Odd Hours

Odd Hours is the fourth novel in the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. It was released on May 20, 2008.^[1]

Plot summary

The story begins with Odd finding a woman who featured prominently in his dream, a young, pregnant woman who calls herself Annamaria. After being assaulted and nearly killed by a large man with two henchmen in tow, Odd is separated from Annamaria. After escaping from the men, involving some physical contact, he goes home, cleans up and then uses his psychic magnetism to locate Annamaria. After finding her they decide to leave and begin making the preparations to go they hear car doors slam. They manage to find a hiding spot that the "bad" men don't find. After the "bad" men leave, they set out walking and encounter a pack of coyotes, obscenely large given the urban setting, which Annamaria dismisses and scatters with a few words. After leaving Annamaria with a trusted friend, Odd flees to a church, where he is subsequently turned in to the Sheriff of Magic Beach, a man who seems to have many personalities, who believes Odd is a government agent, who has come to spy on his operation: the delivery and shipment of multiple nuclear weapons to terrorist groups inside the US via the Magic Beach harbor. Odd manages to convince the Sheriff that he is an experiment gone wrong, and agrees to go over to his side. While the Sheriff is setting up a transaction to buy his loyalty, Odd manages to enrage Frank Sinatra, the spirit who began accompanying him after the departure of Elvis, and manages to start a storm of poltergeist activity.

Odd manages to escape and makes his way down to the harbor and is able to board the craft that is carrying the nukes, and kills everyone aboard. Afterward he runs the boat aground in a nearby cove, and ensures that the Coast Guard is aware of this, as well as the DHS and the FBI. He leaves the nuclear detonators in a Salvation Army donation bin, and via a burst of intuition, returns to the church, planning on fleeing Magic Beach with Annamaria in a borrowed Mercedes. Odd discovers the Sheriff, as well as the church pastor and his wife were all working together to sell the nukes through Magic Beach. The priest's wife is killed by the priest, who is then killed by the Sheriff, who is in turn killed by one of the remaining henchmen. The henchman, identified primarily as 'Meth Mouth' talks to Odd, still believing him to be a psychic government agent, and while laughing over a joke of Odd's, Odd shoots him under the table with the dead wife's gun.

The story ends with Odd and Annamaria leaving Magic Beach, with Odd sobbing over the murder of so many people, almost all at his hands. Annamaria comforts him with the knowledge that while he killed a few, he saved many millions. She then pulls the car over and asks Odd to show her the constellation Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is Stormy Lellewynn's mother, Odd's former girlfriend before she was murdered. He and Stormy would often point out Cassiopeia together, so this startles him, but he points it out to her.

Webisodes

A four-part series debuting in April 2008, Odd Passenger detailed events between Brother Odd and Odd Hours. They were produced by Escape Goat Pictures (www.rungoatrun.com) and were directed by Jack Paccione Jr., with Odd being played by Anthony Marks.^[2]

Quotes

• "Loss is the hardest thing. But it's also the teacher that's the most difficult to ignore. Grief can destroy you—or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. Or you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning than you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn't allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. But when it's over and you're alone, you begin to see it wasn't just a movie and a dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can't get off your knees for a long time, you're driven to your knees not by the weight of the loss but by gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there, but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life." pgs 218-219

Notes

External links

• Episode 1 of the Odd Passenger
• Episode 2 of the Odd Passenger
• Episode 3 of the Odd Passenger
• Episode 4 of the Odd Passenger