STRANGE HIGHWAYS

Dean Koontz

Copyright © 1995 Dean Koontz

The right of Dean Koontz to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

First published as an Ebook by HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP in 2012

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

eISBN: 978 1 4722 0290 1

HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

An Hachette Livre UK Company

338 Euston Road

London NW1 3BH

www.headline.co.uk

www.hachette.co.uk

Also by Dean Koontz and available from Headline

By the Light of the Moon

One Door Away from Heaven

From the Corner of his Eye

False Memory

Seize the Night

Fear Nothing

Sole Survivor

Intensity

Dark Rivers of the Heart

Mr Murder

Dragon Tears

Hideaway

Cold Fire

The Bad Place

Midnight

Lightning

Watchers

Ticktock

Strange Highways

Demon Seed

Icebound

Winter Moon

The Funhouse

The Face of Fear

The Mask

Shadowfires

The Eyes of Darkness

The Servants of Twilight

The Door to December

The Key to Midnight

The House of Thunder

Phantoms

Whispers

Shattered

Chase

Twilight Eyes

The Voice of the Night

Strangers

Darkfall

The Vision

Night Chills

One rain-swept Sunday night when he was twenty years old, Joey Shannon took the wrong highway – and from that moment, nothing ever went right for him again. Now, exactly twenty years later, on another rain-swept night, Joey finds himself at the same crossroads, looking down the road never taken. Which is odd. Because that road no longer exists. A superhighway replaced it years ago. But now the highway is exactly as it was on that long-ago night, and when Joey turns on to it, he begins an eerie, terrifying journey towards a truth so dark and stunning that it will change everything that he believes about himself, his past, and the nature of life.

STRANGE HIGHWAYS is breathlessly suspenseful, disturbing, filled with surprises, as frightening as anything international bestselling author Dean Koontz has written – and yet it has a haunting beauty all its own. It is the perfect opening to a large and varied collection that contains twelve additional novelettes and short stories that will keep readers awake and fearful for many nights, along countless strange highways.

Praise for STRANGE HIGHWAYS

‘Could any addict ask for more?’ Independent on Sunday

‘Koontz has performed an exceptional job with his own work here’ Locus

‘Should be a winner. . . These tales are all well crafted and imaginative’ Publishers Weekly

Dean Koontz is the author of 58 New York Times bestsellers, of which 15 have risen to No.1. His books have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, a figure that increases by more than 17 million copies per year, and his work is translated into 38 languages.

He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda and their dog Anna in Southern California.

Praise for Dean Koontz

‘Koontz’s art is making the reader believe the impossible . . . sit back and enjoy it’ Sunday Telegraph

‘A master of the thriller genre’ Washington Post

‘Dean Koontz has always boldly gone where no other fiction writer has even considered going before. As ever, the writing is fluid, the dynamic taut and the relationships between characters compulsive’ The Times

‘Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. . . ‘Serious’ writers might do well to examine his technique’ New York Times

This book is dedicated
with much affection to
Jerry and Mary Ann Crowe.
After all these years
of being your friends,
Gerda and I have learned
that we have infinite patience.
Thanks for the friendship,
for all the laughs
you’ve given us
(some of them intentional),
for buying the house
built over the gate to Hell,
and for pointing out to me
every error I make.
Every tiny error.
Every teeny-tiny error.
Every minute error that
no one else, not even God,
would notice.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.

MR MURDER

‘A superb work by a master of the thriller genre at the top of his form’ Washington Post

‘Playing on every emotion and keeping the story racing along, Koontz masterfully escalates the tension. He closes the narrative with the most ingenious twist ending of his career’ Publishers Weekly

‘Koontz’s art is making the reader believe the impossible … sit back and enjoy it’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Koontz comes out on top’ The Times

‘Koontz nails the reader to the page once again’ Kirkus Reviews

‘Koontz whips up a tasty winter broth of peril and paranoia within the family’ Time Out

‘A grand slam of a book. It comes hard on at you from page one, and doesn’t stop. I loved it’ Starburst