Ashley Bell
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes the must-read thriller of the year, perfect for readers of dark psychological suspense and modern classics of mystery and adventure.Bibi Blair is a fierce, funny, dauntless young woman – whose doctor says she has one year to live.She replies, ‘We’ll see.’Her sudden recovery is a medical miracle.An enigmatic woman convinces Bibi that she escaped death so that she can save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell.But who is Ashley Bell? And what exactly does she need saving from?Bibi’s obsession with finding Ashley sends her on the run from threats both mystical and worldly, including a rich and charismatic cult leader with terrifying ambitions.
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This is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
First published in the USA in 2015 by Bantam Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
A division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Copyright © Dean Koontz 2015
Cover design by Richard Augustus © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
Cover photographs © Demurez Cover Arts/
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Dean Koontz asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Text design by Virginia Norey
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source Edition 9780007520350
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007520329
Version 2017-02-23
With much affection, this book is dedicated to
Susan (Allison) Cathers, my sister from another mother.
Thank you for thirty years of kindness and excellence.
She …
Hears the song in the egg of a bird.
—James Dickey, Sleeping Out at Easter
Table of Contents
Part 1: The Woman Who Intended to Marry a Hero
Chapter 1: The Girl Whose Mind Was Always Spinning
Chapter 2: Another Perfect Day in Paradise
Chapter 4: Searching for the Silver Lining
Chapter 6: The Frightening Pace of Examination
Chapter 7: The Power of Cookies
Chapter 8: Hammered and Fully Prosecuted
Chapter 9: Into the Tunnel of Fate
Chapter 10: The Kind of Girl She Is
Chapter 11: A Time When She Believed in Magic
Chapter 12: Footsteps of a Man Unseen
Chapter 13: Young Again in Grief
Chapter 14: She Sat Up, Sat Up, Sat Up in Bed
Chapter 15: One Moment of Truth Among Many
Chapter 16: A Memory Inexplicable in These Circumstances
Chapter 17: In the Hours Before the Crisis
Chapter 18: Something Bad and Something Worse
Chapter 19: If Only It Were Just a Ghost
Chapter 20: A Condition of Complete Simplicity
Chapter 21: Half a World Away From Home
Chapter 22: What the Hell Just Happened?
Chapter 23: She Just Can’t Leave It Alone
Chapter 24: How Sweet It Would Be If It Could Be True
Chapter 25: Captain? Are You Up There, Captain?
Chapter 26: People of Sinister Intentions
Chapter 27: What She Did When She Didn’t Go Insane
Chapter 28: A Visit From the Doctor
Chapter 29: The Poison-Ivy Itch of Intuition
Chapter 30: Proud Collector of 10,000 Heads
Chapter 31: Crazy When You Least Expect It
Part 2: Girl With a Mission, Girl on the Run
Chapter 32: Solange st. Croix and the Butterfly Effect
Chapter 33: Waiting for the Wrong People to Show Up
Chapter 34: The I of the Needle
Chapter 35: A World and a Half Away
Chapter 37: Every Mama’s Babies Got to Pee
Chapter 39: Love Call and War Cry
Chapter 40: Downhill, Over the Edge, Into Chaos
Chapter 41: The Warrior Olaf and His Valkyrie
Chapter 42: The Book of Leaping Panther and Gazelle
Chapter 43: Three Days in a Locked Room
Chapter 44: Adjusting to Paranoia
Chapter 45: No Haven From Her Enemies
Part 3: From Time to Time the World Goes Mad
Chapter 46: Where She Went When She Couldn’t Go Home Again
Chapter 49: The Man Who Borrowed the Names of Death
Chapter 50: Fog and the Fog of Time
Chapter 52: Going Home With the Dead
Chapter 53: Walk the Board, Dudette
Chapter 54: A Taste of the Caterpillar’s Mushroom?
Chapter 56: Out of Chaos, Conviction
Part 4: Putting the Pieces Together at the Risk of Falling Apart
Chapter 57: Breakfast With a Side of Surprise
Chapter 59: The First to Recognize Her Talent
Chapter 60: The Panther of Lost Time
Chapter 62: A Smile From the Past
Chapter 63: Sleeping on a Sea of Troubles
Chapter 64: A Literary Lion’s Den
Chapter 65: Silence Like a Cancer Grows
Chapter 66: He Who Would Rather Die Than Share
Chapter 67: A Little Time to Chill
Chapter 68: A Man, a Dog, a Moment
Chapter 69: Cash, Key, and Contact
Chapter 70: Cookies, Tea, and Dark History
Chapter 71: An Old Woman With a Junk-Shop Memory
Chapter 72: Questions Not Asked
Chapter 73: Just Before the Swarm
Chapter 74: Hermione, Hermione, and the Men in Black
