About the Book
"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to
communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as
their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary
guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo
Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the
world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse, Odd
has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls
who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd's otherworldly
tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve
a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's
different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a
filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers,
and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the
man is and what he wants, not even Odd's deceased informants can tell
him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar
for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of
catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels
through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming
cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of
allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two
shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the
stuff of our worst nightmares - and a testament by which to live: sanely
if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the
darkness must persevere.
