'Salem's Lot Characters

Pity poor Ben Mears. He has a lousy time of it in 'Salem's Lot. As the book opens, he's recovering from the loss of his first wife, who died in an accident when Ben's motorcycle slipped and ran int...

Susan Norton is a small-town gal who wants to get to the big city. That seems like a big part of what she sees in Ben Mears. He's a famous author; he's exotic, cool, and not not not from 'Salem's L...

Mark Petrie is a kid, and 'Salem's Lot thinks kids are awesome. So Mark Petrie is awesome.Special Awesome KidOkay, so not all kids in the novel are awesome. Richie Boddin, the bully Mark beats up b...

The novel says at one point that Mabel Werts "was the town" (3.423). But in fact the person who seems to most nearly encapsulate 'Salem's Lot, or at least the good parts of 'Salem's Lot, is not the...

The drunken Irish priest experiencing a crisis of faith is such a tired cliché that you almost expect the entire rest of the cast—Barlow, Ben, Matt, Susan, Mark—to just laugh in Callahan's fac...

Jimmy Cody, Matt's doctor and fellow vampire hunter, gets a fair bit of screen time, but he doesn't necessarily leave a huge impression. Everybody else has some sort of inner life: Ben muses sadly...

Big, bald, suave, and sneaky, Straker's a great bad guy, sacrificing Ralphie Glick to the devil one minute and charming all the women of 'Salem's Lot the next. Who else could get Mabel Watts to gig...

Barlow's basically Dracula. You sort of wonder why King didn't just name him "Dracula" and get it over with. Maybe he felt that'd be silly. Or maybe the townsfolk would have been put off. Anyway, B...

Minor Characters Who Don't Live in the LotFather Gracon—A priest in Mexico who translates for Father Muñoz.Maury Green—Jewish funeral home director at a town nearby the lot. Friends with Jimmy...