A childhood friend of Odd Thomas has disappeared and the worst is feared. But as Odd applies his unique talents, to communicate with the dead, to the task of finding the missing person, he discovers something worse than a dead body: he encounters an enemy of exceptional cunning and spirals into a vortex of terror. Around him will gather new allies and old, some living and some not. For in the battle to come, there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope.