GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE: DEEPLY ODD
AUTHOR: DEAN KOONTZ
PAGES: 344
PUBLISHER: HARPER
YEAR: 2013
GENRE: HORROR FICTION
www.deankoontz.com/odd-thomas-series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deeply_Odd
I bought this e-book from www.kbo.com.
BLURB FROM THE COVER
The sixth Odd Thomas thriller from the master storyteller. Our reluctant hero is drawn once more into a strange encounter with the lingering dead. Later that morning, when I walked downtown to buy blue jeans and a few pairs of socks, I met a guy who offered to neuter me with a .45 pistol. In a sinister encounter with a rogue truck driver, Odd – who has the gift of seeing the dead and the soon-to-be dead – has a disturbing vision of the slaughter of three innocent children. Across California, into Nevada and back again, Odd embarks on a road chase to prevent the tragedy. But he is to discover that he is not up against a single twisted sociopath but a mysterious network of evil men and women whose resources appear supernatural. Luckily, in this world that Odd finds so beautiful and full of wonders, and deeply odd as well, he meets a collection of like-minded eccentrics who will help him to take the next giant step towards his destiny.
EXTRACT
BEFORE DAWN, I WOKE IN DARKNESS TO THE RINGING of a tiny bell, the thimble-sized bell I wore on a chain around my neck: three bursts of silvery sound, a brief silence after each. I was lying on my back in bed, utterly motionless, yet the bell rang three times again. The vibrations that shivered through my bare chest seemed much too strong to have been produced by such a tiny clapper. A third set of three rings followed, and then only silence. I waited and wondered until dawn crept down the sky and across the bedroom windows.
REVIEW
Odd’s psychic powers include a sort of intuition that draws him to bad people, places and things. In Deeply Odd, this sends him after a stranger character he subs ‘the rhinestone cowboy’. He has a promotion of the man burning three children alive on a stage. Odd, compelled to take action when he senses something bad going down pursues him. Some crazy shit happens involving time shifts, ritualistic slaughter and demons.
Odd receives a new spiritual guide in Deeply Odd, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock is the first sprit who actually speaks to Odd, which lends some hilarity to all the terror and tension. Hitchcock’s advice allows Odd to infiltrate a home where 17 children with be slaughtered as totems for powerful demons almost unnoticed. I really like this part of Deeply Odd as much as I liked his guidance from Frank Sinatra and Elvis in previous novels. I wondered why Hitchcock could speak though and why he knew so much about the demons and their acolytes.
Odd gains a new human helper in Deeply Odd, a crazy but cool old woman called Mrs Fisher. She knows people with lots of weapons, her souped up limo travels at the speed of light and she also seems to Odd’s mysterious companion Annamaria. Mrs Fisher was an enigma I would have loved to read more about. I loved her. I hope Odd meets her again.
The mysterious Annamaria is pushed to the sideline in Deeply Odd. She makes a brief appearance in the first chapter and at the end when Mrs Fisher brings Odd home after he saves the day. I was disappointed as I would like to know more about her. I hope Koontz starts to unravel some of her mystery in Odd’s next adventure.
Koontz has stated on his website that Odd’s story will be told in seven novels. Deeply Odd is number six. I can’t wait to see what Koontz has in store for Odd next. I loved Deeply Odd. I took a while to get into because it’s been a few years since I read Odd. It was well worth it.
RATING
