Ben Mears heads back to a town from his childhood, Jerusalem's Lot, to work out his demons and on his new novel. Things aren't quite what they seem in The Lot though, as mysterious deaths and old town grudges bubble to the fore, and Ben finds himself at the heart of a plot that could cost him his life.
My introduction to Stephen King was two years ago through Carrie (which I thoroughly enjoyed), but it's taken me a long time to come back to King. There's no reason exactly, mostly just distraction through other books, so maybe my passion for Carrie had died down a little when I picked up Salem's Lot. I was so quickly brought into this though, almost couldn't get through it fast enough. The book functions, in many ways, like an overarching story scaffolded by mini ones. King's understanding of the town is so fully realised that you feel so much a part of it. No character is inherently good, and no character is left unturned, left shrouded in mystery. You learn the dark underbelly of The Lot often before characters do and in that way, the town becomes a character in and of itself. It's pretty damn great.
4 out of 5 tongue depressor crucifixes.
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