Split Second, by David Baldacci (Macmillan, £16.99) But we never do learn who blew up the cow. Do not mock millions of people love this stuff. This isn't one of those tales in which the earth spews forth the undead, but it does involve some nasty Satanists and, when it finally gets going, the action is intense. He notices the gathering of the bodachs and Fungus Man ("like a giant albino cockroach on a day pass from Hell") and eventually takes the heroic steps necessary to scupper the worst of the threatened mayhem. Our narrator, aptly named Odd Thomas, has the gift of "paranormal sight", which means he can see dead people. It is this lightly comic touch that saves the book from being just another shroud-ripper. However, as Koontz fans would expect, things take a much creepier turn with the arrival of thousands of "bodachs" - ghostly figures drawn to the scene of impending violent death - and a character called Fungus Man. Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz (HarperCollins, £17.99)Īpart from a few ghosts, the first sign of trouble comes when Little Ozzie's plastic cow is blown up. The scenarios are credible, the tension excruciating and the ending slaps you in the face. Who is pulling Janos's strings? And just why do Harris and Viv need to go down an 8,000-ft mine shaft? Are they all mad? This is non-stop, well researched action that does not insult the intelligence. And, of course, it all gets out of hand.īefore you know it Harris Sandler is running for his life, 17-year-old Vivian Parker in tow, pursued by Janos, who is as determined, terrifying and apparently indestructable. At the heart of the plot is the Zero Game, in which bored Capitol Hill staffers bet on trivia, Congressional voting figures and what projects are going to make it into the government's spending budgets.
This means that when the second narrator takes up the story, you don't know whether he too is ultimately destined for a slab in the morgue. The Zero Game, by Brad Meltzer (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99)ĭead men tell no tales, they say - unless they're in Brad Meltzer's new thriller, in which the first narrator gets to describe his own death.