ODD THOMAS By Dean Koontz

Published : 2004
Pages : 420
Overall Mark : 8/10

Odd Thomas lives in the little town of Pico Mundo, and possessed the uncanny ability to sense creatures called bodachs, spirits who hang around with those who are either soon to be dead or are soon to kill! When he sees a man named Robert Robertson, aka. "Fungus Man", being followed around town with his own entourage of bodachs, and is then threatened by the man, Odd decides to confide in the Chief of Police who keeps his house under careful watched. But when Fungus Man turns up dead in Odd’s bathtub, he realises that something worse than he could possibly imagine maybe about to happen!

This is possibly one of Koontz’s most original novels - although there is a slight underlying feeling of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone - and clearly this was popular as it has two sequels already. This book flows very quickly and very fluidly, with only one or two chapters that felt like filler, and it has a nice surprise double-bluff ending.

DEJA DEAD By Kathy Reichs

Published : 1998
Pages : 509
Overall Mark : 7/10

Dr Temperance Brennan, the Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, believes that she has a serial killer on her hands. A number of dead female bodies have turned up, mutilated with the hands chopped off and foreign objects inserted into them. Temperance’s belief that the killers are all the same person is refuted by her colleagues and the investigating detectives, particularly Detective Claudel, so she takes it upon herself to investigate the murders with startling results.

This is the first of Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan novels, and a fine first stab at the thriller genre. Although many of the characters don’t seem to possess more than one dimension, Temperance remains a likeable key person in the novel, though sometimes she veers off into sounding like a bit of a desperate case, which doesn’t really suit her character that much.

A HAT FULL OF SKY By Terry Pratchett

Published : 2004
Pages : 350
Overall Mark : 8/10

Tiffany Aching has left home is now preparing to become a fully fledged witch with her new teacher, Miss Level, who is fortunate enough to possess two bodies, but upon arriving at Miss Level’s cottage Tiffany starts to sense a strange presence which lurks in her room, tidying up after her. When she is then possessed by a creature called a Hiver, the Nac Mac Feegle return, with the help of Mistress Weatherwax, to try and rid Tiffany of the invasive presence which allows Tiffany to act without conscience and do things she wouldn’t ordinarily do, such as kill!

This follow up to Pratchett’s 2003 novel The Wee Free Men is every bit as good, with the characters having actually progressed and grown over the two year gap in narration. Pratchett is in no way slowing down as he gets older, and in many cases his books are going from strength to strength, with this one – though primarily aimed at children – showing he is not growing short of ideas.

MARY MARY By James Patterson

Published : 2005
Pages : 435
Overall Mark : 7/10

Alex Cross is called in to help investigate the mysterious serial killer known as Mary Smith, who is apparently murdering random A-List celebrities whose only seeming connection is that they are all young women and good parents. As he becomes more and more involved in the case, his personal life takes a beating as his one time partner and mother of his youngest child fights him for custody, whilst all the while the FBI find themselves having to contend with a very secretive LAPD.

Almost from the very first page Patterson manages to confuse the reader by filling this novel with red herrings and misdirection. A number of the characters are there simply to lead the reader away from discovering who the real killer is, and it’s interesting in hind sight that the killer is introduced reasonably early on without it being entirely obvious who they are.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS By J K Rowling

Published : 2007
Pages : 607
Overall Mark : 8/10

Harry Potter finds himself on the run from the Ministry Of Magic and the evil Death Eater’s of Lord Voldemort. Along with his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, they go in search of the horcruxes which Voldemort has used to store pieces of his soul in the vain hope of destroying him once and for all, but when they discover along the way that some of the horcruxes are far more than they first appear to be.

This is the last Harry Potter novel, apparently, and I’m actually quite glad it’s finally come to an end. Some series of books outstay their welcome, but thankfully this has ended on a high, following a rather poor fifth instalment, and a very good sixth! JK Rowling will no doubt either come up with a new character who will in no way be as good as Potter and his friends, but she won’t care because she’s made more than enough money already. Overall this book was a little too slow paced for my liking, with the ending feeling a bit too rushed for my liking, but it’s still one of the best children’s books out there at the moment, and has managed to achieve the unthinkable; crossing over into adult fiction.

CELL By Stephen King

Published : 2006
Pages : 473
Overall Mark : 7/10

While in Boston on a business trip to try and sell his new comic book, Clayton Riddell finds himself one of the few people in the USA not to be affected by a telephone pulse which has been sent through the phone networks, transforming anyone who used the phone into a seemingly mindless zombie. Realising that his family might be at risk, Clay decides to try to make the journey home, little realising that his home state of Maine could well be where the pulse originated from.

This novel was extremely similar to King’s earlier novel, The Stand, which in turn takes a lot from Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. King’s usual originality is missing here, instead he seems to be taking elements from his other works and mixing them around in the hope that he’ll come up with something new. Despite the feeling of being there before when I read this, I still found it to be an enjoyable read, and hope that King can keep up the good, though now not that original, work.

I AM LEGEND By Richard Matheson

Published : 1954
Pages : 160
Overall Mark : 9/10

Robert Neville is the last human alive on Earth. The rest of humanity, and indeed the animal kingdom, has succumbed to a terrible disease which transforms them into vampire-like creatures of the night. Finding himself scared and alone, Neville barricades himself in his house and prepares for an inevitable future of non-stop terror and alertness, trying to protect himself from the creatures who were once his friends and neighbours. But when he meets a young woman who appears, like himself, to be free of the illness, things start to look up for Robert Neville.

I was surprised at how modern this book felt. Richard Matheson manages to make this book feel contemporary even by today’s standards and, as this is supposed to be set in the late 70s, that’s not an easy task! This novel has been imitated by many, most recently in Stephen King’s Cell, but will always remain one of the original and the best of the modern vampire novels, up there with the likes of Dracula!