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Brother Odd
Dean Koontz
With over 400 million copies of his books sold worldwide, Dean Koontz is one of the most popular writers of our time. Read this page-turning, heart-breaking thriller to find why Odd Thomas is the master storyteller’s most-loved creation.He sees what no one else does. He does what no one else can.Odd, a charismatic young man with a sense for the otherworldly and the downright strange, is in self-imposed exile. Tragic events have led him from his sun-bleached desert home of Pico Mundo to a monastery in the High Sierra, searching for peace. It’s December and the remote abbey is besieged by icy winds and snow. But even in the silence of the mountains, danger and desperation haunt him still…As ever, where Odd Thomas goes, strangeness goes too. A white dog named Boo befriends him – as does the ghost of Elvis. And a world-famous physicist is conducting experiments in the catacombs of the abbey. Could this be why Odd can once again see bodachs, shadowy harbingers of violence? They prowl the halls, suggesting horror to come.But what form will it take? And how will Odd defeat an enemy that eclipses any he has met before?
To some folks I’ve known a long time and admire
because they do good work and are good people:
Peter Styles, Richard Boukes, Bill Anderson
(Hello, Danielle), Dave Gaulke, and Tom Fenner
(Hello, Gabriella, Katia, and Troy).
We’ll have a fine party on the Other Side,
but let’s not be in a hurry.
Teach us …
To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest …
—St. Ignatius Loyola
Table of Contents
Title Page (#u9cd97451-477d-5643-9088-82196d7c153c)
Dedication (#uced4004f-5547-5e5c-bb26-ed3c2e007dff)
Epigraph (#ubd599772-7072-5eac-8d0b-341be4db0bd7)
Chapter 1 (#u565839af-0b33-50a3-862e-2c0498c1c7b2)
Chapter 2 (#u365d9119-ee59-5bbb-ba44-f7e41264c544)
Chapter 3 (#u013d178b-9d3a-5f0f-9bca-82d61873a10b)
Chapter 4 (#u2f1c2d85-ecbd-50b8-b2ae-d510f10fc196)
Chapter 5 (#uae091fbd-4f24-508c-aa42-39a479083695)
Chapter 6 (#u8bbdd319-6924-5916-8b62-4f252497545c)
Chapter 7 (#u59029c19-dac5-5f41-bcbe-06566288ec9d)
Chapter 8 (#uf5173a0a-a206-579a-a9fd-1d50757d4d19)
Chapter 9 (#uf60947ec-f98e-5d63-94ce-5fc71124ec14)
Chapter 10 (#ufc4cd3c6-6a5d-5be6-825a-8e0edeedb0e4)
Chapter 11 (#u2ac57971-de9b-5d41-b828-67798f021320)
Chapter 12 (#uc83c36dd-f237-533b-a082-21d06f2e5c74)
Chapter 13 (#uec37f7d3-d6fa-5756-895c-28a47eb99286)
Chapter 14 (#u4a202413-6c49-598c-a611-8a6eb5216413)
Chapter 15 (#ud950020c-440b-56b6-ac91-7174425b7954)
Chapter 16 (#u0ce7ea45-4872-5e0c-9711-8d365a615fb6)
Chapter 17 (#u073341be-e182-505e-b750-b60d77cb1a98)
Chapter 18 (#u8c342b81-0481-5b90-bd64-35971912aa23)
Chapter 19 (#u28418fd9-20b6-5a2c-92e7-7cdb9af36139)
Chapter 20 (#ub34a8834-3a89-56c3-8aa2-69b5e165224b)
Chapter 21 (#u41b857bb-3b8a-51c7-8167-c55742cd4841)
Chapter 22 (#u273a4387-ec1b-5b57-9520-5057dc7510cd)
Chapter 23 (#u635fd95d-abf2-5d66-a3c6-c7e0f7a0ffcb)
Chapter 24 (#ufd7ea7cc-1004-508c-975a-9f522f40bba3)
Chapter 25 (#ua8d5b870-5e87-58b0-9a7d-58dc9e309760)
Chapter 26 (#ud2a3e110-049e-5fde-b0fd-83f050df5992)
Chapter 27 (#ucd837909-3a47-5fa2-b9ae-847ebbeb2a67)
Chapter 28 (#u47e99bd7-d8f3-56f9-bf63-fca3feabb346)
Chapter 29 (#ue6c4544c-2e09-593c-85d9-aaae7b33d581)
Chapter 30 (#u90c59850-fb72-5762-92c0-ee358e9cd13c)
Chapter 31 (#ud76397c6-8dd1-5f76-adab-9c589be3ac21)
Chapter 32 (#u712ded98-73ac-5a9b-ae76-fc84ee4af292)
Chapter 33 (#u5a2ed43b-50d4-507c-bec0-a0b0715295d7)
Chapter 34 (#u695d1221-178b-5fb0-9f29-e4877f6d72f4)
Chapter 35 (#u24d7f97a-38a6-5ea2-8c32-eed3a74bc6e0)
Chapter 36 (#u114dd0f3-08b3-545c-b14f-f356a1abd236)
Chapter 37 (#uafda976d-bc41-5dba-b478-2ee48102ad9c)
Chapter 38 (#u2af008bf-fcf6-5f67-a3a1-93ea7b10fd16)
Chapter 39 (#u630dc7bb-a814-5eaa-8cd6-d4146bc51871)
Chapter 40 (#uce9a6422-1a62-565c-9b04-60c10e69a135)
Chapter 41 (#ucfca5627-b9d0-542b-8728-5b1932238c33)
Chapter 42 (#u31af06c8-19e2-58e6-986b-1670072ac932)
Chapter 43 (#u0d0b1073-f3dc-53dd-a679-0fef67d7a48d)
Chapter 44 (#u6f4d415d-292a-592c-b135-6a660213e2f7)
Chapter 45 (#u7de81aa3-d9c0-505d-81c8-3bfb1c1e1c52)
Chapter 46 (#u6621972a-b8df-500a-832d-599ded6cabd2)
Chapter 47 (#u5c03011e-68ee-54a2-a4ec-6e045cf1e4ba)
Chapter 48 (#u7cc7938c-253e-5b9c-aa17-6d3d373d12a9)
Chapter 49 (#u85b659ac-c523-50b2-bb18-a1433e73007f)
Chapter 50 (#u7de7acc5-eb27-5c90-a2ab-30f5d66bb8b8)
Chapter 51 (#u6aabe3bc-ab5f-5dc5-a314-3cdfa52460bd)
Chapter 52 (#u964b7e99-40db-5466-bb3f-8308e77f5696)
Chapter 53 (#ub4e2f7f0-4966-5ee6-824e-7cfccf362f34)
Chapter 54 (#uf64cef41-17f7-595a-a866-c01b03ea932f)
Chapter 55 (#u005a38f0-b068-5eaa-baba-855996fb7a1f)
Chapter 56 (#u87f4617e-bc19-5c4d-91a3-a9304e458326)
Note (#ud7461a75-1532-5f0c-9f63-e84852c6d5ad)
About the Author (#u4a000fae-4dbc-509f-8576-4ff33dbbc0ac)
Also by Dean Koontz (#u3e92feb6-b3ce-586f-88bf-c917a965e818)
Copyright (#u23cbc89b-3384-5ec9-b6b1-03755e09b5d5)
About the Publisher (#u16ad1caf-731c-5733-9967-c36dad670c20)
CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_a5deb591-9730-54ce-bba7-274ca75a0def)
Embraced by stone, steeped in silence, I sat at the high window as the third day of the week surrendered to the fourth. The river of night rolled on, indifferent to the calendar.
I hoped to witness that magical moment when the snow began to fall in earnest. Earlier the sky had shed a few flakes, then nothing more. The pending storm would not be rushed.
The room was illuminated only by a fat candle in an amber glass on the corner desk. Each time a draft found the flame, melting light buttered the limestone walls and waves of fluid shadows oiled the corners.
Most nights, I find lamplight too bright. And when I’m writing, the only glow is the computer screen, dialed down to gray text on a navy-blue field.
Without a silvering of light, the window did not reflect my face. I had a clear view of the night beyond the panes.
Living in a monastery, even as a guest rather than as a monk, you have more opportunities than you might have elsewhere to see the world as it is, instead of through the shadow that you cast upon it.
St. Bartholomew’s Abbey was surrounded by the vastness of the Sierra Nevada, on the California side of the border. The primeval forests that clothed the rising slopes were themselves cloaked in darkness.
From this third-floor window, I could see only part of the deep front yard and the blacktop lane that cleaved it. Four low lampposts with bell-shaped caps focused light in round pale pools.
The guesthouse is in the northwest wing of the abbey. The ground floor features parlors. Private rooms occupy the higher and the highest floors.
As I watched in anticipation of the storm, a whiteness that was not snow drifted across the yard, out of darkness, into lamplight.
The abbey has one dog, a 110-pound German-shepherd mix, perhaps part Labrador retriever. He is entirely white and moves with the grace of fog. His name is Boo.
My name is Odd Thomas. My dysfunctional parents claim a mistake was made on the birth certificate, that Todd was the wanted name. Yet they have never called me Todd.
In twenty-one years, I have not considered changing to Todd. The bizarre course of my life suggests that Odd is more suited to me, whether it was conferred by my parents with intention or by fate.
Below, Boo stopped in the middle of the pavement and gazed along the lane as it dwindled and descended into darkness.
Mountains are not entirely slopes. Sometimes the rising land takes a rest. The abbey stands on a high meadow, facing north.
Judging by his pricked ears and lifted head, Boo perceived a visitor approaching. He held his tail low.
I could not discern the state of his hackles, but his tense posture suggested that they were raised.
From dusk the driveway lamps burn until dawn ascends. The monks of St. Bart’s believe that night visitors, no matter how seldom they come, must be welcomed with light.
The dog stood motionless for a while, then shifted his attention toward the lawn to the right of the blacktop. His head lowered. His ears flattened against his skull.
For a moment, I could not see the cause of Boo’s alarm. Then … into view came a shape as elusive as a night shadow floating across black water. The figure passed near enough to one of the lampposts to be briefly revealed.
