Dane St. John

If Not for the Dawn Dane St. John

Eight people are on a perilous collision course in a world that never sleeps. Their individual journeys are the culmination of a leading neurosurgeon?s herculean efforts?ten years before?to save his dying wife?s life. His research results in a chance discovery that will later completely alter society when AltaMira Pharmaceuticals releases Vigorex, the most explosive drug in a century, one that manipulates nucleotides in the human mind in a way that allows people to sleep and experience R. E. M. while they're awake. Jake Paris is a former LAPD Narcotics detective who has come aboard a federal agency whose sole mission is to monitor the black market version of the revolutionary drug, which is controlled by a Latino syndicate boss named Isidoro Raimúndez, or ?Izzy?. Somehow, Izzy has discovered a way to mass produce his own version of Vigorex, a recipe that adds a cocktail of narcotics, making it cheaper and even more addictive than the prescription. Jake and his partner, Carlos Guzmán, are determined to bring Izzy's stranglehold to an end. They launch a rigorous, off-the-book investigation that will put their resolve and integrity to the test, and lead them to Izzy?s doorstep following a series of risky undercover operations. Meanwhile, a colorful cast of characters each begin to take the drug for their own personal reasons, including a CEO, a professional basketball player, an escaped North Korean soldier, and a blind piano tuner. Even Jake and his broken wife, Teri, are compelled to start on a Vigorex regimen together as they work through the heartrending tragedy they experienced a year before. She soon after blossoms into a world-class artist, but her success comes at a steep price. At first, all of these characters benefit from the daily dosage, which if not taken properly, will have hazardous consequences. But throughout the story, we come to discover that each of these people has undergone a deeply traumatic episode in their formative years, which will affect them in differing ways; murder, arson, kidnapping, vigilantism, among other crimes, will characterize their nightly personalities and send them crashing into one another, into Jake Paris, and into the dark world of the Raimúndez syndicate, as Jake?s iron will and incessant drive for justice ultimately leads him back to the man who unwittingly invented the drug and puts him at war with AltaMira Pharmaceuticals.