'Salem's Lot - Stephen King

Just simply bloody brilliant. Beyond the characters, plot and effortless prose you expect from King, it has a bunch of passages scattered throughout that are simply beautiful, poetic works of art, and which approach social commentary (on one level 'Salem's Lot is very much about the Vietnam war) without threatening to push the vampires and the action into the background. This is a book to study and re-read, as an example of how to do novel-writing and of what it can be at its best.