Title:  Ashley Bell
Series:
Author:  Dean Koontz
Genre:  Thriller, Mystery
Published:  December 8, 2015
Publisher:  Random House Publishing
My Rating:  3 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

At twenty-two, Bibi Blair’s doctors tell her that she’s dying. Two days later, she’s impossibly cured. Fierce, funny, dauntless, she becomes obsessed with the idea that she was spared because she is meant to save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell.

This proves to be a dangerous idea. Searching for Ashley Bell, ricocheting through a southern California landscape that proves strange and malevolent in the extreme, Bibi is plunged into a world of crime and conspiracy, following a trail of mysteries that become more sinister and tangled with every twisting turn.

The girl who said no to death.  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 astonishes medical science.
 
An enigmatic woman convinces Bibi that she escaped death so that she can save someone else. Someone named Ashley Bell.  But save her from what, from whom? And who is Ashley Bell? Where is she?  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.

Read on for my thoughts on Ashley Bell.  No true spoilers, promise.

I’m going to step away from my usual style of reviewing for this story.  Mainly because there are so many twists and turns, reality, fantasy and pure imagination wrapped up in a Deen Koontz novel that it would be very easy to give away spoilers.  So instead, let me give you my thoughts without a tease of the story of my own – we’ll let the Cover Description provide that part.

Ashley Bell is a big book, told in small chapters.  Many readers won’t like that style as the different parts of the story are spoon fed to us in brief snatches of what is happening.

There are times when the reader will have to totally suspend belief, far more than the average needed for any suspense, mystery or thriller novel.  This is Koontz’s style.  The unbelievable wrapped up in everyday life.

Bibi is a compelling character on a mission.  I enjoyed the characters in this story.  They were well rounded and believable, even in the times when the reader must suspend belief in order to continue.

There will be readers who will love Ashley Bell.  And those who won’t.  I’m falling somewhere in the middle.  I enjoyed the story, felt it went on a bit too long in some areas.  But for the time I was reading it I was caught up in the story and really, that is all any story is supposed to do.  Entertain us for a while.

As a bit of disclosure, I’ve read every single novel that Dean Koontz has put out there.  And if I’m honest I am looking to be totally captivated and in love with a story like I was with Watchers, the first Koontz I encountered.  I don’t know if that will ever happen again.  But I have based my reactions to Dean Koontz’s work now based on how I felt about that first one I read.  Is that fair, perhaps not but I’m looking to be captivated again – and unfortunately Ashley Bell fell short – for me.

So, again I will repeat – some people will love this newest Dean Koontz offering, others will not.  My suggestion is to read this for yourself and form your own opinion.  Ashley Bell is a thriller, mystery, fantasy all wrapped up in one story.  This one might by your “Watchers” and that would be amazing to discover.  So take any reviewer’s words with a grain of salt, it is after all just our own opinion.

*I received an e-ARC of Ashley Bell from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

Available in hardback, paperback, audio and for the Kindle