The Couch by Robert Bloch

 

(pb; 1962, based on Bloch's screenplay)

From the back cover

“This is the story of a man with a terrible secret.

“He will not even tell it to his psychiatrist.

“He could be wandering down any street at any time.

“He does not look different from other people in the street.

“But his secret gives him a power of them.

“He knows one of them is about to die.”

 

Review

Couch is comprised of Bloch’s usual tight, terse, black-humored, and often compelling writing style, something fans of the author and such writing may enjoy. The story, basic in its plot—and based on Blake Edwards's and Owen Crump’s idea as well as Bloch’s screenplay—has a Psycho-echoic themes, not off-putting but worth noting and (perhaps) appreciating, depending on the reader or viewer. Aside from the fact that Bloch wrote this with his usual effective mastery, I don’t know that I would’ve sought this book out, but like I wrote earlier, it’s worth seeking out if you’re a die-hard Bloch/tightly written and swiftly paced thriller fan.

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Its cinematic counterpart, scripted by Bloch, was directed by co-idea source Owen Crump. It was released stateside on February 21, 1962.

Grant Williams played Charles Campbell. Shirley Knight played Terry Ames. Onslow Stevens played William L. Janz, Campbell’s psychiatrist. William Leslie played Dr. David Lindsay. Simon Scott played Lt. Kritzman. Michael Bachus played Police Sgt. Bonner.

The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace, by Bruce Dickinson

(pb; 1990, 1992: prequel to The Missionary Position)

From the back cover:

"When the ancestral fortune dries up, there's only one solution for Lord Iffy Boatrace, destitute, transvestite Laird of Findidnann, and his faithful butler, Butler. A wheeze to squeeze every last drop of cash out of those old school chums who'd done everything they could to forget him. . .

"Come in Brian Taylor and your voluptuous, insatiable wife; yucky yuppy perfect couple Mark and Cynthia; bumbling beefcake bozo Roderick Morte D' Arthur Tennison!

"Upper class twits, the lot of them. Ripe for the picking. And drawn by the short and curlies to Findidnann Hall. . ."

Review:

This manic-paced, audaciously lusty and zany-literate sex romp is one of the funniest books I've ever read; there are so many off-color quotable lines that I was laughing at pretty much every page of this 150-page novel.

Politically correct folk will want to avoid this out of print book, which sports a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/The Hound of the Baskervilles plot structure: Boatrace unabashedly and pithily skewers music critics, English aristocracy, feminists, racial stereotypes, vegetarianism, and other social elements.

While reading this, I imagined this as A Shot in the Dark-era Blake Edwards film (whose screenplay was co-authored by William Peter Blatty): this book is that erudite and uproarious.

Worth owning, if you appreciate raunchy, quick-witted and -plotted humor, and/or Dickinson's heavy metal endeavors.

Followed by The Missionary Position.