Odd Hours

Zusatztext “Koontz’s most likable creation.”— The New York Times   “Koontz forges the kind of sweeping melodrama complete with screwball laughs! nail-biting moments! and surprises that is the bedrock of American narrative fiction.”— Booklist   “One of the most remarkable and appealing characters in current fiction . . . a page-turning account . . . beautifully written . . . another literary home run.” —The Virginian-Pilot   “Takes off at breakneck speed . . . a superb story from one of our contemporary masters.”— San Antonio Express-News Informationen zum Autor Dean Koontz, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna. Klappentext #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Only a handful of fictional characters are recognized by first name alone. Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas is one such literary hero, who has come alive in readers' imaginations as he explores the greatest mysteries of this world and the next with his inimitable wit, heart, and quiet gallantry. Now Koontz follows Odd as he is drawn onward, to a destiny he cannot imagine. Haunted by dreams of an all-encompassing red tide, Odd is pulled inexorably to the sea, to a small California coastal town where nothing is as it seems. Chapter One It’s only life. We all get through it. Not all of us complete the journey in the same condition. Along the way, some lose their legs or eyes in accidents or altercations, while others skate through the years with nothing worse to worry about than an occasional bad-hair day. I still possessed both legs and both eyes, and even my hair looked all right when I rose that Wednesday morning in late January. If I returned to bed sixteen hours later, having lost all of my hair but nothing else, I would consider the day a triumph. Even minus a few teeth, I’d call it a triumph. When I raised the window shades in my bedroom, the cocooned sky was gray and swollen, windless and still, but pregnant with a promise of change. Overnight, according to the radio, an airliner had crashed in Ohio. Hundreds perished. The sole survivor, a ten-month-old child, had been found upright and unscathed in a battered seat that stood in a field of scorched and twisted debris. Throughout the morning, under the expectant sky, low sluggish waves exhausted themselves on the shore. The Pacific was gray and awash with inky shadows, as if sinuous sea beasts of fantastical form swam just below the surface. During the night, I had twice awakened from a dream in which the tide flowed red and the sea throbbed with a terrible light. As nightmares go, I’m sure you’ve had worse. The problem is that a few of my dreams have come true, and people have died. While I prepared breakfast for my employer, the kitchen radio brought news that the jihadists who had the previous day seized an ocean liner in the Mediterranean were now beheading passengers. Years ago I stopped watching news programs on television. I can tolerate words and the knowledge they impart, but the images undo me. Because he was an insomniac who went to bed at dawn, Hutch ate breakfast at noon. He paid me well, and he was kind, so I cooked to his schedule without complaint. Hutch took his meals in the dining room, where the draperies were always closed. Not one bright sliver of any windowpane remained exposed. He often enjoyed a film while he ate, lingering over coffee until the credits rolled. That day, rather than cable news, he watched Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in Twentieth Century. Eighty-eight years old, born in the era of silent films, when Lillian Gish and Rudolph Valentino were stars, and having later been a successful actor, Hutch thought...

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Koontz s most likable creation. The New York Times
 
Koontz forges the kind of sweeping melodrama complete with screwball laughs, nail-biting moments, and surprises that is the bedrock of American narrative fiction. Booklist
 
One of the most remarkable and appealing characters in current fiction . . . a page-turning account . . . beautifully written . . . another literary home run. The Virginian-Pilot
 
Takes off at breakneck speed . . . a superb story from one of our contemporary masters. San Antonio Express-News

Product details

• Authors: Dean Koontz, Dean R. Koontz
• Publisher: Bantam Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 28.04.2009
• EAN: 9780553591705
• ISBN: 978-0-553-59170-5
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 108 mm x 192 mm x 27 mm
• Series: Odd Thomas; Odd Thomas
• Subject: Fiction > Suspense > Crime fiction, thrillers, espionage