SAINT ODD by Dean Koontz *****

Because this is the last Odd Thomas story I want to downgrade the stars but that wouldn't be fair because I was entranced throughout the novel. The thing about Koontz's writing is he does so much descriptive, narrative, inward thinking of the characters that sometimes I have to put the book down so it doesn't drive me crazy. I do tend to skip some of it but always afraid I'll miss something when I do that.

Story is about (if you know Odd you know about his gypsy ticket w/Stormy) the end or death of Odd. Now due to the card saying something like 'together forever' he's been without Stormy for about 2 yrs and when he dies they are rejoined but what is death according to Koontz? Strange for a start and that's about all you get is a start, at least he's not as freaking strange about the horrors faced after life as S.King and what he did to me after I read Revelations. Scared the bejesus outta me. So thank you Dean for making death seem a-ok.

Some cultists Odd dealt with in the past are back seeking him out and trying to destroy the world. Odd gets stabbed in the left hand but in the end a bullet has his name on it. It's all very strange due to the red herring water dream. Other people with ESP talents and gypsys, carnies, tattooed people and other odd things for ODD.

I was an animal control officer once upon a time and I had the police kill a rabid fox in town. I read up on rabies on the internet and found that no one ever, ever died from aerosolized rabies, one case of a person inside a bat cave may have been the only person dying that way. It's a possibility if it's from the brain or saliva directly. So I asked the officer to shoot the fox in the heart not the head because it was my responsibility to keep everyone safe. The premise in the book isn't really described in much detail but rabies cannot live outside brain/saliva product for a good long minute or so. Keeping it on a knife or whatever and stabbing someone would be total fiction...ok so this is total fiction.

Anyways the other way to kill hundreds or thousands of people by infecting a town with aerosolized rabies isn't exactly going to work being passed from person to person as described by the CDC it would be "extraordinary circumstances". I still can't go with aerosolized as a spray rabies. It would need to be extracted from brain fluid or saliva but NOT blood product. Altho rabies can survive in humans for years before becoming deadly, it's rare. It's a strange unpredictable disease. This story is based on the rabies collection from rabid bats. It would be so, so difficult to get enough rabies from bats it would take years and much research to perfect any spray. Rabies cannot survive for long in air. Again, I accept the fact I'm reading fiction and most readers don't have this much knowledge.

Liked it a lot withholding my disbelief. Bye Oddie. :( you'll be missed.