Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz

Spencer Grant is physically and emotionally scarred. An outsider, he often sits for hours in bars just to avoid being alone – and to tell his story to someone who won’t remember it the next morning. But last night he met Valerie and something about her melted his isolation.

Then she doesn’t turn up for work and he finds her home abandoned, with a strange message fixed to the wall. Before he has time to wonder who or what Valerie is, the house is hit by an explosion.

Spencer escapes, only to find himself on the run – not only from his past but also from the conspiracy he has unwittingly stumbled on.