In the meantime, we caught up with Koontz, 69, for a phone interview from his home in Newport Coast, Calif. 29, sponsored by USA TODAY and Intercast. Koontz will be the featured guest on a special online video chat with fans from 2 p.m.

4 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list), in which the character returns to his hometown of Pico Mundo, Calif., to fulfill the destiny foretold in the series opener in 2003.

Now the series is ending with its seventh installment, Saint Odd (currently No. In recent years, his series featuring Odd Thomas - a young fry cook with paranormal powers, including the ability to see the spirits of the 'lingering dead' - has been particularly popular, with 20 million copies sold to date. The series debut novel, Odd Thomas, was made into a movie of the same name, with Anton Yelchin in the lead role and Willem Dafoe as the town sheriff.Dean Koontz is one of the world's most popular novelists, with 450 million books sold worldwide. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “America’s most popular suspense novelist”, Dean Koontz is an abundant writer of fiction and screenplays, with many #1 New York Times best sellers to his credit. I then decided to go back to the audiobook version and the enjoyment was back!” I then bought the paperback version of the next two in the series and was a bit disappointed - they just weren’t as charming. Here’s a listener comment: “I listened to Odd Thomas and absolutely loved it. Narrators like Baker can make a successful series. It takes a special narrator to embody Odd Thomas, and David Aaron Baker renders the unassuming young fry cook’s simplicity with an innocent, unaffected style. From acclaimed master of suspense Dean Koontz, this series stands out for its “curious mixture of whimsy, gentle humor, and horror” ( The New York Times). And occasionally, he gets to prevent a catastrophe from happening. So, in between slinging hash at the Pico Mundo Grill and mooning over the beautiful (and very much alive) Stormy Llewellyn, Odd passes along otherworldly crime-solving tips to the town’s sympathetic police chief. They don’t talk, but they do try to communicate with him. A gentle and genuinely caring young man, Odd Thomas can’t help but get caught up in the problems of other people - including dead people. Meet Odd Thomas, a 20-something short-order cook in a small desert town who sees dead people and does his best to serve the silent souls who seek him out.

Odd thomas books in order