Johnny Smith awakens from a coma caused by a car accident; he finds that almost five years have passed, and he remembers and starts to experience his psychic abilities again. The years in a coma cost him his one true love, who moved on, got married, and had a child.
Johnny’s psychic powers allow him to read minds and see a person's future with a mere touch. When he shakes the hand of a wanna-be politician, Greg Stillson, Johnny can see that if this man becomes Presiden,t the world will be in a terrible position. Eventually, he decides to kill Stillson.
Stephen King, in his memoir On Writing, King said that this book, “The Dead Zone,” that is, in part, came about when he considered the question of whether a political assassin could not only be "right” but also could become "the good guy" in a story.
The Dead Zone is a novel in which a villain is a terrible man and politician whose thirst for power knows no bounds and who will do anything to win.
“We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough, and if it isn't good enough, it has to do.”
“Ninety-five percent of people who walk the earth are inert. One percent are saints, and one percent are assholes. The other three percent are people who do what they say they can do.”
“Because things like this you can only say once. And you either get it wrong or right; it’s the end either way because it's too hard to try to say again.”
“She suddenly realized she was sitting in an apartment by herself late at night, eating an apple and watching a movie on TV that she cared nothing about, and doing it all because it was easier than thinking; thinking was so boring when all you had to think about was yourself and your lost love.”