But under the pen name of George Stark he is the best-selling author of ferocious thrillers like ''Sharkmeat Pie,'' the protagonist of which is named Alexis Machine because he kills like one. Circumstances force Thad to own up to his pseudonym, which in any case has become irksome. He has decided to go it on his own, to lay his fictional self to rest. He and his wife even hold a mock burial service for George Stark, papier-mache tombstone and all. But one morning a man-sized cavity is discovered at the site.
Footprints lead away.
Very soon, people begin to die horribly, in particular everybody associated with Thad's decision to bury George Stark, whose prose style governs the graphic and gruesome descriptions of the murders. For George Stark has materialized. But George Stark is not content to be merely undead. He wants to be alive entirely. He wants Thad to begin another novel under Stark's name.