Odd Thomas - Dean Koontz

...look inside the mind of Odd Thomas, one of Mr Koontz’s most unusual characters to date.

The Plot.
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Odd Thomas introduces the reader to himself by the means of writing a book on the unusual happenings in the small town of Pico Mundo where he works as a short-order cook. His mentor and friend, P. Oswald Boone has coerced him into writing his narrative by the means which will unfold as the story gathers ...
...such a strange name. For Odd is not only odd by name, but odd by nature, in short, he sees ghosts and acts on their behalf to bring criminals to justice. For the purpose of the review I will simply call him Thomas, as the word “odd” can be very misleading to the central character.

Thomas seems at once a very basic character apart from his ability to see ghosts and other more sinister apparitions. He has no ambitions and no need for ... more

Introduction
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Writing this review is like putting on a comfortable slipper after wearing stout shoes. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to increase my knowledge of books by reading more obscure authors and exploring new genres, but I still have a love of fantasy and horror and nobody does it better than Dean Koontz.
I have read one review by Patriacat, who unfortunately has left Ciao, so literally pounced on this as soon as I found it in my local library. As much as I would love to buy books as soon as they come out, my benefits don’t allow such purchases. So, without further ado, let’s take a look inside the mind of Odd Thomas, one of Mr Koontz’s most unusual characters to date.

The Plot.
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Odd Thomas introduces the reader to himself by the means of writing a book on the unusual happenings in the small town of Pico Mundo where he works as a short-order cook. His mentor and friend, P. Oswald Boone has coerced him into writing his narrative by the means which will unfold as the story gathers pace. In this way the reader gets to know the background of “Odd” Thomas and why he has such a strange name. For Odd is not only odd by name, but odd by nature, in short, he sees ghosts and acts on their behalf to bring criminals to justice. For the purpose of the review I will simply call him Thomas, as the word “odd” can be very misleading to the central character.

Thomas seems at once a very basic character apart from his ability to see ghosts and other more sinister apparitions. He has no ambitions and no need for the trappings of society; he lives a simple life with the exception of his soul mate “Stormy” (Bronwen) Llewllyn.
In the very first chapters we get an insight into his character, why he is lumbered with the name “Odd” and a little background family information.
Without the reader being aware of it we see him tackling a murderer brought on by the apparition of Penny who was raped and strangled. The villain is brought to justice and the chief of police Wyatt Porter covers up Thomas’s secret, a routine that appears to be a familiar happening.

Thomas arrives late for work and is soon busy dishing up the all-day breakfast, a calorie loaded hearty meal. A customer catches his attention, not only for the amount of food he orders, but the strange aura that surrounds him, his appearance so bizarre that Thomas dubs him “Fungus man”. One of the strange apparitions that Thomas sees is a fleeting shadow shape that he calls a bodach, simply because he saw such shapes before and a visiting child from Britain identified the shapes as bodachs, before he met with a fatal accident.
Soon we become immersed into Thomas’s world, where a few people know about his strange abilities. We meet people that look to him for answers, Viola, the waitress that sees her own death. Soon Thomas becomes aware that this is no ordinary haunting, the “Fungus Man” holds deadly secrets that Thomas must discover for himself.

On a light-hearted note we find Thomas giving a lift to none other than the ghost of Elvis Presley, a long way from his home at Gracelands, Pico Mundo is in the heart of the Californian desert. This is just one of the more humorous parts of the book before it becomes darkly sinister.
A visit to the chief of police gives Thomas a starting point to work from and in a macabre episode Thomas visits the house of the “fungus man”, barely escaping with his life intact.
The owner of the house, a man called Robertson, tails both Thomas & Stormy ending in a dramatic escape from the local church.

Whilst looking around Robertson’s house, Thomas finds a room dedicated to serial killers and under the file of Robertson himself is just one page, a blank calendar page dated August 15th, today is August 14th and Thomas knows that a killing spree is going to happen the next day.

In the little time he has left Thomas must cope with all kinds of danger before he can unmask a conspiracy that has been building up for some time. His main ally the chief of police has been brutally shot and is in Intensive care, the deputies are unaware of Thomas’s special abilities, a secret he must keep if he has any chance of leading a normal life and wedding his soul mate, Stormy.

Throughout the long night Thomas has to deal with situations that taxes his strength and leaves him bewildered and confused. For the conspiracy is much larger than just one man and Thomas must come to terms with his past before he can face the dangers of the day. From dreams he has had and another dream by one of his friends, a massacre of many people is destined to happen at 1pm, but where and how it will occur is left to Thomas to find out before the town of Porto Mundo is about to become a killing ground of massive proportions.

Worn out with the events of the night, can Thomas help all the people that are dear to him as well as preventing a tragedy that threatens to drive him insane?
Why can’t Thomas use a gun? What is in his background that he must overcome before he can tackle not just one adversity, but also three at least? What is the purpose of the bodrachs and can he hide from their scrutiny? All this and much more can only be answered by reading the book.

Characterisation
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Some critics have remarked on the level of characters in this book, Odd Thomas is something of a mystery although I found his character to be plausible. If the reader had too much knowledge then the ending would be not be so intriguing. We have a lot of glimpses into the character, his hopes, and dreams and to live a normal life whilst struggling with his uncanny abilities.
His soul mate, Stormy, is maybe a little too underdeveloped but I feel that here Koontz is allowing our own imagination to run free.
The “bad Guys” are not discovered until the end so any attempts to give them more character would spoil the story.
There are some delightful cameos, Viola who has two children and an absent husband. Terri who loves Elvis and can tell to the very day everything that the “King” did on that day. The chief of police who covers for Thomas so many times that he can live a relatively normal life.
P. Oswald. Boone, Thomas’s teacher and a character that leaps from the pages like an angry giant. Granny Sugars, Thomas’s grandmother a gun toting, gambler who could beat any man in a fight.

A short analysis.
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Dean Koontz was born into poverty and escaped by reading books. I have covered some of his background in a previous review, so this is my own interpretation. In this book I feel he has broken some boundaries and hopefully laid some of his own “ghosts” to rest. He had no support from either of his parents in his early days as a writer. In any interview he has given, he never puts down his parents, preferring to say that the family was too poor for him to develop his writing skills. From a very early age he started writing stories, doing chores to afford pens and paper. He undertook many menial tasks to support his writing and one was actually as a short order cook, so in this book he is drawing on his own experiences.
He has a good sense of humour that has developed as his writing has become more popular, in his early days his books were sometimes devoid of any humour and I personally think that as he has writes more books the humanity shines through.

Summary
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Readers of his many books, over 40 to date may find this book totally different to his other books. As an avid fan of his books I can only welcome any changes in the normal pattern of his books, he is experimenting and I, for one, think this a mark of a superior author. He could sell books by sticking to a tried and tested formula, but Koontz never fails to surprise his many fans, which is why I will keep on reading any books by this talented author.

I could not put this down, I had to keep on reading even when my eyes were aching. I saw a glimpse of the author and had to follow it through. For other fans I would say, give this one a chance, look deeper into the story and follow it through. Think on it and don’t be put of by the change in writing style. You are in for a rare treat.

A brief note on Bodrachs, these are Celtic in origin and are something like the elementals that feed on death and fear, the word is not made-up, and in Celtic history they often appeared on battle sites.

The Boring bits.
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My library paperback retails at £6.99 but copies of this book can be found on E-Bay at 50p.

Thanks, as usual for reading.

Update
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For the members that thought the plot was too long then I can only say that this book is 420 pages long and I have left out lots of the plot. For anyone to be interested in reading the book, then they need to know a bit more about this book than the average review. Other wise all I could say was that the main character is odd by name and nature and to look out for subtle plot twists. The book is written in the first person narrative and the very first chapter covers half of my review.
Koontz has gone through a rather repetetive plot line in his last few books and this one proves he can still deliver the goods on horror.
 

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