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 (November, 2006) were also written by Koontz.

Plot Summary

{{spoiler}} Odd Thomas, a twenty year old man, lives in Pico Mundo, an imaginary town in the United States. A first person narrative, the novel revolves around how Odd can commune with dead people, and his partaking in their misery. The story begins with Odd being led by the spirit of a friend to a man who had raped and killed her. Odd was unaware at the time that the man had actually harmed his friend, as he often finds it difficult to distinguish between ghosts and living people. However, intuition kicks in, and Odd leads a chase through the neighbourhoods of Pico Mundo to capture him, and hand him over to the police.

Odd is heavily disturbed by these events, which took place early in the day, but nonetheless, decides to go to work to the nearby restaurant, where he works as a short-order cook. At work while cooking, he sees a suspicious looking man followed by bodachs. Bodachs are spirit creatures visible to Odd alone. However, Odd has never made any attempt at communicating with them. He has always tried to stay as far away from these creatures as he could, as they always seem to be harbinger of evil and disaster. The man who arrived at his restaurant was followed by a large pack of these bodachs, and so Odd is convinced that the man—, who he nicknamed Fungus Man—was going to bring about large scale destruction to the town. The larger number of bodachs, signified larger than usual trouble. Odd's supernatural intuition warns him of impending danger. He consults with his girlfriend Bronwen ( a.k.a. Stormy) Llywellyn, and they agree to borrow a friend's car and track down Fungus Man, before he harvests the crime he intends to do.

Odd tracks him down, and follows him home and when he leaves Odd enters the house to find a dark room. The room somehow makes him travel back into time a few minutes earlier twice. The second time when he is flung into the living room hundreds of bodachs come out of the room. When they leave Odd sees that the room is a normal study. He finds that the Fungus Man's real name is Robert Thomas Robertson and he is going to do something the next day, but Odd doesn't know what it is that he's going to do. Later when he is having a picnic with Stormy Fungus Man comes and chases them. When they get away and got to eat at a restaurant Odd calls Chief Wyatt Porter. The Chief tells him that the church was trashed. Then they go to a friend of Odd’s named Viola and Odd sees that the daughters of that friend have bodachs around them. Odd promises to take them to a safer place the next day because Viola had told Odd of a dream where she was killed. Then they go to Odd’s boss Terri Stanburg's house and talk for a while. Then Odd takes Stormy home and leaves from a back alley. when he gets home he finds the body of Fungus Man in his bathroom, so to make sure he isn't incriminated just yet he moves the body to an abandoned bordello. Then he goes to see The Chief, when he arrives he finds that The Chief had been shot and was taken to the hospital, so he goes there but finds that he is in surgery. Then after going to his landlord’s house to ask her if he could borrow her car, which he had already used, he went to Stormy’s house to find her safe. Later he went to see his father who had divorced his psychotic mother. He left soon to go to see his mother who as usual was psychotic. After he left he went to get Viola to the safe place he promised. When he had kept his promise he went back to Fungus Man’s house to find that he was a real creep with frozen body parts and satanic ornaments everywhere. When he left he went back to Fungus Man’s body and saw that he had been shot right on a satanic tattoo. When he left he was guided by his psychic magnetisms to the mall where he used a bat to knock out one of four who had conspired to kill people at the mall. He used a gun he took from the killer to kill another one that he tracked down after the killer had shot many civilians. After this he was led to a bomb where he disarmed it and was shot by the third killer. He recovered in the hospital and was watched by Stormy’s spirit who he made one-way conversations with for a week. When he realized that this was Stormy’s spirit and not her he let her go in front of is friends who came to visit him. Then the story ends. {{endspoiler}}

Characters

Odd Thomas

 "I see dead people. But then, by god, i do something about it."
 -Odd Thomas pg. 32

Odd is a short-order cook at a breakfast joint in Pico Mundo. His girlfriend is Stormy.

Stormy Llewellyn

Stormy's real name is Bronwen, but she prefers to be called Stormy because she thinks Bronwen makes her sound like an elf. She is the manager of a ice cream shop and hoped to own a shop of her own soon. Her boyfriend is Odd. In the shootout she is killed, but Odd sees her for a while and then he lets her go to a better place.

Chief Porter

The Chief helps Odd many times in all of the Odd Thomas Series except Brother Odd. He is one of the few people that know Odd sees the dead. He is shot by one of the people who would later shoot people at the mall, but survives.

Fungus Man

Fungus Man or Robert Thomas Robertson is the main antagonist. He comes to Pico Mundo surrounded by bodachs and immediately Odd is suspiscious of him. He is killed by his fellow conspirators.

Bern Eckles, Simon Varner, and Kevin Gosset

These three were the people who had conspired with Robert Thomas Robertson to have a mass killing at the mall. Varner had killed Robert Thomas Robertson after he found out that he had been chasing Odd. He killed Robert Thomas Robertson to look like Odd had killed him. Eckles and Varner were the two gunmen that Odd subdued; Eckles first with the bat then Varner with the shot to the head. Gosset had shot Odd when he disarmed the bomb. Gosset later told everything that had happened between all the conspirators.

Odd Series

A sequel, Forever Odd, was released in 2005, and follows his adventures the following February after the events in the first book. A third novel, Brother Odd, was released on November 28, 2006.

External links

• Odd Thomas Book Review