Cujo
by
Stephen King

Illustration by David Loew

The story is set almost entirely in the fictitious town of Castle Rock, Maine. The novel centers on Cujo, a St. Bernard that belongs to Joe Cambers and his family.
The novel begins with a reference to Frank Dodd, the Castle Rock deputy sheriff whose murder spree was the central episode in the first half of The Dead Zone. There are some hints in the story that Cujo might be possessed by Dodd and that Dodd is haunting the Trenton house. Except for these vague hints, there are no supernatural elements in the book.
While hunting in the fields around the Cambers' house, Cujo is bitten by a bat infected with rabies. While Cujo begins to succumb to the disease, Joe's wife and son leave on a trip to visit relatives. Soon afterwards, Cujo attacks and kills the Cambers' neighbor, Gary Pervier. While Joe's family are on vacation, Joe has plans with Gary for a trip of their own. Joe goes to the Pervier home to meet Gary, only to find Gary dead. Before Joe is able to call the police, Cujo kills him as well.
The Trentons -- Vic, Donna, and four-year-old Tad -- are having problems of their own. Vic has discovered that his wife has been cheating on him. In the midst of this household tension, Vic's business is failing, and he is forced to leave on a business trip to Boston and New York. Donna, home alone with Tad, takes their failing Ford Pinto to the Cambers' for repairs. However, the car breaks down when they reach the farm. With no one at the Camber home except for Cujo, a three day struggle begins to outlast the dog in a siege of the stalled car. Hunger, thirst, and fantasies of escape methods conspire to tease Donna and Tad during the hottest summer in Castle Rock history. A Castle Rock police officer, George Bannerman, arrives fortuitously but is himself killed by the dog before calling for help. Vic, worried that his wife has not answered the phone at home, returns to Castle Rock and figures out where they are. By the time Vic arrives, Donna has killed Cujo in a gory showdown with a damaged baseball bat and Tad has died of dehydration. (In the movie, Tad survives as producers felt that the death of a child would be too horrifying).