I read another book by Dean Koontz once upon a time. I found it disturbing and violent. Odd Thomas is also disturbing and unnecessarily violent, but I liked it anyway.

Odd Thomas is odd, not because of his name but because he sees ghosts, spirits that are for some reason or another unable or unwilling to “cross over” because something has been left undone or unfinished here in this world. He also sees some other, invisible to the rest of us, beings which he calls “bodachs” and I would call demons. These bodach demons make an appearance in force in Odd’s small town of Pico Mundo (which being loosely translated is Small World, nice touch), and their activity is an indication to Odd Thomas of looming disaster. It seems that wherever there are bodachs, death and violence are not far away.

Odd’s day job is a fry cook for an unassuming cafe, but by night or whenever he can get the time off, he’s an investigator, avenger, and bringer of justice. His task in this book is to find out why there are so many bodachs hanging about and try to head off the tragedy that they’re anticipating.

There’s romance, violence, suspense, and mystery in this page-turner. Maybe a little too much violence, but I’m thinking after reading Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, nonfiction, maybe I just don’t realize what a violent place the world is. Maybe I don’t want to be disillusioned. I may or may not read the other books in this series.