Brother Odd by Dean Koontz (Book Review)

Brother Odd

An Odd Thomas Novel, #3

by Dean Koontz

430 pages

Bantam Books, 2012

thriller / mystery

Finished in 10 days

Rating: ★★★★★

Amazon | BN

"Embraced by stone, steeped in silence, I sat at the high window as the third day of the week surrendered to the fourth."

Review: Took me longer than I had anticipated to read this third book in the Odd Thomas Series, but it was well worth the extra time. At 430 pages Dean Koontz does NOT disappoint. If you've followed my other two reviews for the first two books at all? Or you're just joining me now for the first time and deciding on whether or not this is a series worth picking up? Allow me to do a quick overview on who exactly Odd Thomas is...

He's just an average former fry cook who makes a mean stack of pancakes and he can also see/communicate with dead people. He's definitely not someone you meet every day and if he were, with a name like his, you'd remember it. I don't want to spoil too much about who he is because it would be telling you cliff hangers and surprise endings to this last two books, but one thing I love about him is how Elvis Presley is one of the ghosts that stays with him and his desire to help Elvis cross over at some point. I fear I've said too much already! Moving on...

In this third book Odd moves to a monostary because after Forever Odd he needed some alone time and what better place than with Monks and Nuns. But aside from them, there are also children with various levels of severe mental and physical challenges. And of course you know, wherever Odd is, danger and oddities are sure to follow him. He becomes aware of this when he sees the first few Bodachs arrive at St. Bartholemew's church. Bodach's are a name he created for these formless, Godless, black creatures that he sees in large numbers just before something really bad is about to happen to a lot of people, namely death, in the most horrific of ways.

It's a genuinely good series because it's not just about scaring the pants off of you. It's about much more than that. Getting to know Odd Thomas and see his into his heart and how much he really does care about those around him, dead or alive, and just wants to help them all by using the abilities he was given. Like most of us, he didn't have an easy growing up but he's not using that as an excuse to not be great at whatever he can do. It's a story of hope and he's a character anyone could and probably should admire.

Summary: Loop me in, odd one. The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature.

As he steadfastly journeys toward his mysterious destiny, Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself.

To learn more about Dean Koontz visit his site here.