Odd Hours
Book Four in the Odd Thomas Series
Dean Koontz

The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Munco. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas's gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friends - and enemies of implacable evil. With great gifts comes the responsibility to meet great challenges. But no mere human being was ever meant to face the darkness that now stalks the world - not even one as oddly special as Odd Thomas.
After grappling with the very essence of reality itself, after finding the veil separating him from his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, tantalizingly thin yet impenetrable, Odd longed only to return to a life of quiet anonymity with his two otherworldly sidekicks - his dog Boo and a new companion, one of the few who might rival his old pal Elvis. But a true hero, however humble, must persevere. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Now the forces arrayed against him have both official sanction and an infinitely more sinister authority... and in this dark night of the soul, dawn will come only after the most shattering revelations of all.

While I prefer the first two books in this series (which are set in Odd's hometown of Pico Mundo), the third and this one (the fourth) are still excellent reads. Though Odd seems to fit in better when he's in his home town, the plot in this novel was still top notch.

In this book, Odd has been drawn to a seaside community without knowing why. He then has dreams of the end of the world happening on the local beach. Looking into these dreams, he finds a horrific plot involving some of the most high up people in the town (and even a Senator) which involves nuclear bombs. He, and he alone, must try and stop disaster before it happens.

A new character, Annamaria, is introduced and while at the beginning she promises to be very interesting (and leaves the reader wondering who and what she really is) our questions about her are never answered and it makes me wonder if she was even really necessary to have in this novel.

As with all of the Odd Thomas novels, the plot is intriguing, the dialogue is close to perfect, and the book sucks you in. However, much like with Brother Odd, when Odd is out of Pico Mundo the books just don't have the same flair to them. They're still fantastic, but just a little off from the first ones of the series.

I would recommend this book and the entire series and it is with great sadness that I let you know that this is (at this moment) the final novel in the series. I can only hope that more novels about Odd's adventures are written. There are a few graphic novels out there, but I prefer a real novel to a graphic one. Still, I do plan on reading the graphic novels to get my Odd Thomas fix.

My rating: Four out of five snails.