When the small, remote working-class town of Bedford,
Maine, was destroyed by the environmental fall-out after
its paper mill burned down (read THE KEEPER), clouds of
sulfur were released into the surrounding forest. Luckily,
the neighboring town of Corpus Christi was not affected.
That is, until one of its school teachers takes her young
class on a field trip to the desolate town.
The disappearance of, and ensuing search for one of the
students sets in motion a nightmare so horrific it's beyond
comprehension. For in that deadly forest, the young boy has
released a noxious virus that transforms everyone it
contaminates into vicious, rapacious, flesh-devouring
fiends. As the infected turn on each other and succumb to
this evil plague of unknown origin, is there anything that
will stop its spread?
Oh, boy, this is chilling horror at its finest! I've never
been a big fan of Stephen King, but I am of Sarah
Langan. Her writing is crisp and precise, her
characters sharp and vivid, as she keeps the plot on a high
level of spine-tingling tension. And she provides just
enough of the grisly details to incite the reader's
imagination to fill in the rest. I could not get THE
MISSING out of my head -- a great read by a very talented
new voice in the horror genre.
Corpus Christi, Maine, was once a town of affluence, but
since the mysterious paper mill fire in the neighboring
town of Bedford released dense sulfuric clouds that killed
the surrounding forest, Corpus Christi has been in steady
decline. When fourth-grade teacher Lois Larkin takes her
class on a field trip to the now-abandoned Bedford, they're
exposed to a deadly virus that transforms the infected into
ravenous, flesh-eating monsters.