Brother Odd continues the story of Odd Thomas who has now fled to a monastery for peace and healing after the tragic loss of his true love, Stormy Llewellyn. But peace is short lived when one of the monks turns up missing at the same time that Odd begins to see bodachs hovering over a sleeping child in the school run by the nuns.
His alarm bells ringing, he knows he must alert those in authority in the monastery. But because the bodachs are a precurser to impending evil and destruction, he must be careful who he confides in. Who in the monastery will do the destruction?
To complicate matters, the monastery is under natures seige, a violent snow storm, at one point, dumping three feet of snow and cold that Odd has never experienced. Being a desert dweller all his life, he finds at first this High Sierra snowstorm exhilerating and exciting. But with the bodachs beginning to increase in numbers and the question of what is to come and who is to blame make the storm just one more evil he must deal with.
Odd is also confronted with something he has never experienced in his mystic life. He is threatened by a creature or machine or what-the-heck-is-it? Is this supernatural or is it mad science? Only Dean Koontz can describe this thing sufficiently but as you will see, this "thing" will put you on the edge of your seat and you will wonder (again) "how will Odd get out of this one?"
The beauty of Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas character is that he is funny and in some ways naive in the ways of life. He is joined at the monastery by the ghost of Elvis so he doesn't feel as alone as he had feared when he came to the monastery. The monks and nuns who must help him deal with the impending doom are all such unique characters, not at all as you would imagine monks and nuns to be. He must also turn to some of the children, all of them disabled in some way but all wise beyond their apparent capabilities.
The conclusion of this mystery is a surprize and yet not really if you know about the human spirit. The evil that lurks in all of us, and yes, even in you, can turn on us if we allow it to. Evil knows no bounds but a good heart and kind spirit can beat down even the worst demons that threaten to take us over. You will enjoy this book and it will make you think. Isn't that all we ask of a good story?
Enjoy!