Nearly six decades after its original publication, Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho remains the progenitor and touchstone of all the deranged murder stories that have followed in its bloody footprints. The reason is simple: Norman Bates.

Norman, that shy, colourless and bland motel manager, symbolises the anonymity of evil in the 20th (and now 21st) century. “Quiet, nice and polite, a bit of a loner” describes Norman – and so many other real and imaginary psychotic killers – quite accurately. I’m one of a generation that grew up with Bloch’s killer as one of our most terrifying bogeymen. Norman (and “Mother”, that inner demon born of his guilt and fear) is responsible to this day for millions of untaken showers; and rare is the isolated, neon-lit motel that hasn’t inspired the comment, “a little too Bates Motel for my taste”, from prospective lodgers.



As a result, he has become iconic, representing the madness that may reside in the most seemingly “normal” person, the soft voice that whispers in our ear: “We’re none of us as sane as we pretend.” I was privileged to carry on the career of the frightening yet empathetic Norman when I wrote Psycho: Sanitarium, the immediate sequel to Bloch’s Psycho. It was both a challenge and a joy to continue the story of the most famous of all deranged killers in fiction.



But demented killers come in many varieties, not just the Norman type. Below I’ve listed 10 of my favourite novels in this unsettling sub-genre, in the hopes that you might find what illumination such hellfire offers.



1. Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

The great-grandfather of them all, with Norman Bates and his “Mother” creating the template for generations of slashers to come.



2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (1983)

Deranged killers don’t have to be alive to wreak havoc, as shown by Hill’s terrifying spectre, who avenges herself on innocent children. She’s insane, she’s murderous, and she’s utterly implacable.



Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s film version of Psycho. Photograph: Ronald Grant

3. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)

Though Anton Chigurh of No Country for Old Men is generally considered to be McCarthy’s supreme bogeyman, the huge, hairless and horrifying Judge Holden, who leads a band of renegade scalp hunters, is equally unpredictable and dangerous. Not so much a man as a force of nature, he haunts “the kid”, the book’s protagonist, over a period of the early years of the American west, with “War is god” as his motto.



4. The Nightrunners by Joe R Lansdale (1987)

Texan author Joe Lansdale has created a lot of nightmares in his work, but none more stylish and morbidly fascinating than the “God of the Razor”, a bizarre deity whose fashion accessories are razorblades, and whose cloven feet are shod in the mouths of severed heads. A living embodiment of the contagion of violence, the god spreads the desire for blood with a touch of his straight razor. Publishers Weekly called the book “probably the best novel of its type between Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs”.



5. Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (1988)

The titular character of Dexter’s novel is a respected white businessman in Georgia after the second world war, who murders a 14-year-old black girl. The book is made up of his descent into murderous madness and the deterioration of his relationships with his wife and the members of the community. It ends in a blaze of violence that leaves the reader exhausted.

6. Cabal by Clive Barker (1988)

Of his short novel set in Canada, Barker has said: “The 20th-century monster is perfectly embodied by the psychotic, soulless serial killer.” In Cabal, the serial killer Decker frames the protagonist Boone, who flees to Midian, a hidden city of monsters known as the Night Breed. Filled with Barker’s wild imagination, the book provides an insightful comparison of the more traditional Night Breed with the new breed of monster represented by Decker.



7. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)

The sequel to the equally brilliant Red Dragon, Harris’s novels set the bar high for the raft of profiler books that followed and still proliferate. Giving us two classic deranged killers in one book, Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill, Harris brought the “use a thief to catch a thief” concept to new and bloodier ground. Hannibal, the greatly underrated follow-up, goes further into Lecter’s disturbed and brilliant psyche than any of the film adaptations.



8. Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie (1996)

A marvellous example of how a fine writer can use the deranged killer to reflect social issues. Alexie, a Coeur d’Alene Native American, creates John Smith, who is raised by white parents but tries to reclaim his heritage by scalping and killing whites in present-day Seattle. Things quickly escalate, with whites attacking Native Americans in retribution, and vice versa. It’s a dark and honest parable about race in America.



9. From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (1999)

Writer Moore and artist Campbell’s creation is one more indication of how effective the graphic novel format can be when tackling serious issues. Serialised over a period of eight years, and finally collected in a nearly 600-page volume, From Hell deals with that primum mobile of deranged killers, Jack the Ripper. Moore’s well researched script and Campbell’s stark black-and-white drawings pull the reader inexorably into the Victorian world of Saucy Jack, and pose some disturbing theories.



10. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño (2004)

An extraordinary novel about the degeneration of the 20th century, mired in violent death. The lengthy, five-part novel revolves around the brutal murders of more than 300 women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Calling 2666 a novel about a deranged killer is like describing Moby-Dick as a fishing story, but the shadows of violent men committing meaningless and terrible crimes stalk every page.



• Psycho: Sanitarium by Chet Williamson is published by Canelo, price £3.99 as an eBook. It is also available in hardback from the Guardian bookshop for £13.93.