Product Description

The third Odd Thomas novel from Dean Koontz, following 'Odd Thomas' and 'Forever Odd'. 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 and the downright strange, is in self-imposed exile. The tragic events that took the love of his life have led Odd from his sun-bleached desert home of Pico Mundo to a monastery in the High Sierra. It's December and the remote abbey is besieged by icy winds and snow. 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?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59944 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 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

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?

About the Author
Dean Koontz is an international household name whose hugely entertaining parables for our times have been bestsellers in many countries, selling seventeen million copies each year. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he lives with his wife Gerda and their dog Trixie in southern California.

Customer Reviews

Title pretty much gives it away
Odd indeed--the entire series from Koontz. If you're new to this author, he's written a series of books dealing with this character, ODD THOMAS. The first book was simply "Odd Thomas," followed by "Forever Odd."

Now, this one, "Brother Odd," is a faster paced book than the first two, and those pretty well flew. The first two were simply fantastic in my opinion, though I did read them a while ago. It's no wonder Koontz stays on the bestseller lists with his accessible but literary works, and ODD THOMAS is the perfect book, touching the heart and making you laugh at the same time.

The setting of this latest Koontz page-turner is a snowbound monestary, reminding me a little of "The Shining" though the edge and material given the situation is handled with more sophistication and elegance. Yet at the same time Koontz gives us a gritty piece of fiction, not shying away from situations that might be ruined the hands of other authors.

As usual, there's a parade of other "Odd" characters in this books, and while it fits into the series well, it can still be read by itself without the background of the first two books. I liked this book almost as much as two others I recently came across, "The Charming Man" and "Barring Some Unforeseen Accident," both of which were EXTREMELY entertaining, the first being more romance oriented and the second being a sort of mystery.

For those who haven't read any Koontz, feel free to dive right in--you don't have to read these books in a series and they're all entertaining. Cheers!

My 100-word book review
Brother Odd is the third book in Koontz's series, which started with the excellent Odd Thomas, and it is the weakest yet. There are some good touches (I liked the snowbound monastery and found the monstrous apparitions intriguing) but the novel is let down by a poor plot, has an unsatisfactory resolution and on occasion Koontz's trademark humour gets in the way. There is also some rather heavy-handed moralising, which seems out of character for Odd. A shame really, as the premise underlying these stories is a good one. I hope the fourth book will mark a return to form.

downhill...
I loved the 1st in the series and bore with the second, as I rated the character Odd so much. The first two made me cry, aswell as read in one sitting, although I preferred the 1st by a mile and awaited the 3rd thinking it would overcome the 2nd novel-2nd album syndrome. As for Brother Odd, sorry to say I started to really dislike the character so much that he gave me mental italics. This book was a real letdown. The plot was gossamer thin, and the sweet simple personality of the protagonist felt cloyingly annoying and 2D. Not to mention the loss of Elvis himself.. the one point in the book which may have had some poignancy, if left alone, was quickly ruined by the appearance of none less than Sinatra. (I'm sure Odd was meant to be lacking in the ego department? Why not some anonymous soul?)
That said, I will buy the 4th book, hoping to find some remnance of the promise of the first and not something that feels like a contractual obligation and insult to readers integrity.