Ashley Bell

Ashley Bell
Dean Koontz

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.

Copyright (#ud3abbd4d-1c71-53ad-9e92-38e15eb1fbbf)

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

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

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/

plainpicture (main image); Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com) (wasps)

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

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books

Source Edition 9780007520350

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007520329

Version 2017-02-23

Dedication (#ud3abbd4d-1c71-53ad-9e92-38e15eb1fbbf)

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

Cover (#u554a4c85-fa48-5b2c-8798-358c834a63ee)

Title Page (#u9cf1ff19-8ec8-5cf5-92b8-10cdad1a1aba)

Copyright (#u5a43e9d4-fde5-5edd-b2a3-8dea0380f592)

Dedication (#u9ddbc1d2-d067-5ca9-9899-3695b182f21a)

Epigraph (#u832502c0-fb31-5584-a9a6-832a86949430)

Part 1: The Woman Who Intended to Marry a Hero (#ubb1d6f0f-e2c4-5f9d-8418-26aa3be07cea)

Chapter 1: The Girl Whose Mind Was Always Spinning (#u025152d6-c01f-59de-842a-21b3600f50a3)

Chapter 2: Another Perfect Day in Paradise (#u6a8a8b1b-843c-524e-a590-9e1c9d5ff3ac)

Chapter 3: The Salon (#ua3f55838-a3e8-58e7-930a-824fb77a86d6)

Chapter 4: Searching for the Silver Lining (#u2c7081af-8691-58ce-a8d8-3b5d0298f073)

Chapter 5: Pet the Cat (#u35b98813-bc33-5524-ba42-f36e25b2ed76)

Chapter 6: The Frightening Pace of Examination (#u55be6149-155c-5178-ab99-e8efce23d1e7)

Chapter 7: The Power of Cookies (#ud0e1d673-fe5d-5249-b5da-865d8c137627)

Chapter 8: Hammered and Fully Prosecuted (#ud3e4f6a0-7b48-5841-acd3-f1f4f5328f06)

Chapter 9: Into the Tunnel of Fate (#ud709dfb3-a6f5-551d-9bc6-330ab855f686)

Chapter 10: The Kind of Girl She Is (#ua6a9f7bc-a677-56e0-b876-e55918759add)

Chapter 11: A Time When She Believed in Magic (#uc441217e-0edc-510b-8882-e347d4aba31a)

Chapter 12: Footsteps of a Man Unseen (#ub5f4630c-4465-5de4-baa9-9dba403b8e7f)