Cujo

“Once upon a time, not so long ago, a monster came to the small town of Castle Rock, Maine… He was not a werewolf, vampire, ghoul, or unnameable creature from the enchanted forest or from snow wastes; he was only a cop…”

Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard dog, the best friend Brett Camber has ever had. Then one day Cujo chases a rabbit into a bolt-hole. Except it isn’t a rabbit warren any more. It is a cave inhabited by rabid bats.

And Cujo falls sick. Very sick.

What happens to Cujo, how he becomes a horrifying vortex inexorably drawing in all the people around him, makes for one of the most heart-stopping novels Stephen King has written.