Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

unabridged audio read by David Arron Baker

Odd Thomas is one of Koontz's most compelling characters. He is philosophical, fearless and committed to forward movement in his life, regardless of where it takes him. In this third story that features the character (The first book, Odd Thomas, was followed by Forever Odd) Odd continues to come to terms with the loss of his love, Stormy Llewellen, and the strange road he walks as a ghost seeing fry cook. Odd has finally left Pico Mundo for the greater world, as represented by a monastary in the New Mexico mountains (at least I think it was NM). There his unique ability to see ghosts and spirits of ill will confound him in confronting monsters of physics. He is assisted by an assortment of colorful monks (most notable, Brother 'Knuckles' Salvatore, former gangster now dedicated to the Lord) and a mysterious Russian librarian from Indianapolis (or is he a secret agent?). If these two had more opportunity to interact with Odd's fat writer mentor Ozzie, that might have been funny. Unfortunatly, Ozzie's only a brief blip on this story, so perhaps in the next Odd book.

Odd acquires a ghost dog named Boo, helps Elvis move on the next realm, and acquires a new famous dead companion, Frank Sinatra. It all looks nuts when you write it out like this, but again , this is one of Koontz's best stories, and has moments of brilliance that shine like a supernova.