This was the first Stephen King book I read, and it lead me to read more. The opener of the book catches you immediately, unlike other books that drone on until something starts happening.

The main storyline is about a man called Johnny Smith who is involved in a serious car crash and ends up in a coma for 5 years. When he awakes, he is not only aware of the massive changes especially in politics, but he can also sense the past and future of a person by touching him/her or something belonging to him/her. A part of his brain was damaged by the crash, the part which he calls the Dead Zone. Since the crash, he could not recall place names and destinations.

There are two sub-storylines in this book, the first of a serial rapist/killer who was "active" while Johnny was in the coma. As the public became aware of his so-called physcic abilities, he was called in by the police force to try to track down the killer. This story is full of the idea that people will only believe what they want to, no matter what the truth is.

The second is of a "village idiot" type of character, who has a dark side of using force to get his own way. He uses this force to get himself into the mayor's seat. Because of Johnny's awareness of the political changes, he becomes paranoid of what this madman could do. Especially when he gets one of his "flashbacks" after shaking his hand.

This is a very-well written and structured book. Small parts of the story in the early chapters which seem like space-fillers do become relatively major keys to the plot later on, a skill which many authors do not have.