Psycho - Robert Bloch (1959)

A psychological thriller

------spoiler alert------

    The path I did until this book was quite unusual. I never watched the Hitchcock film, but rather the TV show ”Bates Motel” without even knowing that was related to the Hitchcock film and the book. I came across the TV show by scanning for some easy entertainment in a Sunday evening, after ”Tartort” indeed, and I had a positive surprise. First, because it led me to the book and second because it was just a beautifully well-done TV show. There are two seasons. On the first season, the plot of the TV show diverged from the book and showed the events preceding. The second season presented the events from the book. Anyway, I think the plot was not much of interest, for both the TV show and the book the most interesting things happen in the main character head, the Norman Bates.  He has a love-hate relationship with his mother Norma Bates and the conflicts developed upon are the highlight.

     Norman and Norma's relationship started from a point I could follow and comprehend, but smoothly it developed in a way that at a certain point I could not follow anymore and I could not notice this happening. This psychological twist happened both in the book and in the TV show. And in the TV show, it was longer and deeper than in the book, I would say that the essence of the book was perfectly captured and even enhanced in the TV show. Even though I am writing about the book (at least I should be writing about the book) I can not grab my enthusiasm about the TV show and the bias I had for watching the show prior to the book.

      Another aspect I loved in the book, maybe also under the bias of the TV show, was the description of the house Norman Bates lived, this sort of old houses with a sinister atmosphere. Most of the times in which something exciting happened was preceded by a precise description of the house that allowed me to picture myself in there and to feel the shiver of what was about to come. I can not tell if this facility in picturing the house came from the fact I already have the house in mind from the TV show, but the experience was just great anyway.

       However, the famous scene of the girl's murder in the bathroom was not in the house. It was placed in the Bates motel run by Norman and despite the fact it is a classic, I do not agree it is the most exciting moment. The most exciting scene, in my opinion, came after the bathroom scene when the sister of the girl murdered in the bathroom went to the house looking for her and found a surprise in the fruit cellar, I will not describe further to avoid a spoiler, but I can tell it is thrilling! By the way, the name of the girl killed in the bathroom is Mary Jane and in the TV show is played by Rihanna, it could not be better!

       In the version I read there was a glossary with translations to German of the unusual terms in English, I learned quite some words in both languages, but sometimes it was distracting. Also, there are pages and pages to describe the drama of Mary Jane’s life and I thought it was excessive details in a short book for a character that would be killed at first opportunity. Yet Norman Bates with his mind and his house makes the book totally worth reading. I am looking forward to reading the second one, but in Germany, I did not find the Psycho II in English for a fair price, not even second hand and online. I will keep on searching. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Bates Motel (2013/2017)- the Netflix series. Just amazing, I recommend a thousand times.

Psycho (1960) - the Alfred Hitchcock film. I never watched, shame on me!

Tatoart (1970/present) - German Crime TV show broadcasted every Sunday 20:15, really nice. Better than CSI.

"neat as pint" (Blitzsauber) - clean, clean, clean, something my house is never going to be. E.g.: "The Norma bedsheets were neat as pint."

"dingy" (schmuddelig) - the opposite of the previous expression. E.g.: "Norman Bates mind has dingy thoughts."

"since you were a little tyke" (kleines Kind) - when somebody just left the placenta. E.g.: "Norma loves Norman since he was a little tyke."

"for a song" (for ein Ei oder ein Apfel) - for no reason in this world. E.g.: "Norman does not leave Norma for a song."

"parlor" - just a fancy way to name the living room. E.g.: "Norman just entered the parlor."

P.S.: For the first time, I used an app to trace reading time. It is called Bookly. Annoying because I read on the way to work in short intervals of 45 min maximum and every time I started and ended I needed to turn on and off the app. But, the app is nice because one can enter quotes, pictures, words, thoughts and get out a lot of cool stats such as reading time or pages read per minute. Really cool for tablet readers and also for those that are patient enough for filling the app up with info, not my case. Anyway, I did it for the book Psycho and I got this interesting infographic:

  

The Game (Victor the Assassin #3) - Tom Wood (2013)

Bloody

I found this book digging for something in English in a box with books "zu verschenken" left by a good soul on the street. I did not make any idea what it was about if I should not read just due pure prejudice. I was never a big fan of action/spy stories until I met "Victor"! I got so into this book that for a couple of times I lost the train stop I should leave because I was reading. I carried the book everywhere to read in all free spots I had. Once I forgot the book in the gym, I am a really unregular visitant of the gym, but in the week I lost the book, I was there almost every day trying to retrieve it without success. So I bought the same book again just to know to end.

This book actually is the third one from a series that Tom Wood started to write in 2010. Since then he has been producing almost one book per year so now we have seven of them. All of them with Victor as the protagonist: the most motherfucker assassin of the world! Victor is cold as the German winter, so cold that at a certain point I hypothesized he was a kind of psychopath. I even asked Tom Wood in his profile in Goodreads if he thinks Victor is a psychopath and he gave enough arguments to think Victor is not. More than Victor's ability to kill is his capacity to predict and avoid to be killed. He is all the time expecting to be killed what gives him an amazing perception of what moves around him and if the scene he is in contains a threat. The way Victor does perceive threats is beautifully described. Indeed one of the highlights of the book.

The action scenes are another great point, so greatly done that I can feel the blood's smell! I have the impression that Tom Wood does not waste a line describing something that is not important for the whole picture of the scene. In my perspective, the description looks precise and succinct. The succinctness is what brings an amazing dynamic upon the narrative, a paragraph is never a waste of time. I particularly hate massive rich descriptions, for me they are dispensable. It was exactly the overdone details that make me quit reading "The Game of Thrones" in the first book not further than the third chapter. By the end of the third chapter, I was not able to remember the name of the characters in the first. It was exhausting, I felt mentally abused! This is definitively not the case of "The Game": no thrones and much more action!

The problem is that Victor is so good at what he does that it does not look real. Okay, the book is a fiction, but Victor is supposed to be human, no superpowers, right? Sometimes it looks like he has. The certainty that he is going to be alive in the end of the book breaks a bit of the suspense. Being sure that Victor is going to survive even when he is in a deep shitty trouble breaks the surprise effect. At this point, I just think: "okay, how is he going to escape this time?". Appart of the predictability, I can not get enough of Victor. I already bought the first book and the idea is going through all the seven of them as soon as possible! I am really looking forward writing about the other books!

Victor the assassin - more info