From a Buick 8

From a Buick 8 is a novel by horror writer Stephen King (ISBN 0743211375). Published in September 24, 2002, this is the second novel by Stephen King to feature a car (the first one being Christine). The book sleeve describes the novel: "From a Buick 8 is a novel about our fascination with deadly things, about our insistence on answers when there are none, about terror and courage in the face of the unknowable."

Stephen King says that he was inspired to write this book on a car trip he took in 1999. During the trip he stopped at a gas station in western Pennsylvania. He stopped to refuel and while looking around he slipped and almost fell into a stream of water. The thoughts that he might not have been discovered until a much later time, led him to the plot of the story. In the novel King describes a fatal automobile accident, and coincidentally King himself was the victim of a bad accident that almost killed him late in 1999. However, he said that he did not change any of the details in the novel to match his version.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

The car resembles a vintage 1954 Buick Roadmaster, but it is not an actual car. It was left on a gas station by a mysterious man, who dissapeared soon after leaving the car to be refueled. The car is later held by the Troop D police of rural Pennsylvania in one of their sheds. The object only looks like a car on the first look, but a closer inspection reveals that it is nothing like a car. It is instead a sort of portal to another world. Throughout the time that the car is held in the shed, it produces out of this world light shows that are completely silent. Every once in a while it even transports objects and living things between the worlds.