Roadwork
Stephen King
 The novel starts with a "man on the street" news interview in August 1972, in which an unnamed man (later revealed to be Dawes) gives his angry opinion of the highway extension project. The narrative then jumps forward to November 1973, with Dawes, seemingly unaware of the underlying motivations of his actions, visiting a gun shop and purchasing a heavy-caliber pistol and rifle. As the story progresses, it is revealed that Dawes' son Charlie had died from brain cancer several years earlier, and that Dawes is unable or unwilling to sever his emotional ties to his workplace and the house that his son grew up in. Dawes loses his middle management job at an industrial laundry after sabotaging the purchase of their new facility, and after learning of his actions, his wife Mary leaves him. Dawes then approaches Sal Magliore, the owner of a local used-car dealership with ties to the Mob, in an attempt to obtain explosives. Magliore initially dismisses him as a crackpot, so Dawes assembles a load of Molotov cocktails and uses them to damage the highway construction equipment, causing a brief delay in the project. Later, Magliore agrees to sell Dawes a load of explosives, paid for with money from the sale of Dawes' house to the city under its eminent domain statute, and has Dawes' house checked for phone taps planted by the city. Dawes gives most of the rest of his money to Magliore to invest on behalf of Olivia Brenner, a young hitchhiker on whom he took pity during a brief meeting and sexual encounter. In January 1974, during the final hours before the morning when he must leave the property, Dawes wires the whole house with the explosives and barricades himself inside. When the police arrive to forcibly evict him, he shoots at them, forcing them to take cover and attracting the attention of the media. Dawes coerces the police into letting a reporter - the same one who interviewed him in 1972, though neither recognizes the other - come in and speak to him. Once the reporter has left, Dawes tosses his guns out the window and sets off his explosives, destroying the house with himself inside. A short epilogue reveals that there was no real reason for the extension project; the city simply had extra money in its road construction budget, and had to spend it for fear of having the next year's budget reduced.