Peter Straub

Old friends try to come to grips with the darkness of the past--a secret ritual that left behind a gruesomely dismembered body--and find themselves face-to-face with the evil they helped create.

"Jack Sawyer, a twelve years old, is about to begin a most fantastic journey, an exalting, terrifying quest for the mystical Talisman--the only thing that can save Jack's dying mother. But to reach his goal, Jack must make his way not only across the breadth of the United States but also through the wondrous and menacing parallel world of the Territories. In the Territories, Jack finds another realm, where the air is so sweet nd clear a man can smell...

New York City police detective Bob Steele is determined to stop the killing spree of a man who calls himself, among other things, Fielding "Fee" Bandolier, a Vietnam veteran whose many victims' voices talk to both men. At the same time, the evil within an abandoned pub in the Midwest, The Green Woman, calls both men to meet their fates within its walls.