All through the ages, brilliant minds have agonized over the question of human destiny when life, as we know it, expires. Many cultures believe in reincarnation, an idea that has always been controversial in the West. However, recent studies are trying to take a scientific approach to the concept of death as the final event in a person's existence and view it rather as a stage of transition in a cycle of life and death. This novel makes a daring attempt to unravel the mystery of Melissa Bell, who is torn between reason and belief. As a biochemist she may be on the verge of an important discovery in her cancer research but is distracted by bizarre dreams, which she never clearly remembers. When she agrees to undergo regressive hypnosis, she reveals a secret which deeply disturbs Burton Armstrong, her psychiatrist. For it is an echo of his own past. When she talks about her mother, who died while giving birth to her, he realizes that he knew her mother years ago, when, as a student, he spent a year abroad in Zurich and fell in love with her. But this is only the beginning. The case of Melissa Bell becomes a challenge to his expertise and to his professional integrity, when he decides to hide from her what she told him under hypnosis and sends her to Rheticon, an old town in Switzerland, to discover the origin of her bizarre memories. Who is Melissa Bell? Her visit to a medieval church in Rheticon leaves the question unanswered. While it triggers the recall of her dreams, it brings her to her knees in terror, until she realizes that she is not alone with her nightmare. Her psychiatrist, concerned about what she would find and how she would react, has followed her to Switzerland. Together they try to make sense of her bizarre recollections. While his initial goal was to rid her of her nightmares, he now finds himself trapped between his obligation to help his patient cope with her memories and his fear that she would remember more than he cared for. And while she needs Armstrong, their relationship is shattered when a reporter gets hold of the Bell File in his office and Melissa sees her secret life exposed. What her psychiatrist did not want her to remember, is right before her eyes in black and white for all the world to see. Her astute mind guesses his relationship with her mother. She now believes, that he has deceived her by hiding that he knew her mother and that his whole approach to her therapy was self serving. The story takes a strange turn when she suddenly remembers her days in Zurich and her relationship with Burton Armstrong. Will they be able recover a love that transcended space and time?
About the Author: Tonja Koeppel was born and educated in Switzerland where she worked as a science writer for leading newspapers and magazines. After moving to the US with her family, she spent a short time as a research chemist, then taught chemistry at a college in New Jersey for many years. In addition to her degree in organic chemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, she has a PhD in the History of Sdcience from the University of Pennsylvania. In her retirement, she returned to her first avocation, writing.. When she moved to Houston, Texas, she enrolled in the Novel Writing program at Rice University, including the advanced seminar, which helped her make the transition from scientist to fiction writer. The Bell File is her third published novel, after Astral Twin and Secrets of Adamant House. Tonja Koeppel has many interests which center mostly around her large family, including daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She loves to read, play the piano and travel to Switzerland where she still maintains a residence. The connection with her old home country has provided much of the inspiration for her novels and storylines which play with equal ease on this and the other side of the Atlantic.