Firebug, written by Psycho author Robert Bloch, follows the misadventures of journalist-turned-novelist-turned-journalist Philip Dempster. Haunted by nightmares and unable to write, Dempster decides to pick up some extra cash writing exposes of local cults for the city paper. Unfortunately, he soon finds himself caught up in multiple homicides by arson, which unfortunately taps into his hidden fears and dark past. While Firebug appears to be sold as a horror novel, it's really more of a straight crime novel with a heavy emphasis on psychology, with Dempster as the reporter turned gumshoe anti-hero who stumbles reluctantly head-first into an investigation. Written in first-person autobiography style, the novel remains entirely in Dempster's head, with occasional hints to him possibly being an unreliable narrator, adding him to the growing list of potential suspects as the story progresses. As with most crime fiction, Firebug has its fair share of red herrings and red hot women, but the hesitance and ambiguous nature of the narrator's emotions maintains an uneven keel that points the story towards the realm of psychological horror. The ending is somewhat predictable, yet not necessarily unsatisfying.

Considering that Firebug was written and published while Bloch was working a screenwriter for film and television, it's interesting that there was never an adaptation of Firebug to either, although the most obvious reason might be that the psychological aspects of the novel would ultimately result in unfair or unkind comparisons to Psycho. Also interesting is that Harlan Ellison, editor at Regency Books at the time it was published, contributed an opening Chapter 0 that introduces the narrator through his nightmarish dreams. The writing itself has the standard elements of narrator-drive crime fiction such as clever asides and colorful description, and Bloch's use of language when describing fire is especially captivating.

Of course, when reading crime fiction from over fifty years ago, sometimes passages that must have seemed mundane at the time jump out at you. On top of the many references to "Negroes" in later chapters, it is one piece of dialogue from the newspaper editor on page 117, in which he discusses the "psychos" running around the city, that caught my attention:

"So we've got a city full of offbeats. People who walk around talking to themselves. People who sleep with guns under their pillows because they're afraid somebody is out to get them. People who make homemade bombs, who poison dogs, who chain their kids of their wives up in attics. Rapists. Rippers. Guys who go after women with whips and razor-blades. Homos."

It's unsettling enough to see homosexuality lumped in with rapists and murderers, but the way in which it's used as a full stop at the end of a litany of lunatics drives the stark reality of that context home like a stick in the eye, and the fact that homosexuality isn't referenced anywhere else in the novel underlines the casual nature with which it was added to the list meant to illustrate that "People are naturally vicious." Just another example of how popular culture in the form of entertainment can be an effective societal barometer.

However, I don't mean to imply that the novel should be judged on this moment alone, and despite any semantic issues, Firebug is a solid crime novel by a historic American author well worth reading. ( )