At the beginning of Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot, the haunted Marsten House has been purchased by the foreigner Kurt Barlow.
Barlow is presented as a mysterious Austrian immigrant who has come to Jerusalem’s Lot to establish an antique-furniture business. His business partner, Richard Straker, is the visible local representative and handles arrangements in town, while Barlow remains absent for much of the early story. Their arrival—and their decision to occupy the infamous house—marks the beginning of the novel’s central horror.
The Marsten House was formerly owned by Hubert “Hubie” Marsten, a Depression-era hitman whose violent history gave the property its sinister reputation. As a child, Ben Mears witnessed a terrifying incident there, and he returns to the town partly to confront that memory and write about the house.
A common mix-up is naming Richard Straker instead of Barlow, since Straker is the partner residents meet and the man who prepares the property. But Barlow is the crucial answer: he is the house’s new owner and the novel’s principal supernatural threat. The apparent antique business is only a cover for his arrival and planned takeover of the town.