Steven John’s Three A.M. reads like a dystopic Stephen King story, complete with a mysterious fog no one can explain that holds the key to a huge and chilling mystery. It’s the author’s first novel and a real page-turning thriller, luring you into the foggy world of former Marine Thomas Vale, who is now simply trying to survive in a world that is far different from the one he knew before.
The story centers on a city locked in by a thick fog for fifteen years, the end result of a pandemic that killed most of the outside world as far as the residents of this dark and gloomy world know. Vale, who now works as a private investigator to scrape by a living in a world where there isn’t much to live for, is enticed by a beautiful woman named Rebecca into an intriguing mystery that eventually puts him in grave danger as he approaches the truth about the fog—why it happened and who was behind it.
The closer he gets to answers, the more confusing things get and the further into danger he plunges. Eventually he finds his answers and is forced to make a decision that could change the lives of those who exist within the confines of the fog.
The book is surreal and haunting as it delves into themes of despair, hopelessness, secrets and conspiracies. Yet throughout offers a tiny light of hope through the thick fog that keeps Vale, and the reader, going until the very last page.
I excitedly await John’s next novel after this successful debut, which will stay on your mind long after you’ve closed the cover. You’ll look at the next foggy night in a whole new, and rather bone-chilling, way.