Dean Koontz Forever Odd

Forever Odd

Dean Koontz

Bantam, Dec 2005, $27.00, 334 pp.

ISBN 0553804162

In Pico Mundo, California lives a man with two powerful paranormal gifts. He can communicate with the dead and using psychic magnetism that can visually hone in on whoever he is looking for. One night Odd Thomas sees Dr. Jessup; he knows that the man is dead and that his adopted son Danny is in terrible danger.

When he reaches the Jessup home, he finds the battered body of the doctor on the floor but Danny is nowhere around. His psychic magnetism leads him to the tunnels of the Maravilla Flood-Control Project where Danny and his kidnapper traveled. He eventually finds the trail that leads him to the destroyed Panamint Resort and Spa Casino where explosives are taped on Danny. The ringleader Datura used Danny as bait to get Odd to the casino because she wants him to produce a ghost for her. As back-up she has two strong men under her spell to do her bidding. Odd saves Danny hustling him into a safe place while he plays with these vicious hunters in the hopes that a plan for getting Danny and him free of these psychopaths will come to him.

This novel takes place a year after the events in ODD THINGS and readers find the vulnerable, likeable, and emotionally drained Odd Thomas still working with the authorities to put the bad guys behind bars. The villainous woman whose beauty hides an ugly heart and soul will creep out the reader with her perceived belief that she does the right actions. Dean Koontz is at the top of his genre with a sequel that his myriad of fans will treasure.

Harriet Klausner