The Institute by Stephen King: Suffer the children from the evils of their elders

Horror: The Institute Stephen King Hodder & Stoughton, hardback, 480 pages, €14.99

Stephen King, now in his 70s, hasn’t lost any of his narrative skills, his sense of pacing, or his gift for creating memorable characters

John Boland

Stephen King's scary and disturbing new novel, which mainly concerns the cruelties inflicted by dark forces on gifted children, begins innocently enough with disillusioned Florida ex-cop Tim Jamieson accepting a monetary offer to relinquish his plane seat and hitching a ride instead to South Carolina, where on a whim he ends up in the town of Dupray.

There he befriends the local sheriff and accepts the job of night knocker, which means checking on houses and business premises after hours - basically, as Tim reflects, acting as "a beat cop circa 1954, only without a gun or even a nightstick".