, unbeknownst to Bates, is on the run after stealing $40,000 from her boss; she stole the... money so she and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis, could afford to get married. Bates shyly asks her to have dinner with him, which sends his mother into a rage; she screams, "I'll kill the bitch!", which Mary overhears. During dinner, Mary gently suggests that Bates put his mother in a mental institution, but he vehemently denies that there is anything wrong with her. Mary says goodnight and returns to her cabin, resolving to return the money and face the consequences so she won't end up like Bates, stuck in a "private trap".
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| Author: | Robert Bloch |
| Genre: | Thriller, Fiction, Horror, Children's literature, Speculative fiction, Novel |
| Year published: | 1959 |
| Number of editions: | 28 |