At Dawn, by Jobie Hughes
Here’s a little secret: this "debut" novelist has already sold millions of books!
With a writing partner, under the pen-name "Pittacus Lore," Jobie Hughes wrote I Am Number Four, a YA science fiction adventure about the last of a race of super-beings who were hidden on earth before they were hunted down and exterminated.
#4 was a huge success, and made into a Hollywood movie.
The protagonist of At Dawn is Stratton Brown-- no super-man, but a real man with a plight no less daunting. Brown is trying to make a go of it, leaving a small town on the brink of oblivion in the MidWest and moving to Chicago— or rather, the razor's-edge of the city.
He's an alcoholic womanizer. He has a mindless job that turns your stomach. He's- maybe-- got a girlfriend who might want a man even more fucked up than he is.
As he looks at his future, Brown is confronted-- no escape-- by a violent set of past deeds that aren't going to let him turn his head.
Powerful writing, that just doesn't let up.
Narrated by the excellent Jeff Woodman, who many of you may remember from Life of Pi.
--Willow Pennell