Chase Zehl O'Byrne

The Red Dawn Chase Zehl O'Byrne

Admired clairvoyant and author Lily Paige and her sterling wife, Constance Sayer, a clever, sapient empath, comprise the partnership that is Midnight Raven, an eclectic library nestled deep in the lively French Quarter district of New Orleans. In a political climate beset with censorship and proscription, banned books, music and film have become a lucrative commodity lusted after by the bourgeoisie and the indigent alike. Society has degenerated into a swallow where otherwise innocuous books are being set ablaze by paranoid, deluded politicians to maintain an absolute grip on power. Time spent away from trafficking in literature is allotted to solving preternatural mysteries in association with Black Mirror Foundation, a multinational private society focused on exposing and rebutting fraudulent claims of miracles and demons alike. The charming twosome are known as mediators of last resort, and have scoured the inner cloisters of the social hierarchy, hoping to bring to light the fantastical fictions of a crafty and unordered nature. In the circles they travel, there is no margin for error, no forgiveness for failure, and, of course, no time for second chances. When a shady courier conveys a sealed letter parcel of questionable origin, the twosome seize the opportunity to investigate the mysterious dossier and the dismaying reality that seems to flow through its typewritten characters. The narrative that stems from the words chronicle a young man, himself entangled and estranged in an endless cycle of craving and temptation. Despite the potent sense of rationality that suggests otherwise, Lily and Constance agree to interview the boy with his parents to determine whether his demons are real or manifestations of a worldly illness.