The very first time that I read Desperation, the opening scene stuck with me as a particularly great start for a horror novel. A couple is on vacation and driving through a very rural part of Nevada. They are exchanging some small talk, and then the guy notices something glimmering in the distance in his rearview mirror. The object is another car, and he notices that it is coming fast in his direction. He sees that it is a cop car, and soon his wife also notices. At first, it seems like the police officer just passes them, on his way to other business.
But that is when it gets strange...and scary. The cop slows down severely, forcing the guy to slow down. They suddenly are going at a relative crawl, and this in an otherwise wide open, deserted highway in the middle of nowhere. Understandably, the couple are worried. This is strange country to them, after all. Clearly, the cop wants something.
Eventually, he pulls them over. When he steps out, the man sees that this cop is unnaturally big, adding to the intimidation, the fear. The conversation seems normal at first. But then the cop sees a bag of illegal drugs, and arrests the couple. It is once they are in the police car, arrested and now completely compromised, that the conversation becomes abnormal and very eerie. As the officer drives them into the rural town of Desperation, Nevada, things grow stranger and stranger. The alarm for both the man and the woman grows along with it.
Before I go any farther, however, let me give the usual warnings to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.
SPOILER ALERT
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SPOILER ALERT
Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this story already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning.
This is the first book in a miniseries of books which came out, if memory serves correctly, about 1996 or 1997. I remember them being displayed together, even though they are technically supposed to be by two different authors, Stephen King and Richard Bachman. By now, of course, we all know that those two authors are, in fact, one and the same.
So back to the story. Yes, the couple are taken into custody in the Nevada town of Desperation. It is clear that something horrific and unthinkable has happened in this town. For it is a ghost town, but it has not been abandoned for very long. Soon enough, we learn that it is the cop who has gone crazy and went on a murderous rampage, killing everyone in sight. The phone lines were cut, so nobody could call out or get help. This is the scene as they enter town.
They are then taken into the prison. Immediately upon arrival, the man is killed by the crazy cop. When he leads the new widow upstairs to where the jail cells are, she finds that the cells are all occupied, and everyone is screaming at her to grab the gun and shoot the officer. She almost succeeds, but he is able to beat her to the punch. She is then taken into custody and becomes just one more prisoner of the mad policeman.
We then see yet another arrest by the cop. This time, it is a famous author, Johnny Marinville. He is old and washed up, but trying to get back on track with his writing career by taking a motorcycle trip across the country. He intends to write about his experiences. He pulls over in the middle of nowhere - this is very rural Nevada, one of the most isolated regions in the contiguous United States, after all - but sees the cop car has snuck up silently right behind him. He is about to be charged and arrested by the crazy cop, Collie Entragian, who is the biggest cop Johnny has ever seen. But then Entragian recognizes him, and starts talking literature with him. Apparently, he is a big fan, and Marinville relaxes. Only the conversation grows stranger and stranger, before Entragian grows nasty. Eventually, he effectively beats Marinville before throwing him inside of the car, where he will be taken to Desperation as well.
The local jail has thus grown full over several days just like this. At first, Entragian seems in complete control. He even seems to have some kind of mastery over some of the animals, including a guard dog watching over the prisoners, as well as wolves, vultures, and even a mountain lion. It looks decidedly grim.
There is one thing which Marinville has managed to do before being arrested and taken into the town of Desperation. He has placed a call to Steve, his assistant. The connection is bad, but Steve understands that something is wrong. He has picked up a hitchhiker, and together, they approach the area where Johnny has been arrested, not far from the town of the strange name, Desperation. They see eerie signs everywhere, and not just with what happened to the writer, Steve's boss. They see a recently abandoned RV, which includes a decent amount of cash and a little girl's favorite doll, clearly loved and well taken care of. Their own sense of disquiet grows. They know something is off, but cannot figure out what it is. They decide to go the town of Desperation in hopes of alerting the authorities and getting help.
Meanwhile, it seems like the mad cop is falling apart, quite literally. Physically falling apart, and quickly. His face is tearing, and when he sneezes, it seems like bloodied parts of his insides are coming out. When he leaves with one of the prisoners, the wife of one of the characters and mother of another, the prisoners are given a chance to talk. We learn that the cop seemed to grow mad days ago, and has set traps for people on the nearby highway, which is how the local jail has grown so full. We also learn that he is actually not a man at all. That he has been taken over by a literal monster of sorts dug up recently from one of the abandoned local mines, almost by accident.
By now, we understand that he is not human, and this is the reason he has taken the woman. The alien within the cop, Collie Entragian, is transferred to the woman. Only her body starts falling apart almost immediately after the transfer. The monster, or alien, who's name is Tak, now needs to transfer to another human host.
While he is gone from the jail, however, the youngest person imprisoned, a young boy of about eight or nine (or maybe ten) gets an idea from his recently killed sister (the crazy cop controlled by Tak is the murderer). She tells him that he has been given the gift of soap, and he understands. He washes himself and lathers with soap, and then is able to barely slip through the cell bars to freedom. The others have distracted the guard dog, so the kid is able to get away. He searches the building and finds even more evidence of the extent of the disaster that has befallen Desperation. People have been killed. Everywhere are rotting carcasses of former town residents. He finds a gun, returns and kills the dog, then frees the other prisoners.
They almost accidentally meet up with Steve and the hitchhiker, who have explored the town as well, and also found nothing but horrible signs that something here has gone terribly wrong. By now, Tak has been notified by the animals that the people in jail have escaped. Now, he has to try and use "divide and conquer" tactics, with some measure of success.
Before long, the people recognize that there will only be one way to end this nightmare. That is to destroy the Tak, which means going back to the abandoned mine and blowing it up. Johnny is the one who volunteers his services on the suicide mission. They believe they manage to destroy the Tak, although there are signs right at the end that maybe they have not entirely succeeded. Maybe he is still here, in some form or another.
All in all, a solid read. This one felt truly scarier than most of King's works. Right away, at the very beginning of the book, the idea of some crazy and massive cop chasing a couple in the middle of the rural Nevada desert is scary. Then finding out that an entire town has apparently become a ghost town in just a matter of days is a great premise. Plus, King quite typically creates great and believable characters, even if they are in sometimes unreal setting.
Highly recommended, particularly if you are a fan of horror.
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