Odd Hours

by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is one of the most unusual and endearing characters in modern literature. (My opinion only, but a number of critics agree with me.) The Barnes & Noble website will tell you that he is one of just a few characters in all literature who can be recognized by his first name alone. Odd has supernatural gifts that continually draw him into adventures, usually involving truly evil people and a significant amount of violence. And shining through all the darkness is Odd Thomas, fighting, sometimes almost completely by himself, against that wickedness. Odd Hours is Koontz's fourth installment of the Odd Thomas saga. In this story, Odd finds himself traveling with the ghost of Frank Sinatra and his spirit dog, Boo, to a small California coastal town. There, Odd gets a job cooking for an elderly former actor. He's not there long before he has a terrifying dream in which a young, pregnant woman figures prominently amid a burning, armageddon-like scene. Odd has no idea what the dream means, but he knows he has to look for the woman. The moment he locates her, his troubles with the evil men of the town begin, and he finds himself in the middle of a plot to incinerate four large U.S. cities with nuclear weapons. Suffice it to say that Odd has his hands full for the rest of the book. Koontz has succeeded again in creating a tense, and frightening story of good against evil, featuring an original character, marked by gentleness and grace.

--reviewed by D. Sams