Cujo

The book starts of by telling us about a monster who once came to Castle Rock - he was not a vampire, werewolf or ghoul but a cop named Frank Dodd with mental and sexual problems. This is in relation to the character in a previous King novel, The Dead Zone .  Dodd killed himself after being discovered by the extra sensory perception of John Smith. We are then told that one day a monster returned to Castle Rock. However this seems to have no relevance to the rest of the novel and I'm not sure what King was trying to say here - some people have said that the spirit of Frank Dodd possessed Cujo and made the animal go crazy but as King's painstakingly outlines the development of the rabies infection I just don't buy that. It's almost as if King started the book intending to use Dodd is a much more central fashion., indeed there seem to be some vague hints that Dodd is possessing Cujo, but then gave up on the idea and took the story in another direction.