Odd Interlude Part Two

Odd Thomas #4.2

by Dean Koontz

The first part of a spine-tingling 3-part Odd Thomas novella, exclusively in ebook. Includes a preview of the next thrilling novel in Dean Koontz’s acclaimed Odd Thomas series: Odd Apocalypse. Small-town guy meets big-time evil…

THERE’S ROOM AT THE INN, BUT YOU MIGHT NOT GET OUT…

Odd Thomas and Annamaria need a break from the road. Nestled on a lonely stretch along the Pacific Coast, the warm lights of Harmony Corner welcome them in. The quaint roadside outpost offers everything a weary traveller desires – a cosy diner, a handy service station, a cluster of motel rooms … and the Harmony family homestead presiding over it all.

But Odd has a bad feeling about this place. There’s more to the secluded haven than meets the eye – and between life and death there is something more frightening than either. Odd has faced evil many times and he will face it again before the night is over…

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Paranormal, Mystery, Supernatural

103 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 17, 2012

About the author

Acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human.

Dean, 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.

Facebook: Facebook.com/DeanKoontzOfficial
Twitter: @DeanKoontz
Website: DeanKoontz.com

Reviews

[Malinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars

I'm liking where this is going...so far, so good. :-)

[Monica Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jolie stole this novella.

Although at first I had no idea what was happening when the chapters shifted from Odd to Jolie, it was quite refreshing, and she seems like such a strong role model.

Even at 12, Jolie has knowledge of so many things, and she's sarcastic as a way to guard her true feelings.

Finally, in this we find out more about the Presence (which shifts from supernatural to sci-fi), and we get ready for the big finale.

A little bit too dragged with all the descriptions, it's getting a bit tiresome, but overall, cannot wait to see Odd succeed.

(The AI idea is amazing, as well).

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odd Interlude #2 is a short story from Odd Thomas series written by Dean Koontz, which is the second of three novellas that form a bigger overreaching novel and takes place in-between Odd Hours and Odd Apocalypse and is best read after the fourth book in the series to prevent spoilers.

Odd and Annamaria continue their investigation in Harmony Corners continues. Harmony Corners is explored fully as it is akin to an extended family – one that is trapped in their own homes for the past five years as a presence continues to terrorize them. It is up to Odd Thomas to figure out the presence behind the paranormal terrorism before Jolie Ann Harmony, a twelve year old girl, is killed because she dared to help him.

Odd Interlude #2 is written rather well. The narrative gets stronger as Koontz ups the ante in the suspense and horror in this installment, but is nicely balanced with the narration with having Odd Thomas as the protagonist. His non-egotistical, soft-spoken, humble charm, compassionate, and understanding nature balances the horror rather well.

All in all, Odd Interlude #2 is written rather well and a wonderful addition to Odd Thomas universe.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

second installment of Odd Thomas at a family motel/diner/gas station / HMMMMMMMm a bit like Devil's Rejects meets Texas Chainsaw meets HAL

[NewsomeThings · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok So I read Odd Interlude which was the all of these mini books in one. SO kudos for me now I just added a bunch to my reading challenge!!

See my short review on Odd Interlude 4.1

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 3 of the three part story.

They arrive at a small community to discover that something unnatural is controlling things.

I enjoyed this series.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mangled picture of the mysterious presence controlling the inhabitants of Harmony Corner starts to form as Koontz elaborates on its origin and hints at a broader purpose in the second Odd Interlude. Odd Thomas, having confronted a monster buried deep beneath the surface has a flashlight of realisation shone upon him by resident Jolie, a 12yr old girl who has paid the ultimate price for deception and indecent thoughts against her handler.

Annamaria, one of the more interesting characters to grace the landscape of Odd’s world is absent from this instalment as Odd and Jolie search the bowls of Harmony Corner for answers and a remedy. This is really a sideshow of two characters and a new mystery not seen in other Odd instalments.

Jolie and Odd quickly form a bond united by a common enemy. In order to escape the madness that plagues and confines the residents of Harmony Corner they must first understand its design is order to defeat it. Submerged in underground sewers and secrete passageways lies the answer. Is Odd and Jolie about to do battle against the mere supernatural or something more sinister? Once again, the second Odd Interlude concludes in a cliff-hanger.

‘Odd Interlude #2’ is a quick, one sitting hit of Odd that really wets the appetite for the next full length Odd Thomas adventure. 3 stars.

My review of 'Odd Interlude #1' can be found here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second installment of this novella series, leading up to the July 31st release of Odd Apocalypse, has our would-be and sometimes reluctant hero exploring the dark mysteries of Harmony Corner, a seemingly idyllic seaside community on the outskirts of Moonloght Bay and sinister Fort Wyvern, the setting for his Christopher Snow novels. In #2, Odd discovers why the Harmony family has been victims of the malevolent Hiskott, largely thanks to the tough but precocious Jolie Ann Harmony, who leads Odd into the bowels of Fort Wyvern's secret underground labs, as he attempts to find a way to thwart Hiskott and his demonic hold on them. Plenty of his trademark humor, building of tension and terror, as Odd races toward the inevitable confrontation with pure evil.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second of a three part series. This continues Odd's plan to help the people at Harmony Corner. It is a nice little read but it just ends like Interlude #1 and you will need the final interlude. I wonder why all three of them were not sold as a mini novel.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odd Thomas has started the chaos that will allow him to confront the enemy in Harmony's Corner. This is so good. Loved how it started exactly where Interlude #1 ended and does the same thing at the Interlude #2. Can't wait to see how this situation is resolved!

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love Odd Thomas. He's so funny :) This is a great story and I can't wait for Odd Apocalypse.

[Mark Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Koontz is back to his best with these Interludes. Can't wait for the final part now.

[T.E. George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's just say these novellas are so good, and so classic Koontz at his best I wish there were more. Oh wait, there is a #3. Good for us.

[Karen H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still love Odd! Can't wait for Odd Apocalypse!

[Olga DiLenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Odd Interludes are three short books, so you have to read them in order.

[Filipa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woow this interlude #2 was great as was the first part! I'm enjoying this plot way too muchhh and I'm excited to read the third and last part.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So once again things get a bit sci-fi out of nowhere when Koontz decides to toss in some more SF tropes with the aliens and the AI. Like a said of the last installment, I enjoy reading them, but where is all this coming from? Why Odd Thomas? Couldn't this have been done with a new series? He barely makes any sense in this story anymore and it could just as easily been written about a completely separate character with their own unique attributes and motivations.

And indeed, I guess parts of it are! Because out of nowhere for no reason in the middle of an overarching series about a fry cook that turns novelist to tell his unbelievably stories in order to quell his inner demons, we are treated to the first person narration of a new character! How does that make any sense? I thought we were supposed to believe that this was Odd's writing? In the final installment of the interludes, is it going to turn out that Jolie just sent him her own manuscript?? I would understand if it was structured like Gone Girl, with a wink and a nod to some sort of conspiratorial conversation ongoing between narrator and reader, but it's just out of nowhere and makes no sense and kind of ruins it again for me.

ON TOP OF THAT I was willing to forgive so many of the characters talking the same in a very Gilmore Girls we-were-all-written-by-the-same-quirky-sarcastic-writer kind of way, but a 12-year old girl too? That grew up with no friends and presumably no internet and a very limited number of books and no friends her age or any influences other than her direct family? How did she get so witty and goofy??

I really threw down some hate on this installment here, but again I'm overall enjoying it. It's just lacking a lot of what I've enjoyed up until now.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Odd Interlude in its entirety as a single book, rather than the individual parts, as I felt it gave the best experience that way. (It can be enjoyed as each part, but it works best if you read it all together to follow how things develop.) Therefore, my review is for the entirety rather than each individual part.


The Odd Thomas series is one of my favourite series, but I read the main series without reading Odd Interlude. It worked perfectly fine without having read Odd Interlude – there were references but I was never confused – yet curiosity has me, years later, reading the book to see exactly what happened.

While this quick interlude was an enjoyable read, it did not wow me in the way the main series did. It was a nice detour with the Odd Thomas feel to it, a story that had me devouring it in no time, yet it felt a little too easy considering the other books in the series. It is worth reading if you’re a fan of Odd Thomas and want to know about every adventure, but the main series can be read without this one.

All in all, I’m glad I finally sated my curiosity. Despite my curiosity being satisfied, I won’t be adding this to my favourite list.

[wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

time moves along, hey? i read odd interlude #1 back about a couple three months ago, just finished...and...the link tool is sleeping again so i can't link odd apocalypse...that i finished last night...and #3 is also available and on the kindle as i write...so...onward and upward.

#2 picks up where #1 left off...begins:

eight (as in chapter 8)
darkness has its charms, and even in out hometowns, the world at night can be as enchanting as any foreign port with its exotic architectures. between dusk and dawn, the commonplace is full of visual delights that only the moon, the stars, and richly textured shadows can provide.

all that reminds me of christoper snow, in fear nothing & seize the night...two stories from koontz that i've read multiple times...great reads, both...plus, from odd interlude #1, it has already been established that odd is in moonlight bay, where the christopher snow/orson stories take place...as jackie used to exclaim, and away we go!

warning! warning!...run, will robinson! run, will robinson!
these "reviews" are as much if not all for me as i'm a bit skeptical that anyone cares or wants to know my opinion on my reads...so the following could contain what you, gentle reader, consider a spoiler...should have taken care to write/review more of #1...as i think i ought to go back and read that to "get" this one and number three.

characters
odd thomas, almost 22 years old...i think in #1, the time is january...perhaps 17 months after events in Odd Thomas
jolie ann harmony...a girl, twelve years old, w/odd...she was 7 when the change happened in harmony corners
orc...some sort of mummy-thing...dead...they hope, or odd does
dr. norris hiskott---the bad man
maxy...a cousin of jolie, murdered
uncle donny
aunt lois
alladin, artificial intelligence, prefers the name ed, and you can call him eddie
some guy w/an old friar tuck doo
a trucker
trucker's wife, veronica, lost her five years ago, cancer
trucker's mom and dad...
trucker's sister berniece
trucker's nephew, timmy, an orphan
boo
uncle greg


ideas here and continuing in Odd Apocalypse
this #2 picks up with chapter 8...and having just now (last night) finished odd apocalypse...there's this interesting idea related to tesla's electric work described in that one--he was able to generate electricity and illuminate lightbulbs a couple hundred miles away...and, i don't know if it is real or not...tesla is apparently a real man who lived, knew westinghouse, twain, others...but his work with electricity was such that jp morgan put the keebosh on it...generating electricity and sending it out over the airwaves...somehow...isn't "billable" and jp morgan took a dim view of that.

but in #2 here...the bad dude, dr. norris hiskott...all brain activity is electrical, and hiskott is able to calve off an aspect of his personality: think of it as a memory stick of everything he knows and is...with certain limitations of distance, he is able to transmit this other essentially invisible self, this phantom hiskott, through telephone land lines or by means of other systems, such as power lines and water pipes and television cables, or a combination thereof....

he can take possession of others through this means...he is a "puppetmaster". all devilishly interesting.

good read...i think i like this one more than odd apocalypse that i just finished...although that one, too, is to be continued in the next installment. jolie and ed in this one are a hoot, as is the trucker...all of them, really, the good guys, although jolie narrates what the bad guys have been up to...

a bit on the narration
beginning with chapter eleven, the narrative swaps back-and-forth between the eye-narration of odd thomas and jolie ann harmony, twelve years old. she's a real hoot. she meets ed...professional name of aladdin, plus he likes to be called eddie. aritificial intelligence...and he's a hoot...think of a kinder, gentler hal...can be moody, like hal...you know, from 2001?

so (this is strictly for myself) the storylne goes with odd/jolie in the dark, in one of the tunnel irrigation systems under the place, adjacent fort wyvern...picks up at chapter 8 as said...jolie fills odd in on mean ole hiskott...and odd and annamaria are immune, somehow, to his puppetmaster ways.

chap 9 jolie tells odd more about what's been happening...odd is wanting to leave to go figure things out...jolie has two flashlights...jolie tells of the death of maxy, how she ended maxy's suffering because the other family was being controlled by hiskott...maxy was too pretty, too beautiful for hiskott...see the quote from dickens at the start of #1

chap 10...odd noe leaves jolie, heading through the drains...comes out, and he is doing to do a bad thing..
11...is from jolie's view...she loves odd...will be a nun...a door previously sealed shut now opens and a voice calls her name, "jolie ann harmony"....the doorways are these weird amoeba-like membrane doors...neato, really...there's six dead in haz-mat suits...the swat team, we later learn.
12...odd and the truck driver...whose truck off will use as a diversion
13...jolie again...the voice (ed) wants her to come up the stairs...wants to learn about hiskott
14...odd's diversion
15...jolie with ed
16...odd...more diversion
17...mucho information here, jolie's re-telling of what ed has told her...project polaris...the last star in the handle of the little dipper....ed...built to study alien artifacts...one biggy found in the ocean...ed tells her "there is someone else"...
18....odd, heading out to get to where he needs to be, the diversion working, only donny grabs him by the shoulder.

to be continued...

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part two of this story: After being chased out of the Harmony's home by the thing that has imprisoned the town, Odd runs into a young girl on the beach. Jolie Harmony decides Odd can help the town and shows him her secret hiding place where the bad man cannot reach them. Jolie has been marked for death because she is too beautiful. She has been through so much in her young life that nothing scares her anymore. Odd is finally able to hear the story of how the town came to be in the shape it is in. He is more determined than ever to stop the man named Hiskott. Odd goes out into the town to cause a disturbance and face Hiskott, while Jolie has an adventure of her own recruiting an unlikely companion. This part was pretty fast-paced with surprises all around. I am enjoying this storyline immensely.

[Mike Harnish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't recall when I read this, but I know I have read ALL of ODD THOMAS novels (so far, unless Dean Koontz writes another one), but I noticed when I went through the novels Dean Koontz wrote that I hadn't crossed this off my list. The adventures of ODD THOMAS was a great series (one of his best, but not to make light of anything else he has written.).

[Roz Curney-Sherod · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one and couldn't stop reading it. We get more answers to what's really going on in Harmony Corners. This installment is more like the beginning of the series, more suspense. I really enjoyed that each chapter had two points of view. On to the last book in this trilogy.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2nd installment of Odd Interlude is classic Koontz

Part 2 of Odd Interlude outdoes Part 1 in terms of action and surprises, and the story shifts from supernatural horror into science fiction. This section ends with a real cliffhanger that moves you right into Part 3...

[Johnnie M. Needham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odd Thomas

The Odd Thomas novels are the best from Dean Koontz, once you start reading you can't stop.my only complaint which is slight sometimes he gets carried away with side roads, so to speak. Those of you who read his books know what I mean.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a continuation of the three part chopping up of the whole novel. Not real sure why they decided to do that but it does add to Mr Koontz’s bank account. Full review will be had in part three when I’ve completed it. So far, recommended.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another great odd Thomas book! Great side story, and always a page turner. Can't wait to get reading on the next odd Thomas book!

[Alia Makki · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the love of…fillers!

[John Cleveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!!

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Bring on the conclusion!