I picked up a copy of this before Christmas (only to have it taken out of my hands and wrapped by my beloved wife) on the strength of positive remarks from a number of angles. I read it today, mostly while sitting in the Jury Assembly Room (yup, I’m on jury duty), and I liked it.

Odd Thomas is an odd fellow, but that’s not why he’s called “Odd”; it’s the name on his birth certificate. It was supposed to be “Todd”, his mother has told him, but they screwed up. On the other hand, his mom never called him “Todd”, so who knows? He’s a darn good fry cook—at least, from this book I know he makes darn good pancakes—and, also, he can sometimes see dead people. Ghosts, that is. Ghosts get hung up in this world for a variety of reasons, and Odd Thomas helps them get over whatever it is, and move along. Often, ghosts get hung up in this world because they are seeking justice, and that means that Odd sometimes needs to do some investigating.

As the book opens, Odd has spent the past seven months as a guest at a Benedictine monastery in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, when peculiar things begin to happen that lead him to believe some horrible catastrophe is imminent. What will it be? Who will be responsible? And can Odd prevent the bloodshed?

And then, of course, the snow comes down, isolating the monastery.

I won’t give away any more, except that I really liked Koontz’ handling of the Catholic faith. It’s a pleasure to read a book where the discussion of religion isn’t laughable. Koontz is, I gather, a practicing Catholic, and it shows. The faith is treated with respect, and the major characters clear understand what Catholicism is about; and yet they aren’t preachy either.

Beyond that, there’s not much to say. It’s fun; it’s lightweight; it’s a tad predictable (it was clear who the bad guy had to be long before the conclusion); I found the evil horror that stalks the monastery to be, in the end, not particularly believable. But it was fun anyway, and I plan to look for the first two books in the series.