Product Description

Odd Thomas is looking for peace. But in the silence and snow of the mountains, danger and desperation haunt him still ! By popular demand, the story of the life and times of Odd Thomas continues. To escape the haunting memories of his lost soul-mate Stormy Llewellyn, Odd has retreated to a monastry in the High Sierra. It's December. Icy winds and deep snow besiege the remote abbey, a contrast to the sunbleached desert town of Pico Mundo where Odd was born. A white dog named Boo befriends Odd. The King of Rock 'n' Roll has followed him there and silently serenades man and dog. But Elvis isn't the most spooky phenomenon in the place. Odd is one of four guests there. Another is John Heineman, world-famous physicist, who years earlier left the secular world because he found the nature of reality, as quantum mechanics reveals it, so very weird. But Heineman continues his physics experiments down in the catacombs of the facility. Added to this, those shadowy harbingers of extreme violence, bodachs, are prowling the halls. Only Odd can see them. Only he knows what their presence means. Odd has a knack for finding himself in the path of trouble no matter where he goes, even among the eccentric monks in their sanctuary ! where Odd is about to encounter an enemy that eclipses any he has yet known.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #215982 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
'Dean Koontz straddles the genres, and pretty successfully, too ! Odd Thomas is a short-order cook in a restaurant in Pico Mundo, a small town in the Mohave Desert. He also has an instinct for people who are going to cause mayhem. And when one of them turns up and orders breakfast, the novel kicks into gear ! Odd Thomas is certainly a page-turner -- this is a read-at-a-sitting novel -- with a terrific final twist' The Observer 'There's surprise after surprise, including a killer finale!a read-in-one-go novel' Independent on Sunday on 'Velocity' '"Velocity" hits its pace from the first page and races through to a suitably climactic ending.' Sydney Sunday Telegraph 'Dean Koontz is not just a master of our darkest dreams, but also a literary juggler.' The Times 'Psychologically complex, masterly and satisfying.' The New York Times 'A modern Swift ! a master satirist.' Entertainment Weekly 'If Stephen King is the Rolling Stones of novels, Koontz is the Beatles.' Playboy 'Dean Koontz writes page-turners, middle-of-the-night sneak-up-behind-you suspense thrillers. He touches our hearts and tingles our spines.' Washington Post Book World 'Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. Serious writers might do well to study his technique.' New York Times Book Review 'Fast-paced and dark ! Koontz knows we live in a world where evil delights in justifying itself ! Classic literature that deserves a place on the bookshelf beside Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.' California Literary Review 'Koontz is writing right where popular culture swells into something larger, just as it did for Homer, Shakespeare, and Dickens. He's got the gift.' Australian 'Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.' USA Today 'Inspires both chills and serious thought ! has the power to scare the daylights out of us.' People 'The poet laureate of paranoid pop fiction.' Denver Post 'Koontz achieves a literary miracle ! stunning physical description, unique turns of phrase.' Boston Globe 'Near Dickensian powers of description.' Los Angeles Times

Synopsis
Odd Thomas is looking for peace. But in the silence and snow of the mountains, danger and desperation haunt him still ! By popular demand, the story of the life and times of Odd Thomas continues. To escape the haunting memories of his lost soul-mate Stormy Llewellyn, Odd has retreated to a monastry in the High Sierra. It's December. Icy winds and deep snow besiege the remote abbey, a contrast to the sunbleached desert town of Pico Mundo where Odd was born. A white dog named Boo befriends Odd. The King of Rock 'n' Roll has followed him there and silently serenades man and dog. But Elvis isn't the most spooky phenomenon in the place. Odd is one of four guests there. Another is John Heineman, world-famous physicist, who years earlier left the secular world because he found the nature of reality, as quantum mechanics reveals it, so very weird. But Heineman continues his physics experiments down in the catacombs of the facility. Added to this, those shadowy harbingers of extreme violence, bodachs, are prowling the halls. Only Odd can see them. Only he knows what their presence means.

Odd has a knack for finding himself in the path of trouble no matter where he goes, even among the eccentric monks in their sanctuary ! where Odd is about to encounter an enemy that eclipses any he has yet known.

From the Back Cover
Odd Thomas is looking for peace. But in the silence and snow of
the mountains, danger and desperation haunt him still ...

Odd, a charismatic young man with a sense for the otherworldly, is in
self-imposed exile. The tragic events that took the love of his life have
led Odd from his sun-bleached desert home to a remote monastery in the icy
High Sierra.

As ever, where Odd Thomas goes strangeness goes too. A white dog named Boo
befriends him - as does the ghost of Elvis. And a world-famous physicist is
conducting experiments in the catacombs of the abbey. Could this be why Odd
can once again see bodachs, shadowy harbingers of violence? They prowl the
halls, suggesting terror to come.

But what form will it take? And how will Odd defeat an enemy that eclipses
any he has met before?

Customer Reviews

And Odd it really was !!!!
The title gives it away - Really ODD
I thought that there had to be something as Koontz is a huge best seller - So I gave it a try - Big mistake -
Story is so slow as to be pedestrian - Maybe me being a cynic did not help - He can see dead people - Right !!!
Well I do love things like this in spite of not being a believer - but when Elvis turned up enough was enough - So inspite of reading over 300 pages I could take no more and did not even have the energy to find out who dunnit -
the other irritation was the book seemed a base for Koontz to project his views on life without fear of any contradiction - Oh how wonderful for him

Boring Odd
The 3rd in the series of Odd Thomas books. This one definately lacked the sparkle of the previous two.

It seemed to take nearly two thirds of the book before it actually got going with a plot that really wasn't up to Koontz's usual high standard.

A nice change I suppose that the bodachs didn't actually see a huge death toll - maybe this is why I found it disappointing.

The plot, in my opinion, didn't follow very well and all of a sudden Odd and the Russian had worked out who the Neverwas and the ending was coming to a close.

I found Odd rather dull and at times irritating in this book and didn't really care what happened to him or the other characters. Sadly, I feel it was a bit of a chore to read but felt I had to read it in order to read the 4th in the series which I sincerely hope improves on this disaster.

A Modern Version of "The Name of the Rose"
This third sequel of the Odd-stories is the best of them in my opinion. OK, there are tiny flaws. For example the ending is strangely undramatic - a showdown that is not really typical of Koontz. But everything else is excellently written. The novel has a fine plot, which is straightforward - almost simple. The setting reminds the reader of Eco's famous novel, a monastery in winter, in which mysterious deaths and murders occur. The character of Odd has become more mature. He enjoys witty and intelligent dialogues even with characters he sees involved in crime. The character of Romanovich is just another example of the author's expertise when it comes to inventing and creating bizarre characters. That is also true for the handicapped children, especially Jacob. But Dr Heineman, or Brother John, is too flat a character to be able to play a major role, which strongly affects the weak ending. And the nuns and monks are really a treat. The ever-present humour does not belong to the Shakespearian kind of relaxation, but the fine balance between humour and impending catastrophe actually creates tension here. A well written novel - intelligent and full of suspense.