On my copy of the book, the publisher has to stress that Robert Bloch is the writer of Psycho (he might as well have changed his name to Author of Psycho Robert Bloch, but that might overflow the driver's license) and shows an old woman holding a large knife. That's great for tie-in except it gives away a major plot point.

A retirement community filled with disfunctional people is the setting of this book. The main character, Warren, has decided to kill himself and his interaction with other characters only confirms that he needs to die. Meanwhile everyone is converging on the party of Joe Marks, a semi-recluse whose wife is much more sociable than most. The only external problem (there are a lot of internal problems with these people) is that the caterers are planning on robbing everyone. It turns violent.

The problems of this book are pretty obvious. One is that it gives away what's going to happen at the party pretty early on. A second is that with the exception of Warren, everyone is stereotypical. You got the paranoid former corporate spy whose suspicious of those long-hair types. You got the woman bitter at her son. You got the crazy person, that doesn't really confirm to mental illness so much as she babbles a lot. Some of them do indeed turn out to be interesting characters but not all of them.

However, this is a thriller and you forgive a lot more in a thriller than you would in other books. This is overall, a fun short read and is perfect post-Joyce (Faulkner/Eco/Erdrich/Silko/Morrison, etc.) reading.