The Child of Second Dawn

When fifty-two-year-old James Hargrove dies protecting a young girl in a rainy Manchester alleyway, he expects his story to end there. But fate—or something greater—has other plans.



James awakens not in the afterlife, but in the body of a ten-year-old boy named Alex in a parallel version of Earth—one frozen in a strange, retro-futuristic version of the 1980s. London is familiar yet uncanny: double-decker buses roll past horse-drawn carts, rotary phones sit beside arcane typewriters, and rumours swirl of secret societies and disappearances the government won’t explain.



Taken in by a warm, loving family—a kindhearted mother, a wisecracking father, and an adorable four-year-old sister—Alex begins to adapt to this second life. But his memories of James bleed through in dreams and sudden flashes. And while his new world is filled with domestic peace, it hides a growing darkness.



People from the poorer districts are vanishing.



Alex discovers that many of the missing were children. Street kids. Nobodies. Just like the girl James once gave his life to protect.



Determined to uncover the truth, Alex is pulled into a secret war between ancient powers hidden beneath the city—forces that feed on fear, manipulate memory, and have plans for the boy with a soul too old for his body. As he unravels the mystery behind the disappearances, Alex must confront a chilling possibility: his rebirth was no accident.



He was chosen.



And the fate of both worlds may rest in the hands of a boy who remembers dying.