"Jerusalem's Lot"

by Stephen King
originally published Night Shift, Doubleday 1978

Charles Boone is the new owner of Chapelwaite, a creepy family mansion formerly owned by his estranged, and now deceased, cousin.  He moves in with his servant, Calvin, and starts firing off letters to his friends about his new digs and what he finds there.

Aside from ol' cuz having some very Charles Addams-y taste in decor, there are mysterious noises in the walls which Charles at first takes for rats, but soon determines must be something else.  And the townsfolk of nearby Preacher's Corners ain't too friendly to any Boones.  Especially Boones living in that there creepy old house.  He learns from a housekeeper that, while she thinks the Boones to be good people, she has always considered the house to be evil.

Calvin finds a map of a nearby village called Jerusalem's Lot.  He and Charles find it to be a long-deserted Puritan settlement.  Strangely, it appears to be untouched by men or beasts, as if no living thing had set foot there since the inhabitants bailed.  

Worse, there's a blasphemous church with an unholy painting, and inverted cross, and copy of De Vermis Mysteriis lying arounf on the pulpit.  When Charles examines the books, he feels as if something under the earth beneath his is moving.  Now understandably a bit spooked, he and Calvin get the heck outta Jerusalem's Lot. 

Meanwhile, the townsfolk are getting even less friendly.  Charles learns from the housekeeper that the family rift ensued when Charles' grandpappy, Robert Boone, tried to steal De Vermis from his brother Philip, apparently intending to destroy it.  It seems Philip was a fallen preacher, sucked into dark occult beliefs.  Philip, and all the rest of the folks of Jerusalem's Lot disappeared on Halloween, 1789.....

Calvin finds a diary written in cipher, and he and Charles explore the cellar, intending to find rats.  Instead of rats, they find two of his ancestors in a decidedly nasty and undead state.  They run away and deal the undeads in the cellar, but inexplicably remain in the house.


Calvin cracks the cypher, and gets the whole story on Jerusalem's Lot, founded by long-ago predecessor James Boon, leader of an inbred witch-cult.  Later, Phillip Boon joined the by then very ancient James in summoning a critter they called "The Worm", using ceremonies from De Vermis Mysteriis.


They return to Jersusalem's Lot, finding evidence of recent activity.  When Charles tries to destroy the copy of De Vermis, the undead cult members rise up to protect it.  The Worm is summoned.  It kills Calvin, while Charles sets the book on fire, which causes it to take off.

Charles knocks out a final letter to his buddy, Bones, stating that he will kill himself in order to put an end to the cursed Boone family line.   A final note tells us that the line in fact survived, and a new Boone has moved into Chapelwaite....

Something of an oddity - King writing in the style of H.P. Lovecraft.  Or maybe H.P.L. and August Derleth.  That latter is more accurate, for this tale recalls nothing so much as the posthumous collaborations I've been critiqueing the past few months.  All the checkboxes are certainly there:  protagonist inherits creepy old house once owned by creepy relative he barely knew, locals are unfriendly, creepy stuff happens, Incriminating Cthuloid Evidence found, big denouement with lots of italics ala Da Master himself.  In some ways, it improves on the adorementioned "collaborations".  There's more intelligence and logic behind said checkboxes - some explanation provided for exactly why the relatives had little contact with one another, for example.   At other times, it falls victim to the same lapses as Derelthocraft did - I dunno about you, but if I found a couple undead in my cellar, I sure wouldn't stick around in that house!  The Worm is a bit too literal a monster for my tastes, and I think King may have had his tongue slightly in his cheek when he wrote this.

 It is effectively written - King apes the Lovecraft/Derleth style well (the story often reminds me of The Lurker At The Threshold, the best of the Derleth tomb-raids).  The EC-ish zombies, bits of blatant gore, and some sexual and scatological references are obviously in King territory, however.  There's a certain sense of fun here, a sense that the story is intended simultaneously as homage and admiring parody, with a dash of "it'd be fun to write a Lovecraft-type story, and do it Lovecraft style".  Like Lurker and several other Cthulhu stories I've read, the first half of the story is a potent build-up, and the second half a bit of a letdown, but this is still a genuinely fun read.

 


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