Fans of Psycho – both the original 1959 book by Robert Bloch and the Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation – might just be ready to go mental for the next instalment in the story. Psycho: Sanitarium will be launched next week as an ebook by Canelo Publishing, which recently brought us Three Little Pigs by Apostolos Doxiadis.
Written by Chet Williamson, the book takes us all the way back to 1960, and Norman Bates is in a state hospital for the criminally insane. As his doctor tries to bring him out of his catatonic state, Norman’s twin brother, Robert Newman, appears. They were separated at birth but the siblings get to know each other and Norman begins to sense a darkness within Robert to rival his own.
So, I guess if you thought Norman had a mommy hang-up, his brother is going to lay a whole new set of problems before him. The book is released 12 April at £3.20, and comes out as a hardback in May.
Author Chet Williamson has been a Psycho fan since he first saw the film as a kid and has written over 20 horror books and had short stories in Esquire, The New Yorker, Playboy and more. He’s been nominated for an Edgar, as well as the World Fantasy and HWA Stoker awards. This is an authorised sequel.