Odd Thomas (Hardcover)

The book starts off beautifully with Odd seeing the ghost of a twelve year old girl who has been raped and murdered. She leads him to her killer. He hunts him down and brings him to justice. An excellent start. But then it all goes so weird it's almost stupid. Odd meets the ghost of his old teacher at a tyre shop. The teacher, who'd died in an accident, carries his severed arm around and even uses it as a backscratcher or to pick his nose. Later, Elvis Presley's ghost appears at a party and starts arguing with himself and later weeps and sobs for hours. Odd Thomas is the only one who can see the deceased and he "forms a relationship with each of them". (That's where I first put the book away. At that stage, I wouldn't have given it even one star).

Months later though, with nothing else to read in the house I decided to give Odd Thomas another go.

How glad I was that I did!
After those few unbelievably stupid chapters, the book turned into something more recognisable from a usually brilliant horror novelist such as Dean Koontz. Dark and disturbing, the story evolved into an intense thriller with surprisingly sad and upsetting elements.

Eventually it became clear why Odd Thomas is so different to other young guys of his age and why his and Stormy's relationship is so special. Both were lonely children who grew up without love - Stormy's parents died when she was a little girl, she was abused in her foster home and ended up in an orphanage. Odd's parents are very much alive but don't give a damn about him or his feelings. His egocentric father abandoned him at age one and his mentally disturbed mother tells him how much she wished he'd have died in her womb. So, unsurprisingly, Odd and Stormy, who both fled their loveless homes at 16, formed a friendship which then resulted in the deep relationship they have now. Dean Koontz does a fantastic job describing Odd's and Stormy's painful youth.

The story is very intense - a crazy killer is on the loose and only Odd can stop him. But when Odd finds the same killer shot to death in his bathtub, it becomes clear that others must be involved. Odd knows that people are going to die. A horrible shooting spree has been planned but where will it happen? And who is the killer?
Being an arachnophobic, I found the scene with the tarantula very disturbing. The whole second half of this novel is masterfully written and full of suspense.

What spoiled the book for me a little was the upsetting ending. Never would I have imagined Koontz would end the book that way. It seems Dean Koontz started this novel intending to keep it light and entertaining, like he did with Ticktock, but later changed his mind and turned it into a dark and intense tale. This makes the book a little unbalanced in my opinion.

But I'm certainly glad I gave the book another chance as it turned out to be a very intense reading experience and a real pageturner.