In 2003, Dean Koontz published ODD THOMAS, which followed a 20-year-old fry cook from Pico Mundo, California, through the loss of his true love, Stormy Llewellyn, in a brutal mass murder. In the years since, Koontz has published six more Odd Thomas novels, concluding the series now with SAINT ODD.

In the two years since Stormy was killed at the Green Moon Mall, Odd has been traveling the country, drawn to various dark scenes and enigmatic figures. Throughout the series, he thwarts several major crimes or disasters using his psychic ability to see and communicate with the dead, though the body count is always still high. The bad guys are often nefarious cultists, and those assisting Odd are frequently mysterious or possibly magical. In SAINT ODD, the series ends with Odd finally returning to Pico Mundo and facing an evil greater than even the one that took Stormy from him.

"Odd Thomas is such an endearing and likable character and, more than anything else, has been the reason for the success of the series.... For readers who have been with Odd all along, SAINT ODD will satisfy if for no other reasons than the final joy that Koontz gives his hero."

Having recently escaped from the clutches of an old and powerful Satanic cult, and having saved a large group of children with the help of an octogenarian named Edie Fischer, Odd drives back to Pico Mundo through the desert on a motorcycle pursued by an SUV he can only assume is full of cult members. Odd knows he is returning home to confront the cult and that they are planning a catastrophic and violent event. He also believes he is returning to die and be reunited in the next world with Stormy. He expects that the danger will involve the cult attacking Pico Mundo's dam, but is also worried about something happening at the annual fair that draws enormous crowds. From the fair grounds to the dam, across fields and orchards and back to the fair grounds, Odd at once runs from the cult members while trying to foil their murderous plans. The action is breakneck and bloody as it hurtles toward the inevitable conclusion.

Missing from SAINT ODD are some of the lighter elements found in the other books in the series, such as the appearance of famous ghosts. Still, Odd's distinctive voice remains --- self-deprecating, punny and even goofy in the face of terror. Koontz brings back pivotal characters like Chief Wyatt Porter and Ozzie Boone, as well as more recent additions to the series, like the aforementioned Edie Fischer and the seemingly perpetually pregnant Annamaria.

As the series progressed, it became more and more clear that Koontz was penning a story meant to be nothing less than an epic battle between good and evil. In SAINT ODD, there is little ambiguity; the villains are satanic and the good guys saints. Think of it as moralistic supernatural storytelling with a more-than-healthy dose of chase scenes. Odd Thomas is such an endearing and likable character and, more than anything else, has been the reason for the success of the series. Perhaps the book packs less of a punch than the earlier installments as Koontz ties up the loose ends of the story, answering some long-standing questions and leaving others still a bit unclear.

For readers who have been with Odd all along, SAINT ODD will satisfy if for no other reasons than the final joy that Koontz gives his hero.