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Spy criminal taking hack at hotel? Norman Bates, perhaps (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

psychopath

'norman bates perhaps' is the definition.

'spy criminal taking hack at hotel?' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'taking' says to put letters next to each other.
'hack' becomes 'chop' ('chop' can be a synonym of 'hack'**).
'hotel?' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'spy' with letters rearranged gives 'psy'.
'psy'+'chop'+'at'+'h'='PSYCHOPATH'

(Other definitions for psychopath that I've seen before include "One emotionally unstable, often violent" , "disturbed individual" , "One who commits violent acts without guilt" , "nut" , "One with abnormal or violent social behaviour" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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