by Susan Barker
First published 2025
Jake and Mariko miss their flight in Osaka and share dinner as stranded travelers. Their conversation reveals a disturbing connection. Both have watched beloved people descend into madness. In each case, a mysterious photographer appeared beforehand, then vanished without a trace. The incidents happened thousands of miles apart. Guilt drives Jake to follow Mariko's leads about this woman. He travels from country to country, collecting testimonies from people whose lives were damaged when the photographer arrived to take dawn portraits. His investigation leads him across continents, gathering evidence of the photographer's destructive wake. The trail finally brings Jake to the New Mexico desert, where he finds Theo, an aging sculptor near death. Jake hopes this dying artist holds the answers that might finally free him from his burden of guilt.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, adult-fiction, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, haunting, introspective, suspenseful
Tropes: chance-encounter, obsessive-investigation, road-trip, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Osaka, New Mexico, Desert
Paperback
Content warnings: death, mental-illness