Odd Thomas confronts deadly adversaries in a decaying Hollywood estate.

"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant.

Bill Wile is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car. If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have four hours to decide. The choice...

Two creatures, the end result of experiments in genetic engineering and enhanced intelligence, escape from a government laboratory and bring either doom or a touching new kind of love to those they encounter.