Once presided over by a Roaring '20's Hollywood mogul, the magnificent West Coast estate known as Roseland now harbors a reclusive billionaire financier and his faithful servants-and their guests: Odd Thomas, the young fry cook who sees the dead and tries to help them, and Annamaria, his inscrutably charming traveling companion. Fresh from a harrowing clash with lethal adversaries, they welcome their host's hospitality. But Odd's extraordianry eye...

"Two years after the cataclysmic events that sent him journeying into mystery, Odd Thomas, the intrepid fry cook who sees the dead and tries to help them, has traveled full circle, back to his beloved home town of Pico Mundo and the people he loves. He has come to save them--and perhaps humanity--from the full flowering of evil it is his destiny to confront, as he draws ever closer to the truth of the world and his place in it. Stronger, wiser than...

"Seth is a kitchen boy at the remote Last Chance Hotel. His father has long ago left, leaving him imprisoned until he is old enough to set out on his own. If there's any hope he has, it's to be the greatest chef that ever lived ... just like his father. One night, a band of magicians begin to arrive to participate in a secret meeting -- a Prospect Selection Procedure to determine the most talented magicians in the world, judged by their leader Dr....

"When Aubrey gets to the cafeteria for lunch she finds that there is a strange new cook, with a kitchen full of glowing bottles, and a big black pot full of mashed potatoes, so when all the children fall under a dishwashing spell it is obvious to Aubrey that their new lunch lady is a witch--or has Aubrey fallen asleep during science class and dreamed it all?"--Title verso page.