A False Dawn

Sean O'Brien couldn't remember the last time he made a promise and then broke it.  Many years ago his grandfather had taught him a "man's word is his bond."

It's a personal code--a way O'Brien conducts his life.  He has every intention of keeping the promise he makes to wife, Sherri, right before her death.

After Sherri dies, O'Brien leaves his career as a homicide investigator with the Miami PD and relocates to a remote section of Florida wilderness on the banks of the St. Johns River.

He's restoring an old home and trying to rebuild his life when he discovers a young woman badly beaten and left for dead near the alligator-infested river.  She whispers a cryptic message in O'Brien's ear, and he makes a promise to her.

It's an accord O'Brien believes the local police will fulfill.  But when authorities drag their feet on the investigation, O'Brien finds the promise he made to his dead wife is about to conflict with the promise he made to the woman who was savagely attacked.

Soon O'Brien is plunging deep into the dark world of human trafficking and sexual slavery.  O'Brien finds that an old case he never solved in Miami resurrects it's head on the banks of an ancient river and tracks him.

O'Brien is tossed into a deadly cat-and-mouse game where the only vow he can make is to stop an evil antagonist with a twisted, Godlike complex that's hellbent on sacrificing O'Brien to a greater cause.