'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town. Like so many others it contains the usual quota of gossips, drunkards, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of ghosts and strange happenings, skeletons in closests, people missing and never found - but no more than in any other town of its size.

Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based loosely on his life there as a child, and to exorcise finally the terrors that have haunted him since childhood.   He tries to rent an old house that has stood empty since its previous occupant shot his wife and hanged himself - a sight which Ben witnessed some time after the event. To his surprise the property has recently been taken over by a newcomer to the town whose seemingly friendly behaviour causes Ben some uneasiness.

Then things begin to happen; a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed - nothing so unusual but the missing-and-dead list suddenly grows.   Surprise, bewilderment, confusion and finally terror overtake 'Salem's Lot.

The author meticulously chronicles the workings of small-town life and the reactions of his extraordinary cast of characters to the unusual events taking place around them.   For it is the interaction of one sinister stranger on their lives that causes such confusion.