The Dead Zone is a psychological thriller, a crime story, and a science fiction story in a slow-burning mystery format.    Stephen King’s protagonist, Johnny Smith, awakens from a coma after 5 years and finds that he has some psychic powers.   He can read some people and see the future, but he also has had some brain damage so he has blind spots which he calls “the dead zone.”

Johnny is a likeable character, but his past and the future he can see begin to take a toll.   In an effort to avert dangers for others, he reveals something of his powers, and this starts a chain of events begin to torment him.    Although he is still the genial well-liked man, inside he starts the process of spiralling downward.  The book is a deep dive into a character ruined by the remarkable events of his life.   When he ultimately meets someone who will cause irreparable damage, he turns from unconventional investigator to a would-be assassin.

This was the first of the Castle Rock stories, a study in Everyman transformed by a touch of the world’s evils, a modern Macbeth:

“stepped in so far that should I wade no more,

returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

This is a different Stephen King book that elicits a wide range of reviews.   Some say it is one of his best, and I agree – 4.7 out of 5.0 stars4.7

An audiobook excerpt: