Odd Hours

Odd, that dear lovable guy and his tender heart are finally fighting back
watch out bad boys, here he comes !! a Must !!

probably his worst novel of all time. the story line is weak. obviously written to please his pushy publishers to meet their summer demand.

I love Dean Koontz. I love Odd Thomas. That said, I struggled through the first 100 pages and quit. It's horrible. The first few chapters were a total waste of paper. I'm disappointed to say the least.

Odd Hours was as always, a good read. But, and this is a big "But," it was not as convoluted nor as intricate as Odd's prior adventures.

The ghost of Sinatra isn't as over the top as Elvis and the ghost doggie isn't as interesting as he once was. Koontz should have thrown in the entire "Rat Pack," because wherever they are, they are probably all together.

When I finished "Odd Hours," I was more than glad that "Oddie" saved us all, but wondered if Dean's muse, Trixie, left too big a space to fill when she reluctantly left him.

Dean, as much as you lov(ed) Trixie, you will love that much the next time, I promise.

Seems impossible, but it's true. Goodbye for a while "Odd Thomas." I hope we meet up again soon.

If I could speak to Dean Koontz, I would tell him, "Don't write more Odd Thomas books just because you can. You have created a wonderful and endearing character, and you are not doing him justice in your sequels, especially this one."

*possible spoilers below*

It would be difficult to give details of the plot in this review, because Koontz gives so few of them in the book. There is a hairbrained scheme, which appears to be cooked up by the village idiots, with some unnamed villain as the real mastermind, but we never get more than hints at what is really going on. You know Koontz has run out of ideas when Odd has to solve every problem by gunning down the bad guys. This is not the Odd we have come to know and love.

Many sections of the book are slow and laborious reading. At one point I actually yelled aloud, "Get off the pier already!" In other places, situations arise that the reader feels will have deep significance, and then the situation just ends, with no apparent purpose, except to fill up the pages.

I did enjoy one thing about this book - Hutch, the retired actor who has hired Odd as his live-in caretaker. His conversations with Odd were the one bright spot for me.

When I read Odd Thomas for the first time, I couldn't wait to read more. But when I closed this one, I was disappointed and felt that maybe Odd had worn out his welcome. I am not looking forward to a 5th book. Now I believe Koontz is just trying to sell books by putting the name "Odd" in the title.

Please, Dean Koontz, don't do it. Your character deserves better than what you are giving him.