Firestarter

When two college students volunteered as guinea pigs testing a new drug, they had no idea how drastically it would change their lives. True, both developed mild psychic powers – and both had vague memories of seeing other volunteers suffering appalling torments which, they were afterwards assured, were only their own hallucinations. But it was not until they married and had a daughter that the full genetic horror of the experiment became known…

For their beloved small girl, Charlie, is a ‘firestarter’. In temper, she can cause spontaneous combustion – of her cot, of her favourite teddy bear… of living matter…

With love and care, her parents manage to keep her from danger. But it is only a matter of time before those who seek to profit from her powers close in. Charlie and her father find themselves on the run across America – relentlessly pursued by those who would exploit or destroy this child of seven, for the sake of her terrifying destructive gift.

In Firestarter Stephen King has created a horrifying and claustrophobic world in which the innocent are all too believably enmeshed in the ruthless corruption of those for whom power in the ultimate goal.