Novels by Dean Koontz (Book Guide): Odd Thomas, Cold Fire, The Husband, Lightning, From the Corner of His Eye, The Face of Fear, Midnight, Intensity, Phantoms, Relentless, Life Expectancy, Forever Odd, In Odd We Trust, Fear Nothing, Velocity, Odd Hours, M

Source: Wikipedia. Commentary (novels not included). Pages: 39. Chapters: Odd Thomas, Cold Fire, The Husband, Lightning, From the Corner of His Eye, The Face of Fear, Midnight, Intensity, Phantoms, Relentless, Life Expectancy, Forever Odd, In Odd We Trust, Fear Nothing, Velocity, Odd Hours, Mr. Murder, Watchers, The Servants of Twilight, Twilight Eyes, One Door Away from Heaven, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Seize the Night, Shadow Fires, Ticktock, Sole Survivor, False Memory, The Good Guy, The Funhouse, Brother Odd, The Taking, Whispers, Demon Seed, Darkfall, The Key to Midnight, Dark Rivers of the Heart, By the Light of the Moon, Breathless, The Darkest Evening of the Year, Invasion, The House of Thunder, Prodigal Son, Dragon Tears, Shattered, The Voice of the Night, Dead and Alive, The Door to December, City of Night, The Eyes of Darkness, The Flesh in the Furnace, The Mask, Ride the Storm, Chase, Lost Souls, Strangers, Icebound, Star Quest, Night Chills, The Vision, Dragonfly. Excerpt: Odd Thomas is a thriller novel by American writer Dean Koontz, published in 2003. The novel derives its title from the protagonist, a twenty-year-old short-order cook named Odd Thomas. The book, which was well received and applauded by critics, went on to become a New York Times Bestseller. Following the success of the novel, two sequels, Forever Odd (2005), and Brother Odd (2006) were also written by Koontz. A third sequel, Odd Hours, was released on May 20, 2008, and two graphic-novel prequels, In Odd We Trust and Odd Is On Our Side have also been released. In the postscript to the graphic novel, Koontz states that "God willing, there will be six Odd Thomas novels". Odd Thomas is silently approached by the ghost of a young girl brutally raped and murdered, and through his unique ability to understand the dead, is psychically led to her killer, a former schoolmate named Harlo Landerson. With this opening, we are introduced to Odd's world. Koontz soon discloses how Odd was named and begins, layer by layer, to show how Odd's dysfunctional upbringing has shaped his life, and as those details are uncovered, his supernatural abilities begin to make more sense. We see Odd at work as a short order cook in a California desert town, and in a fateful 24-hour period, he meets a suspicious-looking man in the diner followed by bodachs, shadowy spirit creatures who appear only during times of death and disaster. This man, who Odd nicknames "Fungus Man" (due to his waxy complexion and blonde hair that resembles mold), has an unusually large swarm of bodachs following him, and Odd is convinced that this man is connected to some terrible catastrophe that is about to occur. To gather more information about him, Odd uses his gift of supernatural intuition, which his soulmate Bronwen (a.k.a. Stormy) Llewellyn calls "psychic magnetism," to track him down. Odd's sixth sense leads him to Fungus Man's home, and Odd begins to uncover more details about the man and a mysterious other-worldl