Stephen King - 'Salem's Lot

I've had a fondness for Stephen King going way back - a testament to the power of story-telling, I think, as horror has never particularly appealed to me as a genre (although I don't mind occasionally dipping into it). 'Salem's Lot was his second novel, vampires in small town Maine. While I got through it quickly, some of the elements that make King great weren't as fully developed at this stage of his career as they would be later - in particular, the way things would go is very telegraphed, taking some of the tension and sting out of the story, and the sense of creeping dread that he'd later master is also a bit nascent (although apparent). On the other hand, his ability to draw a large cast of engaging characters is already apparent to a large extent, as are the story-telling instincts.