“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.