Cover of Ashes in Neon by Rowan Draik: a woman in a long dark coat looks back over her shoulder in a rain-soaked alley. A cyan neon tube glows on the brick wall to her left, a fire burns in an oil drum to her right, and two surveillance drones hover above smokestacks in the distance.

Ashes in Neon

A near-future thriller

Coming soon

It measures how much you love. Then it decides whether you're a threat.

In the Ash Belt, beneath the glass towers of the Spire, the city's AI keeps the peace. Oracle scores every citizen. It flies the drones. It writes the police reports before the sheriff has read them. All he has to do is press his thumb to the glass.

Fifteen years ago, Lena Vasko watched from the mill rafters as unmarked vans took her brother. The file says he ran away. Now a girl has been pulled from the river with three curved marks cut into her palms, the same marks Lena saw that night, and the case was closed before the body was cold.

The only person who can help her dig is Kas Drobny: Syndicate enforcer, her brother's oldest friend, and the man sent to kill her.

Something is watching them fall for each other. It has been watching Lena since she was ten.

And it is learning.

About

Rowan Draik (Draik, with an i-k) writes near-future thrillers from Nebraska, where the land is flat, the sky is wide, and you can see a storm coming from a long way off.

Ashes in Neon is about a city that watches its people closely, and the few who keep looking back.

Updates

A newsletter for release news is coming soon.

Until then, check back here. Buy links will go up at the top of this page when the book is out.

Contact

For readers, press and rights inquiries:

rowan@rowandraik.com