While not the scariest novel of the King's career, The Institute can be unsettling in much the same way that the laboratory flashbacks in Firestarter were but without much bite. And while the novel is not as graphicly horrific as some of King's more memorable nightmares, there is still something methodically pleasing to a story akin to pulling on a sweater string.

The novel opens with Tim Jamieson, a down-and-out officer forced to leave his job in Florida, headed to New York City to start a new life. But instead of traveling the distance, Tim lands a night knocker job in South Carolina. He isn't the protagonist as much as a future mentor, carefully positioned for Luke Ellis.

Luke is a 12-year-old boy who is kidnapped from his room in Minneapolis and waked up to find himself in a copy of his old room at a place called The Institute. He had been recruited, they tell him, along with other children, because of their TP (telepath) and TK (telekinetics) abilities. Presumably, they were recruited to help their country, but their treatment of the children makes the story suspect.

From there, the straightforward plot is one part medical mystery and one part prison break. There is a certain satisfaction in letting it play out despite being short on surprises.

Mostly, people will find this to be a curious mashup of other King character types and concepts plus an antagonist that comes across as a second cousin to the smoking man from the X-Files television series. The only other minor annoyance is King's recent desire to insert political statements that do not forward his plots. They are merely tiny jabs that come more from him than his characters.