A False Dawn(2009)

Tom Lowe

Every legend begins with a choice. Sean O’Brien’s begins with a promise.

Sean O’Brien has never broken his word. It’s a code handed down by his grandfather—and the vow he makes to his wife, Sherri, just before she dies. When grief drives him to leave the Miami Police Department, O’Brien seeks solitude in the Florida wilderness along the ancient St. Johns River, restoring an old house and trying to reclaim his life.

But peace is short-lived.

Near the riverbank, O’Brien finds a young woman brutally beaten and abandoned. As she slips toward death, she whispers a message meant only for him. O’Brien promises justice—believing the system will do its job.

It doesn’t.

Forced to choose between the life he promised his wife and the promise he made to a dying stranger, O’Brien follows the trail himself. What he uncovers is a hidden world of human trafficking and sexual slavery—and a terrifying connection to an unsolved case from his Miami past.

As the river reveals secrets long buried, O’Brien becomes the target of a calculating antagonist with a godlike sense of purpose and a plan that demands sacrifice.

A FALSE DAWN is the gripping first novel in the internationally popular Sean O’Brien series—introducing a relentless hero, a haunting Southern landscape, and a battle between conscience and evil that will echo through every book that follows.