American Gothic (novel)
Encyclopedia
American Gothic is a psychological horror
novel by Robert Bloch
.
, the story follows maniacal surgeon
G. Gordon Gregg, who preys on young beautiful women and, luring them into his labyrinthine castle, kills them in the most precise, painless way possible, thus orchestrating the perfect series of crimes. However, an ambitious journalist called Crystal becomes suspicious of Gregg, a feeling made much more complicated by her growing attraction to him and vice versa.
Bloch also wrote a 40,000 word essay based on his research for the novel, "Dr Holmes' Murder Castle" (first published in Reader's Digest Tales of the Uncanny, 1977; since reprinted in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Vol 3, 2002).
Psychological horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot...
novel by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
.
Synopsis
Inspired by the case of real life serial killer H. H. HolmesH. H. Holmes
Herman Webster Mudgett , better known under the alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term...
, the story follows maniacal surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
G. Gordon Gregg, who preys on young beautiful women and, luring them into his labyrinthine castle, kills them in the most precise, painless way possible, thus orchestrating the perfect series of crimes. However, an ambitious journalist called Crystal becomes suspicious of Gregg, a feeling made much more complicated by her growing attraction to him and vice versa.
Bloch also wrote a 40,000 word essay based on his research for the novel, "Dr Holmes' Murder Castle" (first published in Reader's Digest Tales of the Uncanny, 1977; since reprinted in Crimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Vol 3, 2002).