Dean Koontz has a way with him and I can heartily recommend yet another one of his triumphs: Odd Thomas.

Click on the menu on the left and see the other two books of Loontz that I have read and reviewed: the brilliant Velocity and the excellent For ever Odd.

Odd Thomas was written before For ever Odd but I didn't find it a hindrance that I read them out of sequence. The most significant thing about Odd Thomas is that he sees dead people. When does he see them. All the time. Now, where did I borrow that epic dialogue from?

Of course, not many of us see dead people at all and not many of us know anyone who can. Odd is not a medium and he doesn't hold seances either. Odd sees the dead but not many people know it. Well, OK, the book is an international best seller so the secret's out a bit.

It's important that Odd works in the way that he does because it keeps him from being pestered by people who'd want him to help them. I agree with him. We are told that even his parents don't know about his gift. Imagine having such a talent: could you keep it secret? Imagine also that one of your most frequent sightings is of Elvis Presley who is, believe it or believe it not, in limbo in Pico Mundo, a town in the middle of nowehere USA.

I don't rememeber bodachs from For ever Odd but they are here. A bodach is a formless manifastation that presages doom, death and despondancy. There are many bodachs in this book but their evil is not manifested until very late on in the story. Odd beliees that wen bodachs apear the home in on someone who willthen prbab face a chaenge

A man appears at the grill at which Odd is a cook: Odd calls himself a fry cook. Bacon and eggs and that. The man is sour faced and Odd sees death in him.

The slowest part of the story now surrounds this man, Bob Robertson, as Odd follows him, breaks into his house, sees loads of bodachs and goes into a room that needs to be read about rather than being described badly by me. As an editor I would have been tempted to chop out tracts of that part. Then again, I believe that one third of Anna Karenina is superfluous!

Bob follows Odd and his girlfriend, Stormy. He stalks them and they are afraid of him, very afraid. As they are picnicking in the belfry of the church they are tracked down. They escape but the vestry is wrecked as Bob is frustrated by not having got to them. He dies.

Odd and Stormy are desperately in love and even though they are both around 20 years old, they are not sleeping together. Relatively early on in the story, though, they decide to get married on Saturday: that's just two or three days away.

Now the story picks up its pace. Bob Robertson's corpse finds its way to Odd's bath. No sign of a break in and there is a gun on the floor of his bedsit. Sensibly he doesn't touch the gun. In a peculiar turn, for me at any rate, he feels the need to take the body and dump it in a disused building out of town. As he dumps the body he is confronted by a small pack of Coyotes and a beautiful and naked lady. She's dead of course!

Odd's brain now goes into over drive. The chief of police is shot at home: the chief knows odd's secret and he has already been let in on the latest activity by Odd, apart from the body. The chief had set things in train t try to help.

To cut the story short and not to give too much away, Odd becomes embroiled in a series of dangerous activities as he works out who the enemy is and what they are going to do next. After all, Odd sees dead people and he is able to work out what they are up to and trying to tell him.

In the nature of being a hero, Odd puts himself in harm's way as desperately tries to prevent potentially a large number people dying. Some people die. Who killed them and why? Read the book. It's put together well.

Someone special dies in the fracas too. Who can that be and how is that dealt with by Koontz in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter. It's a good part of the story.

The last words in the book are:

My name is Odd Thomas. I am a fry cook. I lead an unusual life, here in Pico Mundo, my little world. I am at peace.

If you like Koontz' other work, I'm sure you'll like this one.

Duncan Williamson
9th November 2006