Koontz, Dean R

Odd Thomas, a short order cook at the Pico Mundo Grill, keeps his ability to speak with ghosts a secret from all but his girlfriend, Stormy, and the local police chief who he occasionally helps solve or prevent crime, but his unusual talent leads him and his fellow citizens into big trouble when a strange man comes to town followed by a horde of borachs--ghostly harbingers of mayhem.

Small-time landscaper Mitch Rafferty's life becomes a nightmare when he receives a call on his cell phone from a stranger who has kidnapped his wife and is giving him sixty hours to come up with an impossible two million dollars for her safe return.

An experiment turns dangerous when a team of scientists becomes trapped on an Arctic icefield where sixty powerful explosives, all set to detonate at midnight, are planted.

Chyna is witness to a brutal homicide and, in her efforts to escape, learns the identity of the killer's next intended victim. Although common sense tells her to run for her life, she is compelled to try and rescue the young girl targeted for murder.

Tina Evans, slowly adjusting to the death of her young son Danny a year earlier, is shocked to see a child who looks remarkably like Danny in a stranger's car, and when she begins receiving strange dreams and messages, Tina knows that she is either losing her mind--or her child is alive.

Police Detective Harry Lyon is caught in a whirlwind of terror that threatens to sweep away not only him but his partner and everyone he loves.

Detectives Bobby and Julie agree to watch over Frank after he wakes up in a motel to find his hands covered with blood and strange objects in his pockets. Frank knows he's not a killer.

After his parent's divorce, fourteen-year-old Collin makes friends with Roy in the new town where he moves. But Roy takes pleasure in torturing animals and soon Collin finds that Roy has hurt his former friends. No one will believe him that he is not safe with Roy.

Ellen ran away from home and joined a carnival where she married and had a child. Now she has a new life with a new husband and two children, but she drowns her guilt in alcohol and prayer.