Black House: A Novel

Black House is the second novel in a series that began with The Talisman (1984), the first collaboration between King and Straub. That first book introduces readers to 12-year-old Jack Sawyer, the son of a former Hollywood talent agent, whose mother Lily Cavanaugh—a faded “Queen of the Bs”—is seriously ill in a dilapidated New Hampshire resort hotel called the Alhambra Inn. There, Jack encounters a mysterious old Black groundskeeper named Speedy Parker, who reveals to the boy that he possesses a rare ability: He can “flip” between his own world and a parallel world called the Territories, a realm where most people in our world have a corresponding “Twinner.” Jack, however, has no Twinner, which allows him to travel between worlds without exchanging places with a counterpart. Lily’s Twinner, Queen Laura DeLoessian, is likewise dying, and the survival of both women depends on a single mystical object: the Talisman, a glowing crystal held in a black hotel on the California coast. The novel follows Jack’s harrowing cross-country journey, undertaken across both realities, as he hitchhikes westward through America and treks through the Territories. Along the way he endures captivity at the hands of the preacher Sunlight Gardener, labors in the Oatley Tap, and befriends Wolf, a werewolf from the Territories whose devotion to Jack and tragic fate continue to affect him in adulthood. The chief antagonist is Morgan Sloat, Jack’s late father’s business partner, whose Twinner Morgan of Orris seeks to seize power in both worlds. The Talisman combines American road fiction and quest fantasy in a coming-of-age story about courage, loss, and responsibility.

Black House picks up nearly two decades later, reintroducing its protagonist as a retired Los Angeles homicide detective who has moved to rural Wisconsin. This adult Jack has suppressed much of his memory of his childhood journey through the Territories; the narrator explains that “he has forgotten much and has spent a good part of his adult life maintaining that state of amnesia” (62). This context is important to understanding Jack’s initial reluctance to involve himself in the supernatural horrors plaguing French Landing. His efforts to avoid reminders of the Territories reflect his determination to distance himself from the disturbing experiences of his childhood. Speedy Parker’s return in his Territories identity as Parkus, further establishes continuity between the novels and encourages Jack to confront his forgotten past. The novel thus becomes a story of Jack’s pursuit of a killer and his gradual recovery of the memories and abilities that enabled him to complete his childhood quest.