If Dean Koontz must insist on continuing the adventures of Odd Thomas, I wish it’d remain in the manga format, as IN ODD WE TRUST, which he co-wrote with illustrator Queenie Chan. The concept works well in the graphic format, and it goes down easy, even if it’s not telling an all-new story; it’s just telling it in a different way.

Taking place sometime before the original ODD THOMAS novel, TRUST again finds our hero behind the griddle at Pico Mundo Grille, perfecting pancakes and hash browns to the residents of his quiet California town. That’s what he does when he doesn’t receive messages from the dead.

In this case, the deceased is a 7-year-old boy, brutally murdered at home by a supposed intruder. With the help of his girlfriend Stormy and her babysitting pal Sherry — and, of course, the ghost of the grade schooler — Odd seeks to find the child killer before he/she can strike again. Typical of Koontz, there’s a last-minute twist.

With TRUST, you’re essentially getting an entire novel in the span of less than 200 pages. None of the story beats are sacrificed, but much of Odd’s narration is. It’s still there, alright — just at a more manageable level. Chan — who I suspect shouldered most of the writing duties — does a good job bringing Koontz’s regulars to life, with one exception: Odd looks like a girl.

The book ends with Chan’s character sketches and an essay from Koontz in which he threatens two more ODD novels to come. There’s also an excerpt from the first one, in hopes that new readers will be intrigued to try the character out sans pictures. I recommend they do … but stopping short of the sequels. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• BROTHER ODD by Dean Koontz
• THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR by Dean Koontz
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK ONE – PRODIGAL SON by Dean Koontz and Kevin J. Anderson
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
• DEMON SEED by Dean Koontz
• THE FACE OF FEAR by Dean Koontz
• FOREVER ODD by Dean Koontz
• THE GOOD GUY by Dean Koontz
• THE HUSBAND by Dean Koontz
• ODD HOURS by Dean Koontz
• ODD THOMAS by Dean Koontz
• VELOCITY by Dean Koontz