Jerusalem's Lot

The more I think about it, the more my opinion of  'Salem's Lot, Stephen King's second novel, increases.

It's not just that it's scary, which it most certainly is.  But it's got this great mesh of old world gothic and modern technology that just grabbed me.

So I was definitely excited to learn that the first short story in Night Shift is a prequel.

It has a different feel to it than most of King's works.  While it's told through letters presented to the reader, written in the 1850's, it feels less intimate and more stoic than King normally feels.  And it works.

The story actually doesn't link much to the story of 'Salem's Lot, as told in that novel, but adds background to the location.

Jerusalem's Lot is cool, in that it takes the location of Salem's Lot, and establishes that it wasn't just a place where evil came to lurk and eventually harbored vampires, but that it was a place that was so evil that it drew other evil things to it.  So it was no mere coincidence that Hubie Marsten and later Barlow were compelled to this sleepy little town.

In that sense, in the Lore of King (as I've come to call it) as I currently understand it (having only read a few novels), Salem's Lot is of a kindred to the Overlook Hotel.  They are both locations that, presumably due to the actions of evil people over the years, turned into great beacons that lured more evil to them.

I really like this concept and hope it is explored further.