The Best of Robert Bloch Author:Robert Bloch, Lester del Rey (Editor) Contents: — Yours Truly Jack the Ripper; — Enoch: — Seth murders nine people and decapitates the bodies before disposing of them in the swamp. He does this because he's possessed of a demon named Enoch that devours the brains in the heads Seth leaves him. Mr. Cassidy talks to Seth in his cell and asks Seth to give ... more »Enoch to him presumably so that Seth will not bring up Enoch during the trial and he can get a guilty verdict. Seth agrees after warning Mr. Cassidy that Enoch will do it to him if he refuses to kill for him and Mr. Cassidy returns shortly after in tears when he realizes Seth was telling the truth. Mr. Cassidy locks himself in the cell next to Seth so that he will not have to kill and decapitate the psychiatrist who examined Seth but Enoch eats his brain. Seth reaches into his coat pocket for the cell key and frees himself. Inviting the invisible Enoch back into his own head, Seth strides out into the night.
Catnip;
The Hungry House;
The Man Who Collected Poe;
Mr. Steinway;
The Past Master;
I Like Blondes:
An alien comes to Earth to hunt and devour blonde women.
All on a Golden Afternoon;
Broomstick Ride;
Daybroke;
Sleeping Beauty;
Word of Honor;
The World-Timer;
That Hell-Bound Train;
The Funnel of God;
Beelzebub:
A fly torments a writer until, unsure if real or a delusion, he suffers a fatal car accident while attempting to swat it. The fly, real it turns out after all, rests contentedly on the dead man's eyeball until a police officer stoops to examine the corpse. As the officer turns and walks away the fly rises and follows him.
The Plot is the Thing:
After brain surgery a woman finds herself entering the fictional worlds of the horror movies that she used to watch. She travels from country to country to avoid these blackouts and terrible encounters with monsters and finally decides to visit the South Seas where there are no phantoms, werewolves or serial killers. But she forgot about King Kong.
How Like a God;
The Movie People:
An old friend makes a friend at theater which plays silent films and he confides in him that his love who died in an accident with a sound boom in the early 30s continues to show up in films as an extra that she never appeared in. The man thinks the old guy is delusional but after the man passes away he returns to the theater after several months and notices during a crowd scene a girl with blonde curls and an old man standing next to her with his arm around her shoulder. He wouldn't have noticed either of them except for the fact that they were waving at him.
The Oracle:
A man consults a computer program as to whether it is feasible to take over Los Angeles with 100 dedicated followers and a bomb threat to set off the San Andreas fault, but the bomb detonates prematurely killing him and his followers.