Which Stephen King novel first featured the fictional town of Castle Rock?

The Dead Zone was the first Stephen King novel to feature the fictional town of Castle Rock. Published in 1979, the novel sends protagonist Johnny Smith to Castle Rock to help investigate a series of murders committed by the Castle Rock Strangler.

Castle Rock is part of King’s interconnected fictional geography of Maine. It became one of his most important recurring settings, later serving as the primary location for works including Cujo, Needful Things, and the novella The Body. The town’s name was inspired by the mountain fort in William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies.

A common mix-up is to identify Cujo as Castle Rock’s first appearance because it is one of the best-known stories set there. Cujo came later, in 1981. Castle Rock also has a separate screen history: its first on-screen appearance was in the 1983 film adaptation of Cujo, several years after its literary debut in The Dead Zone.