Behind the Series: Danger After Dawn
- Maggie Shayne
- Feb 23
- 7 min read
Formerly known as The Mordecai Young Series, this is the series that has the greatest villain I've ever created, Mordecai Young.
The idea for Mordecai came to me when the Branch-Davidian compound in Waco Texas was attacked by the US ATF and FBI, and burned to the ground with dozens of people inside including women and children. There was no need for the attack. Cult leader David Koresh went jogging and errand running regularly. The FBI could have picked him up at any time rather than choosing to launch an armed assault on a compound full of kids.
Anyway, it was 1993. I was 31 years old. I had sold my first two novels, but they hadn't come out yet. My girls were 14, 12, 10, 7 and 5 years old. When the assault on the Waco compound happened, I was riveted by news of it, which wasn't as easy as it is today. No internet to speak of, not for me anyway. No 24-hour news channels everywhere you look. No indie journalists on YouTube, no Substack, etc.
There's a pretty good mini-series adaptation of the seige called WACO, by Paramount, so look for that if you're interested. I watched it, of course I watched it. That whole thing was so messed up. I was pretty obsessed at the time.
I was fascinated, too, by the whole notion of charismatic cult leaders who convinced others to join them in their fantasies, or delusions, or lies. I'd followed the Jim Jones cult, and the deaths of 900 people (a third of them children) by drinking poisoned kool-aid at his command.
It's tragic, horrifying, but also a fascinating phenomenon to me. What did these men have in common? What makes them lead people to their deaths?
To dig around inside the head of such a person, I had to create one of my own.
Enter Mordecai Young, a spiritual man with a genuine gift. He sometimes sensed things before they happened, he had a powerful intuition, might've even been somewhat psychic.
He was also mentally ill. One of the manifestations of that was voices. Mordecai believed with his whole heart that God was speaking to him. He could not tell the difference between his genuine gift, and his illness
He owned a large piece of property with several buildings on it, and there he invited young people to stay. Everyone worked, everyone shared, everyone ate. And he had sex with a lot of them.
At least one of these dalliances resulted in a baby.
In my story, there's an attack on the Young Believers compound, much like the assault on the Branch Davidians 33 years ago. A fire starts, and it's chaos.
My main character, Jewel, grabs her best friend, the baby's mother, and together they try to find the baby to get her out, but Mordecai, the cult leader has already taken her. They head to the escape tunnels few of the Young Believers know about, and there they find Mordecai, the baby in his arms, trapped by a fallen beam. Jewel takes the baby, but the other girl won't leave Mordecai, and since they can't move the beam, Jewel has no choice but to leave them both to save the child. Behind her the place goes up in flames.
She gets away with the baby as the sun rises over the burning compound. Mordecai had called the baby Sunny, but Jewel names her Dawn.
16 years later, having raised the Dawn as her own, Jewel has become news anchor Julie Jones and she would do anything to protect her daughter. But Mordecai survived that long ago fire and he's finally returned to take his Sunny back.
To research for this story, I spent time at the WTVH-5 newsroom in Syracuse. I got to hang in the with the anchors and watch them prepare to go on the air. I learned the photojournalist–the guys with the cameras–were the real jocks of journalism. I learned a ton, and applied every bit of it.
In the book, Julie's nemesis is a radio shock-jock who gets hired as her co-anchor. He seems to know she has secrets from day one, and he's determined to figure out what they are. There's great chemistry in that book.
Thicker than Water has more than 1600 reviews on Goodreads.
Eventually, we learn that Julie was not the only survivor, and the series unfurls. One of the ATF agents who believes his bullet killed a survivor becomes the hero of another tale. The girl he thought he killed, instead went into witness protection. Now, today, he's sent to protect her when Mordecai Young resurfaces. Only he can't tell her who he is.
See, in relationships, the more powerful the conflict between the characters, the better.
And "you're the guy who shot me and you didn't even tell me" is a pretty powerful conflict.
Dawn, the baby rescued from the compound way back when, features heavily in this story too, as does the hero's teenage son Bryan, and the two start a relationship.
In Book 3, Darker than Midnight, Cassandra Jaskson finds an escaped convict hiding in the house that came with her new job at the local police department. He's an ex-cop who was tried for the murder of his pregnant wife and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He's escaped his psych hospital to prove his innocence.
And something in her eyes makes her believe him.
Dawn features heavily in this book as well. When her friend Cassandra is in trouble, Dawn's ability might be the only thing that can save her life. But by the end of Book 3, Dawn is traumatized by having visions like her father did, and terrified of being anything like him.
When my publisher asked me to continue the series with a second trilogy, I wanted it to be about Dawn coming to terms with being a power psychic. Back in those days I worked with a publisher that was becoming ever more heavy-handed. They wanted me to "dial the psychic stuff way back" and keep the spinoff trilogy strictly romantic suspense. I was told not to "muddy it up with paranormal elements."
Translation: Don't confuse the readers.
To be fair, suspense was selling a lot better than paranormal at the time. Hell, as far as I know, it still is.
So in Killing Me Softly, book 4, instead of making Dawn have to deal with being psychic, I made her have to deal with not being psychic. She has successfully suppressed her gift since leaving Vermont, having fled to the opposite coast. But Bryan, now a rookie cop, is in trouble, being framed for the crimes of a serial killer. She has to go home to Blackberry Vermont, and prays she can get her stuff back in time to help the only guy she's ever loved.
From there, I stuck in the same town, exploring the secret pasts of two other local women–secrets that might get them killed.
In Book 5, Kill Me Again, two teenagr boys joyriding find a body that turns out not to be as dead as they'd first thought. The man's been hot int the back of the head. A steel plate saved his life but not his memory. The only thing they find on him is the business card of local college professor Olivia Dupree.
Olivia has a secret past, with a powerful man who'd have her killed if he knew she was still alive. But this man isn't him.
The card found on this man has her handwriting on it. She'd sent it to the reclusive author she'd invited to an exclusive fundraiser. He'd never shown up, and this has to be him, a writer she's read so much he feels like a friend.
Or has she been corresponding with a hit man sent to kill her all along?
Finally, in Kiss Me, Kill Me, we follow up with one of the teenage boys who isn't who he seems. His mom, local doctor Carrie Overton, delivered him when she came upon his mother alongside a deserted highway on her way to her new life in a new town. Carrie tried to find the woman, and did. Dead, murdered. But now, the teenagers of Blackberry are going missing, and there are two strangers in town showing interest in her son. One of them is the hero, the other is a true threat, and she can't tell which is which.
The hero of this story is largely based on my beloved hubby, if he only played guitar.
Oh, and the big English Mastiff, a major character called Freddy, is entirely based on my beautiful Dozer Dog. He gets to be very heroic on those pages, my big sweet guy. Best dog ever. What a beautiful boy he was.
The series is some of the best suspense writing I've ever done. Lots of killers and twisty plots that'll keep you breathless and on the edge of your seat.
This series is "wide" meaning that it's in ebook everywhere. Barnes and Noble, Apple, Google, Kobo, Smashwords, Amazon wherever you want to buy it, you can.
These are also in paperback everywhere.
Danger After Dawn is a six-book series and it's complete.
Danger After Dawn is also available in a six-book omnibus with the entire series in one volume. That version is available in ebook only.
Danger After Dawn is enrolled in Kobo Plus, which means Kobo Plus members can read it free.
I am very proud of this series. I hope you enjoy it!
Before I let you go I'll offer a quick progress report. I have 2nd-drafted the first half of LONE WOLF so far. It's on track to be finished by week's end, and in the hands of my trusted editor for the first edit. After that, two more rounds of polishing, but this draft that I'm doing right now is the big one and it's where the story really comes together.
LONE WOLF will release on July 2nd. I'm super excited about this one. I think you'll love it!
There's no pre-order yet. We like to wait until after the first edit for that. It'll go up for pre-order around mid-March. And the paperback pre-orders will come a little bit later, after the final proofread.
The paperback will be available everywhere books are sold.
The ebook will be an Amazon exclusive and a Kindle Unlimited selection.
See you next time!
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