deeply odd

deeply odd
odd thomas #6
dean koontz
bantam
published 2013

How do you make sure a crime that hasn’t happened yet, never does? That’s the critical question facing Odd Thomas, the young man with a unique ability to commune with restless spirits and help them find justice and peace. But this time, it’s the living who desperately need Odd on their side. Three helpless innocents will be brutally executed unless Odd can intervene in time. Who the potential victims are and where they can be found remain a mystery. The only thing Odd knows for sure is who the killer will be: the homicidal stranger who tried to shoot him dead in a small-town parking lot. 

With the ghost of Alfred Hitchcock riding shotgun and a network of unlikely allies providing help along the way, Odd embarks on an interstate game of cat and mouse with his sinister quarry. He will soon learn that his adversary possesses abilities that may surpass his own and operates in service to infinitely more formidable foes, with murder a mere prelude to much deeper designs. Traveling across a landscape haunted by portents of impending catastrophe, Odd will do what he must and go where his path leads him, drawing ever closer to the dark heart of his long journey—and, perhaps, to the bright light beyond.

This was one book in this series that I truly feel you could not read on its own, but only after having at least read the first Odd Thomas book.  He refers back to the events in Odd Thomas frequently and there is a hint that the events here have something to do with the horrific events in Pico Mundo 18 months ago.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I love how it seems to feel much more like the first (and my favorite) Odd Thomas book.  I love the characters he meets along the way, hinting we will see them in the next (and hopefully last) installment.  Alfred Hitchcock's surprising revelation was an interesting twist as well.

What I didn't like is this never ending commentary on how the world is going to hell in a handbasket.  At least a quarter of the book is spent with Odd going on some inner monologue tangent so long that sometimes I forget where we are in the story.  I appreciate Koontz's attention to detail, but even taking that into consideration his descriptive nature tends to get on my nerves.  I found myself oftentimes bored and skimming through entire pages.

I miss the spirits.  What initially drew me to Odd Thomas was here was this person who helped the dead.  Now, it's just him getting strange advice from long dead celebrities.  The Bodachs have not made an appearance in so long that I almost forgot about them until their quick mention in this book.

I'm not sure how long Koontz plans on writing Odd Thomas, but it felt like he's finally getting to somewhere he is meant to end up.  Hopefully, because the mysteries surrounding Odd's companions are no longer charming, but tiresome.