Product Description

Menace stalks the sleepy streets of Amethyst, Texas, in acclaimed mystery writer Steven Saylor's chilling novel of a young woman who goes home for a visit and becomes enmeshed in the search for a missing teenage girl. Menace turns to fear when layers of secrets and mistrust are peeled back to reveal a darkness deeper and more terrifying than anything the young visitor could ever have imagined.

Duty and love of her wheelchair-bound grandmother compel Rue Dunwitty to travel from her new home in San Francisco back to the quiet little Texas town where she was raised.

For Rue, arriving in Amethyst evokes the cozy comfort of returning to a safe haven where everyone knows her name and nothing ever seems to change. Then, in the window of the local grocery store, she sees a sign with a picture of a teenage girl and the question, "Have you seen Dawn?" Rue's bittersweet nostalgia is abruptly replaced by a growing sense of dread.

Dawn is the daughter of a single mother who recently moved to town. When Rue encounters Dawn's twin brother, she is disconcerted by his precocious, brooding intensity. Also unnerving is the change that seems to have come over Rue's old friends. Have they simply grown apart, or is there something more sinister at play?

Then, late at night, Rue sees a strange light in the field outside her grandmother's house, moving across the abandoned farm that once had been home to her father, from whom she is now estranged.

In short order, Rue finds herself confounded by a series of disturbing discoveries -- about the husband of her best friend from high school days; about the intentions of the town's handsome deputy sheriff; about her father, who moved away from Amethyst years ago but may have secretly returned; about her brother, who lives in Austin, but who seems to have taken a leave from both his job and his marriage; and about her boyfriend from San Francisco, who suddenly shows up in town and who seems not to be a stranger there.

Atmospheric and grippingly suspenseful, Have You Seen Dawn? is a thrilling novel of brooding menace, devious twists, and startling surprises. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

don't bother with this book
I can only say to those who gave this book high reviews and mentioned the excellent writing--"you have got to be kidding!"I have never started a book that I haven't finished, but I was sorely tempted by this one.The killer was obvious the moment he was introduced, while other characters appeared only as an artificial attempt to provide some alternatives.Sense of place and other atmospherics were straight out of a how to write a mystery text.I will definitely keep track of reviews by people who loved this book, and avoid their favorites in the future.This book was a total waste for me, and I got it from the library.

A very disturbing story, a bit too disturbing for my taste.
Ooooh, I really didn't like this one. It's not that Saylor wasn't writing a good book. I think most everyone who has read this book, would agree it was fairly well-written. Definitely a good plot, concise delivery of the mystery, okay development of characters. Only complain with the writing was the overuse of the main character's worries and thoughts was very repetitious.

I knew kind of where Saylor was going with this, and from the beginning of the book, he seemed to be capable of writing about this disturbing type of murder mystery that is way too close to real crime stories without giving agonizing details that I find disturbing. That was the problem. First it was a couple of uses of a swearword I find especially offensive after the middle of the book had been reached. From there on it went downhill until the middle of the second to the last chapter, where it was like the gates of filth were let wide open, that Saylor led the reader on with a decent mystery, then descended into the pit.

There is a reason I choose not to read true crime, and I find it disturbing when others do read them. I do read some forensic stuff, more medically inclined as I did do studies in the morgue when I got my neuroscience degree, but these are based on evidence and usually don't go way into the lurid stories that got these people killed. So I really don't appreciate it when a writer misleads me with what I thought was a regular mystery, and it turns into the kind of filth I don't really want to waste brain capacity on. It isn't entertaining. It's just revolting...

Karen Sadler

Good Made-For-TV Movie
I think Have You Seen Dawn would make an exciting made-for-tv movie. Throw in some creepy, eerie music for the soundtrack and use the desolate Texas Hill Country for the background and you'd have the audience on the edge of their chairs & gobbling up popcorn.

Have you seen Steven Saylor?
Because this sure wasn't up to his usual standard.He should have stuck with Gordianus the Finder.

This is a "damsel in distress" mystery. A woman from the big city (San Francisco) returns to the small town in Texas where she was raised, and where a girl has gone missing.

The culprit is obvious from the get-go. Who else but the studly lawman she falls for and who has come to this town from a city where he helped solve (wait for it!) a series of similar murders!

But, of course, in the interim just about everyone except her wheelchair-bound grandmother is thrown in as a red herring.

To give Saylor his due, he writes well and the tone is atmospheric and evocative. Unfortunately, the characters are cardboard and the plot thin.

Back to Rome, Steven!

Alright. It's probably a girl book
and I'm not either a girl or even a gay american but I liked it anyway.Just shows how versatile Saylor really is I guess. I got hooked on the Roman books before I learned that the author was a gay american and by then I had found out he wasn't going to bury me knee deep in homoerotica.
The story moves along very well and unlike some more prescient readers, I really didn't know who the killer was until pretty close to the end.

Good Book. Read it... but be careful if you drive through Goldwaite, Texas.The grocery store is on the east side of hwy 36 and there is or was an elderly lady there who launched her car across the highway every morning without a glance either toward Hamilton or Temple.She may be gone but the skid marks are still there-right in front of the store where she picked up breakfast. ... Read more

Product Description
A novel of Ancient Rome. History, legend and archaeological discoveries are woven into a spellbinding narrative. ... Read more

Product Description
A never-before-published collection of historical mysteries from today's top writers.

Bruce Alexander
Margaret Coel
Andrew Greeley
H.R.F. Keating
Peter Lovesey
Sharyn McCrumb
Miriam Grace Monfredo
Peter Robinson
Harry Turtledove and many others! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Yet more historical crimes
This was an enjoyable collection of historical crime stories, although not as good, I think as Mike Ashley's Historical Whodunnit collections. These are all new, and the Ashley works also include some classics.This is a trifle more literary, not necessarily a good thing to my mind. Most of the stories are detective fiction, but a few are simply short stories about grim events, which I didn't find as interesting. But I include the contents, so you can look and see if your favorite authors are represented.

CONTENTS: The Consul's Wife by Steven Saylor -- Merchants of Discord by Laura Frankos -- Farmer's Law by Harry Turtledove -- The Case of the Murdered Pope by Andrew Greeley -- Lark in the Morning by Sharyn McCrumb -- The Weeping Time by Maureen Jennings -- The Irish Widower by Leonard Tourney -- Smoke by William Sanders -- Episode of the Water Closet by Bruce Alexander -- Suspicion by Michael Coney -- Murder in Utopia by Peter Robinson -- Dr. Death by Peter Lovesey -- Dinner with H. P. B. by Eileen Kernaghan -- The Haunting of Carrick Hollow by Jan Burke & Paul Sledzik -- Howard by H. R. F. Keating -- Come Flit by Me by Elizabeth Foxwell -- Murder on the Denver Express by Margaret Coel -- A Single Spy by Miriam Grace Monfredo.

A Crime It Wasn't Better...
I purchase anthologies to get aquainted with new authors. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine generally satisfies my thirst for crime stories, but the whole historical aspect of this collection caught my interest. Overall, the book is pleasant, yet humdrum. Many of the stories were so brief you really couldn't get a feel for any of the characters and whatever clues were required to conclude each story seemed thrust forth eagerly in an effort to just end things quickly. Some stories shone more brightly than others--mainly due to the creative use of setting. I'm uncertain how accurate some of the details were for each of the eras represented, but all seemed quite plausible, creating nearly all of the charm the book possessed. Many of the stories came across as little more than tiny one-act plays with little time for humor or any misleading of the reader, thus making them instantly forgettable. If the authors are allowed more leeway to properly flavor the next collection, perhaps it won't be quite so bland. I'd rather pay more for a thicker book or read one with fewer authors penning longer stories than see another collection so forced and underdone.

Grat anthology
Fans of historical mysteries will have a very good time perusing the third collection in an excellent anthology series. Editor Sharyn Newman has accumulated a variety of superb stories that will satisfy most readers withits strong contents. The introduction written by talented Victorian mysteryauthor Anne Perry provides insight into the book, series, and overallsub-genre.

Many popular writers have contributed tales about theirfamous characters. Steven Sayor includes a new Gordionus story while BruceAlexander provides a well-written original story. Miriam Grave Monefredicombines her Civil War knowledge with a Viet Nam widow's loss. Jan Burke,known for her police procedurals and amateur sleuths has written ahistorical supernatural mystery. Even alternate history great HarryTurtledove has entered the foray. All the stories are entertaining and funto read, making this short story collection worth keeping.

HarrietKlausner ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 3166. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Fair Depiction of Catilina
I've read several books on Catilina (Lucius Sergius Catilina aka Catiline) and the alleged conspiracy against Rome.Steven Saylor created this yarn around the facts and gave a view of Catilina that was unbiased and refreshing.

Saylor kept the facts in tact, and showed that there is no definite way of looking at Catilina either as a good guy or bad.Whatever Catilina was, a political target for Cicero or a true conspirator against Rome is left debatable as it is in reality.Only a few points in the story seemed a little far-fetched, but I feel that the author did a wonderful job overall, and I enjoyed the story.Knowing I could trust that the actual facts from history were in tact, allowed tolerance for any part in the saga that seemed a reach.

From the Roma Sub Rosa series, I have adopted a new view on all of the Roman characters that I thought I knew.What I've learned is that I once held the strongest view of the strongest history teacher/professor at different points in my life.Funny that it took a series of fiction books to introduce me to the true facts of history, and though I've never been a mystery reader that I would discover: much of history is still a mystery. It's refreshing to see an unbiased writer who actually researches beyond what most feel necessary in order to give us laymen a realistic view of those in history we thought we knew for sure.

Psychological Thriller
Catilina's Riddle is an excellent and very different historical novel.As a former history major and student of Latin who loves detective novels, I found Catilina's Riddle compelling. This novel appears to be another investigation of Gordianus the Finder but it is so much more.The real inquiry in Catilina's Riddle is psychological rather than legal.It presents the historical, political and sociological tussle between the forces of Cicero, noted advocate and orator, and Catilina, a charismatic rebel who seeks control of the Roman republic.The struggles portrayed in the book are carefully researched and written.Saylor mined the speeches of Cicero and Catilina and analyzed many ancient writings of the period to uncover minute details of the events.Most of the activity takes place at or near Gordianus' rural estate, but the events transform the Roman state.

In this novel Gordianus grows in wisdom and self-awareness.His major mission is to function as a host for Catilina and a spy for Cicero.His primary task, however, is learning to understand the elusive Catilina, abide his contentious neighbors, and tolerate members of his own household.Gordianus grapples with his own inward anxieties.He relocated to an Etruscan farm to escape the pressures and chaos of Rome only to have the struggles follow him. Having uprooted his family he confrontstheir difficulties adapting to a new culture.City breed, Gordianus anguishes with the administration of a farm.

For a lover of history this is one of the most researched and footnoted historical novelsever written.For those who enjoy mysteries Catilina's Riddle is subtle but engrossing.For anyone who likes studying people and personalities, Saylor's descriptions of characters is intriguing. For people who love puzzlesthis novel is full of baffling perplexities.



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