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Have You Seen Dawn?: A Novel of Suspense Kindle Edition
Steven Saylor (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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When young Rue Dunwitty travels from San Francisco back to Texas to visit her wheelchair-bound grandmother, she quickly discovers that something is terribly wrong in the little town of Amethyst. Her unease begins when she see signs posted all over town with a photo of a missing high school student and the haunting question, “Have You Seen Dawn?” Then, in the middle of the night, from the window of the bedroom where she grew up, Rue see what appears to be a moving flashlight in the fields surrounding an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.
A series of seemingly small discoveries gradually turn Rue’s unease into dread. Someone in Amethyst is hiding a ghastly secret—and it seems that Rue is the person destined to uncover the awful truth. A web of white lies and unexplained movements make her suspicious of almost every man around her. Which of them was behind the disappearance of Dawn, and what happened to the pretty young teenager? Unless she can discover the truth in time, it looks like Rue will face the same harrowing fate…
“This is my most autobiographical work,” says Steven Saylor, “because it draws deeply on memories of people and places in the small town in Texas where I grew up. But the plot is pure contemporary suspense—a definite change of pace for me. As Gore Vidal said of one of his novels, this is ‘autobiography done with mirrors.’”
At once a literary novel, a murder mystery, and a story of romantic suspense, HAVE YOU SEEN DAWN? celebrates the genres to which it pays homage, even as it quietly subverts them.
*A “rocket of a read...with enough red herrings and things that go bump in the night to keep you entertained all the way...Yet the real pleasures of DAWN lie in Saylor’s rendering of small-town Texas. [The fictional town of] Amethyst is the true jewel here.” Austin American-Statesman
“Saylor essays something really different with a small-town Texas Gothic. Having escaped Amethyst to San Francisco, Rue returns to visit her aging grandmother and plunges into the drama of the missing teenager Dawn from the opening page....An interesting, offbeat book, written in a quiet tone despite its sensational subject and its twist in the conventional serial killer psyche.” The Poisoned Pen Booknews
Saylor “sets the hook early and keeps the plot in constant motion with well-drawn characters and a protagonist who doggedly pursues the task that unexpectedly becomes the mission of her visit home: Find Dawn....Enjoy it, with a cup of hot tea, on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” San Antonio Express-News
“Taut narrative, good characters, and a well-drawn setting: an enjoyable and suspenseful read.” Kirkus Reviews
“Saylor takes the pulse of small-town America without missing a beat. For anyone who hails from a small town, the incidents and atmosphere Saylor generates are spot-on; the darkness at night, the uneasy silence, the brittle layers of familiarity and affability that too easily vaporize, are all instantly recognizable. Against this unsettled background, Saylor calmly builds his story, part mystery, part bodice-ripper, and completely nerve-jangling, until you literally want (along with Rue herself) to scream from the tension. This cleverly constructed novel is a good thriller — too good to read late at night — and it keeps the reader guessing right up until the inevitable Texas showdown.” Wigglefish.com
“His gift for evoking a certain time and place is manifest.” Publishers Weekly
“Very atmospheric...the tension slowly but steadily amplifies until the audience is ready to jump out of their skin...a mesmerizing story.” TheBestReviews.com
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date18 January 2015
- File size1500 KB
Product description
About the Author
Steven Saylor writes murder mysteries and is best known for his Roma sub Rosa series set in Ancient Rome and featuring Gordianus the Finder.
Steven has been a newspaper and magazine editor, and a literary agent. Steven was born in Texas in 1956 and graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and Classics. He divides his time between homes in Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.
See also his website www.stevensaylor.com
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Product details
- ASIN : B00SGAS4G8
- Publisher : Roma Sub Rosa Press (18 January 2015)
- Language : English
- File size : 1500 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 416 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 898,382 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 18,360 in Women Sleuths
- 24,902 in Suspense Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- 26,934 in Women Sleuth Mysteries (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Steven Saylor is the author of the ROMA SUB ROSA series of historical mysteries featuring Gordianus the Finder, set in the ancient Rome of Cicero, Caesar, and Cleopatra. The latest book is THRONE OF CAESAR, in which Gordianus confronts the Ides of March, 44 B.C., and the most famous murder case in history.
There have also been three prequels—THE SEVEN WONDERS, which follows the 18-year-old Gordianus on his journey to the Seven Wonders of the World; RAIDERS OF THE NILE, in which young Gordianus, living in Egypt, finds himself drawn into a plot to steal the golden sarcophagus of Alexander the Great; and WRATH OF THE FURIES, in which young Gordianus finds himself in Ephesus on the eve of King Mithridates' mass slaughter of every Roman man, woman, and child.
To read the books of the ROMA SUB ROSA series in chronological order, begin with the prequels, and then ROMAN BLOOD, THE HOUSE OF THE VESTALS (short stories), A GLADIATOR DIES ONLY ONCE (short stories), ARMS OF NEMESIS , CATILINA'S RIDDLE, THE VENUS THROW, A MURDER ON THE APPIAN WAY, RUBICON, LAST SEEN IN MASSILIA, A MIST OF PROPHECIES, THE JUDGMENT OF CAESAR, THE TRIUMPH OF CAESAR, and THE THRONE OF CAESAR.
Steven is also the author of the international bestseller ROMA: THE NOVEL OF ANCIENT ROME and its follow-up, EMPIRE: THE NOVEL OF IMPERIAL ROME. These two epic novels comprise a multi-generational saga that spans the first 1200 years of the city, from Iron Age trading post to the height of the empire under Hadrian. A third volume (making this series a trilogy) is on the way.
Outside the Roman books are two novels set in Steven's native Texas. A TWIST AT THE END is based on America's first recorded serial murders, which terrorized Austin, Texas in 1885. The chief protagonist is young Will Porter, who later became famous as O. Henry. HAVE YOU SEEN DAWN? is a contemporary thriller set in a small Texas town; Steven calls it "autobiography done with mirrors."
Three "chapbooks" published as e-books collect Steven's scattered essays and short stories: A BOOKISH BENT; FUTURE, PRESENT, PAST; and MY MOTHER'S GHOST: THREE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ESSAYS & A SHORT STORY.
Steven's books have been published in 22 languages, and book tours have taken him across the United States, England, and Europe. He has appeared as an expert on Roman life on The History Channel, and has spoken at numerous college campuses, The Getty Villa, and the International Conference on the Ancient Novel.
Steven was born in Texas in 1956 and graduated with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and Classics. He divides his time between homes in Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas. When not using his brain, he likes to keep in shape running, swimming, and lifting weights.
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For me this read was less about the mystery than it was a nostalgic visit to my past with a bit of my current life thrown in for good measure. I grew up with Steven, his brother & sister and all the other Saylor cousins in our small Central Texas Ranching community. Little has changed since childhood ... and as far as I know ... there was never a series of missing girls taken by the hands of a serial killer ... or was there?
This was a pleasure to read ... now I need to get into his Roma series and see what all the fuss is about!
Thank you Steven for giving me a much needed vacation home!


Without giving away any of the plot, I will say that a really great murder mystery is one in which the reader has far too many suspects to count. Keeps you (and the feisty little protagonist) on your toes. Ending was satisfactory... if a little sad.