'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of homecoming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils and found instead a new, unspeakable horror.
A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.
All would be changed forever-Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.
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Almost everyone thought the man and the boy were father and son.
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(Hodder, I January 2011, paperback, 768 pages, bought from AmazonUK)
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I've read Salem's Lot many times and it's one of my favourite King novel. I also love the adaptation starring David Soul. I hate the more recent adaptation. This is a proper, old-fashioned horror novel about vampires taking over a small-town. I loved the setting, a small-town full of secrets, the perfect place for darkness to thrive. Events move rapidly not long after Ben arrives, returning to the nostalgia of his youth to get over a recent tragedy and write a new novel. This is a corker of a horror novel. I love it and would recommend it.
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I am currently reading through the lists of books with some connection to The Dark Tower from Stephen King's own website, https://stephenking.com/darktower/connections/. According to this link the connections between The Dark Tower and Salem's Lot are:
- AIR DANCE: A novel written by Ben Mears of 'Salem's Lot. Eddie Dean knows about this book
- CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: Father Callahan is a major character Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower. He is also a character in 'Salem's Lot
- JERUSALEM'S LOT ('SALEM'S LOT): This was the setting for the novel 'Salem's Lot. Father Callahan talks about it in the final three Dark Tower novels
- WHITE, THE: The White is the force of good in the Dark Tower novels. It also appears in The Talisman and in the "Deleted Scenes" of 'Salem's Lot (which I have never read)
