Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #652 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Synopsis
The latest Odd Thomas thriller from the master storyteller. A mystery in Magic Beach, California has lured Odd to the small town by the ocean -- but is it the call of the deep or the cry of the desperate? Odd Thomas knows more about the mysteries of the universe than the rest of us. He can see the lingering dead. He has learned that there are no coincidences. Even in chaos, there is order, purpose, and strange meaning. Intuition has brought Odd Thomas to the quaint town of Magic Beach on the California coast. In his desert home, Odd once found an ocean filled with love, and lost it. Now, scarred and alone, the only magic he finds by the vast, indifferent Pacific is in the name of the town where he has come to rest. As he waits to learn why he has been drawn to Magic Beach, he has found work as cook and assistant to a once-famous film actor who, at eighty, has become an eccentric with as long a list of fears as he has stories about Hollywood's golden days. Odd is having dreams of a red tide, vague but worrisome. But nothing prepares him for the hard truth of what he will discover.For in Magic Beach, he will come face to face with a form of evil that will test him as never before.

Odd Hours is a brilliantly observed chronicle of good and evil in our time, of illusion and everlasting truth. Pick up a Dean Koontz thriller and you can't put it down: try one

Customer Reviews

Boring
I really liked Odd Thomas, and eventhough book three may have been slightly entertaining, I'm more or less disappointed with the series, including this fourth installment. Put Odd out of his misery now, please.

Be Odd for a day!
I loved this book, which has reached the heights of "Odd Thomas" in a way that that the second and third books in the series, although enjoyable, did not quite manage. Again we have a conflict between the humble and wryly self-deprecating goodness of Odd's character and enemies which personify arrogant evil. Odd's character has become more mature and willing to accept the need for desperate measures; his new enemies have reached a new level of depravity that, while it beggars belief in its detail, may be taken to represent the greatest evils that exist on this planet in their abuse of trust and power and their utter lack of conscience.

I felt entirely immersed in the storyline, despite reading this over more than a week. The atmosphere and the descriptions of the many scenes with varied and rich atmosphere are in some way more important than the almost cartoon-like, but satisfyingly crisp action. The more minor characters including Hutch and Birdie, not to mention Sinatra's ghost, provide some wry smiles. The villains never cause any confused feelings by exposing a vestige of humanity. If you require sympathetic villains, don't buy this book!

The role of the intriguing character of Annamaria was one of the strong points of this book, and a factor which gave it form and a satisfying framework. As in previous Odd Thomas books, some things are not entirely explained, but enough is made clear to reveal the bigger picture.

This is a book I was sorry to have to come to the end of, and felt my life had been a little enriched by having read.

Odd The Fourth
Unusually for Dean Koontz he has created a series of books with the same character. "Odd Hours" is the fourth in the "Odd Thomas" series. It possibly the weakest but still a great read nevertheless. "Odd Thomas", the first in the series, is one of Koontz's greatest works and all the followups have been strong but haven't quite matched it.

This time Odd is in a coastal town and after a encounter with a heavily pregnant girl Annamaria he gets thrown into a deadly pursuit of nuclear weapons. The story takes place over one evening.

There's no Elvis in this book. However, Frank Sinatra is onboard to add an element of humour. There are no evil Bodachs anymore and in a way their presence is missed. The character of Annamaria was nowhere near developed enough. At first she was intriguing but her character wasn't expanded upon.

You could quite happily read "Odd Hours" as a standalone book. However, if you're new to Dean Koontz start off with "Odd Thomas" instead.

Odd Thomas is a brilliant character and hopefully there'll be more in the series.

7/10