Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Odd Thomas is 20 years old. He lives in a small California town where he's content to work as a fry cook and lives very simply. He has to live an uncomplicated life with the things he can control -- job, car, money, ambition -- because the gift that he can't control would otherwise drive him crazy. Odd sees dead people and believes that with his gift comes the responsibility to use it to help them. He can also see creatures he's dubbed bodachs -- malevolent spirits who feed off violent death.

The book gets off to a quick start with Odd running down a rapist/murderer but that's only the beginning of a really bad day. While at his diner job he spots an odd-looking stranger who's being followed by more bodachs than Odd has ever seen together in one place. He realizes that something very bad is about to happen in the town and that only he, helped by a few people he's told about his gifts, can prevent disaster.

My favorite so far of the books I've read this year. I don't care much for horror. H. P. Lovecraft's stories give me the creeps and I've enjoyed several of Stephen King's books although they don't scare me. Supernatural beings don't frighten me because I know I'll never really be threatened by vampires, zombies or ghosts and ghouls. A few mystery books have scared me. Psychotic killers and mass murderers do exist and it's mostly a matter of luck whether you'll cross one's path. But horror and mystery stories that have human murderers tend toward the bloody with gross descriptions that depress more than frighten me.

Dean Koontz's books are all in the horror section. I guess that's the only way to classify them and it's probably better for Mr. Koontz; if all his books are together it makes them easier for people to pick up. But I don't consider this book horror any more than I do Stephen King's The Green Mile. Supernatural fantasy? Not exactly a mystery though Odd has to find out who the killer(s) are and the location of the violence in time to prevent it. Suspense definitely.

But why try to categorize it. Odd Thomas is a wonderful story -- suspenseful, sad, funny -- set in a small town full of eccentrics whom I came to care about and hoped wouldn't die (except Elvis, who is already dead as the story begins). And of course Odd himself, with his simple narration, determination to do right and sad backstory.