Brother Odd by Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas #3)

Synopsis:

Loop me in, odd one.

The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature. 

Through two New York Times bestselling novels Odd Thomas has established himself as one of the most beloved and unique fictional heroes of our time. Now, wielding all the power and magic of a master storyteller at the pinnacle of his craft, Dean Koontz follows Odd into a singular new world where he hopes to make a fresh beginning—but where he will meet an adversary as old and inexorable as time itself. 

St. Bartholomew’s Abbey sits in majestic solitude amid the wild peaks of California’s high Sierra, a haven for children otherwise abandoned, and a sanctuary for those seeking insight. Odd Thomas has come here to learn to live fully again, and among the eccentric monks, their other guests, and the nuns and young students of the attached convent school, he has begun to find his way. The silent spirits of the dead who visited him in his earlier life are mercifully absent, save for the bell-ringing Brother Constantine and Odd’s steady companion, the King of Rock 'n' Roll. 

But trouble has a way of finding Odd Thomas, and it slinks back onto his path in the form of the sinister bodachs he has met previously, the black shades who herald death and disaster, and who come late one December night to hover above the abbey’s most precious charges. For Odd is about to face an enemy who eclipses any he has yet encountered, as he embarks on a journey of mystery, wonder, and sheer suspense that surpasses all that has come before.

Odd Thomas cannot seem to escape harm no matter where he goes – even a monastery in the mountains. This was maybe one of the more mysterious books in the series so far, but maybe that had more to do with the setting or the weather. Either way, it was interesting to dig into.

With the fantasy and science fiction elements aside, it was interesting how Brother Odd touched on how powerful the brain can be. It’s a mysterious computer that has more power than any of us really know. This book touched on that in its own way.

The supporting cast of Brother Odd were also interesting characters. I enjoyed reading about each of them and seeing how they played into the story. The monster creature itself was also rather intriguing as it definitely left a lot to the imagination.

I accidentally read the 4^th book before reading this one, so I was a little out of order, but I worked it out in my head.

A solid installment in the Odd Thomas series.

4/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes:

“I have less to live for than I once did, but my life still has purpose, and I struggle to find meaning in the days.”

“The only thing I know for sure is how much I do not know. Maybe there is wisdom in that recognition. Unfortunately, I have found no comfort in it.”

“When we hope, we usually hope for the wrong thing. We yearn for tomorrow and the progress that it represents. But yesterday was once tomorrow, and where was the progress in it? Or we yearn for yesterday, for what was or what might have been. But as we are yearning, the present is becoming the past, so the past is nothing but our yearning for second chances.”

“Life you can evade; death you cannot.”

“To know grief, we must be in the river of time, because grief thrives in the present and promises to be with us in the future until the end point. Only time conquers time and its burdens. There is no grief before or after time, which is all the consolation we should need.”

“Human beings not only can’t bear too much reality, we flee from reality when someone doesn’t force us close enough to the fire to feel the heat on our faces.”

“Money and beauty are defenses against the sorrows of this world, but neither can undo the past. Only time will conquer time. The way forward is the only way back to innocence and to peace.”

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Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Synopsis:

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. 

Still Missing interweaves the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfold through sessions with her psychiatrist, with a second narrative following the events after her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

Chevy Stevens is one of my favorite newer authors. Her books twist and turn while moving at a good pace. The characters are deep and developed. Each story cuts deep in its own way.

Still Missing is no different. Although, I guess I should say it set the tone for the rest of her work. I read that it was her first novel. I’m just the one reading her works out of order.

Still missing follows an absolutely heartbreaking yet incredibly strong heroine as she works through being kidnapped, abused, raped, and just so many more awful things. It’s told through her perspective as she’s recounting the tale to her therapist in different sessions. That makes things interesting. So, you know she survives, but you don’t know how she escapes until it plays out in her retelling.

I found myself totally sucked in to the book and I needed to see how she got free. I think I was even more drawn in once she actually was free. The parts with her interacting with The Freak were so dark. It was hard to take them in large chunks.

Still Missing is a crazy story of determination, strong will, and survival. If you like suspense novels and can handle some triggering subjects, I would highly recommend.

5/5 Stars

Memorable quote: “Like I said, I should feel proud of my progress, and I am, but that just adds another layer of guilt. Healing feels a lot like leaving my daughter behind and I already did that once.”

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The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Synopsis

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...

This is the first book in awhile that I started and couldn’t put down until it was over. I read it in just over 24 hours – due to having to work during the day. I don’t know what about it really hooked me, but I needed to see what happened.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m into psychology and I wanted to know what was keeping Alicia silent, or if the writing was just good enough to keep me turning the page. Either way, I sped through this one and was not disappointed.

I can see why it’s one of the books of the year. It keeps you on your toes. The story winds and weaves and you never really know what’s going on. It had almost a Gone Girl feel (which I loved) but I’m guessing that’s due to the journal entries.

The ending and twist reveal actually got me. I think I was predicting everything except what actually happened. I’ve read some reviews where people said they saw it coming a mile away – I’m just glad that I didn’t. As the chapter was building up to the reveal, I could feel my eyes widening and my jaw actually dropped.

It was a fun ride! The writing was decent. I enjoyed the shorter chapters. I think I would pick up another of Alex’s books to see if I like more of his work. Alas, this was his first novel. I’m interested to see if his next work is also a hit.

4/5 Stars

Memorable Quote: “I remember thinking, there’s no going back now. We were crashing through every last boundary between therapist and patient. Soon it would be impossible to tell who was who.”

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The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

Synopsis:

A brilliant, deeply dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents’ deaths in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace’s harrowing past returns with a vengeance.

Both Grace and her newest patient are stunned when they recognize each other from a recent encounter. Haunted by his bleak past, mild-mannered Andrew Toner is desperate for Grace’s renowned therapeutic expertise and more than willing to ignore their connection. And while Grace is tempted to explore his case, which seems to eerily echo her grim early years, she refuses—a decision she regrets when a homicide detective appears on her doorstep.

An evil she thought she’d outrun has reared its head again, but Grace fears that a police inquiry will expose her double life. Launching her own personal investigation leads her to a murderously manipulative foe, one whose warped craving for power forces Grace back into the chaos and madness she’d long ago fled.

The Murderer’s Daughter was my first Jonathan Kellerman book, and I think I am going to have to invest in more of them.

Grace Blades is an interesting protagonist. Kellerman does a good job of making her a very deep character, using flashbacks from her past to paint the picture of what led to her life currently. I almost enjoyed the flashbacks more than the present time because it was a bit messy.

I felt like there were so many characters involved with the “present time” that it was hard to keep them straight. This also stems from them having a bunch of different names for one character. I still don’t know if I kept it straight in the end, but I got the point of the book and the story. I enjoyed it a lot; it was just a bit difficult to keep it all together at times.

One thing to really note about this book is the description of death and, later on, grief was really spot on. It was interesting to read, and I think people will be able to relate to what Grace saw and how she felt.

The Murderer’s daughter is a fast-paced mystery/thriller that will keep you turning pages until the very end.

3.5/5 Stars just for how difficult it was to keep some characters straight.

Memorable Quotes: "If people like you, maybe they won't hurt you."

"Whatever it took to survive. She'd always been driven to survive. Which is why she was still around. A bit of luck didn't hurt, either. Fate, karma, divine will, choose your delusion."

"Despite everything she told her patients about open communication, she craved the balm of ignorance. She supposed that could change. 
Meanwhile, she'd drive."

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‘K’ Is For Killer by Sue Grafton

Synopsis:

Lorna Kepler was beautiful and willful, a loner who couldn't resist flirting with danger. Maybe that's what killed her.

Her death had raised a host of tough questions. The cops suspected homicide, but they could find neither motive nor suspect. Even the means were mysterious: Lorna's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered that they couldn't be certain she hadn't died of natural causes. In the way of overworked cops everywhere, the case was gradually shifted to the back burner and became another unsolved file.

Only Lorna's mother kept it alive, consumed by the certainty that somebody out there had gotten away with murder.

In the ten months since her daughter's death, Janice Kepler had joined a support group, trying to come to terms with her loss and her anger. It wasn't helping. And so, leaving a session one evening and noticing a light on in the offices of Millhone Investigations, she knocked on the door.

In answering that knock, Kinsey Millhone is pulled into the netherworld of unavenged murder, where only a pact with the devil will satisfy the restless ghosts of the victims and give release to the living they have left behind.

I just need to mention how much I love Kinsey as a character. I feel like I identify with her and her sassiness and general inability to deal with people’s nonsense. She makes me laugh every time I read one of the books. She also has actual deep feeling though, and those were on display in this book with Danielle. It is a shame we will not be able to know whether they could develop a deeper friendship or not.

This was one of those mystery books were everyone seems like they are guilty. They are all a little bit off, and I was almost positive that everyone was guilty at one point. I am extremely dissatisfied with how this novel closed though. I feel like there was no real conclusion and that it wasn’t actually solved.

I wish we would have figured out more about the motive of the murder, more about the relationships that Lorna had with people, and who the heck she was getting married to. There were a lot of things that I wanted more of, but I guess it would have been too long of a book at that point.

Reading about Kinsey barely sleeping and then messing up her sleeping schedule was also hilarious and I felt myself identifying with her more.

If we could  have gotten more of a resolution and a deeper dive into the relationships, this book would get a full 5-star rating.

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes: "I'm the current ranking expert at reading upside down and seldom hesitate to insert myself into matters that are not my concern."

“Sometimes anxiety and caffeine have the same effect.”

“I could feel my stomach lurch at the thought of more coffee. The cups I’d consumed were already making my brain vibrate like an out-of-balance washing machine.”

“I fell asleep wondering if there was a cause-and-effect relationship between memory loss and abstinence. Apparently so, as that was the last thing I was aware of for the next four hours.”

“If I’d gone to bed at nine or even ten o’clock, I could have slept through the night. But now my sleep permit had reached its expiration point. Having stayed awake this long, I was consigned to further wakefulness.”

“’I didn’t actually say that, but if I did, I lied. I’m really a wretched person. I’m sorry you didn’t understand that. Now get out of my car’”

“My phone rang at noon. I’d been awake for an hour but unwilling to stir. Having completed my transmigration into the nocturnal realms, I found the notion of getting up any time before two repugnant.”

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