Leaping Into the Abyss

By Christopher CJX Joseph

Nadonis Sebastian has become unglued.
In 2020, Nadonis was living the good life: a happily married mother of three beautiful children, a vast, lovely home, and a blossoming career as an assistant prosecutor in Cincinnati, Ohio, with rumors of eventually becoming a prosecutor. All of this was impressive for a young African American millennial woman from small-town Ohio-until she abruptly died on February 29, 2020.
As cracks in her perfect life unravel, they expose loose threads of her disgraced husband, Cecil Sebastian's political entanglements and eventual downfall. His corruption intertwines with head prosecutor Christian Phillip's controlling entitlement and conniving ways, leading his band of cronies who disrupt her life. Alienated from her sulking, depressed husband, Nadonis spends considerable time with county aide Mitchell Gardner.
Then, during a peaceful winter bicycle ride, the unthinkable happens: Nadonis and Mitchell are violently run off a bridge by a vengeful person, perishing in the raging current of the icy Mad River below.
She abruptly awakens four years later, on February 29, 2024. Confused and all alone in her SUV, she is wearing warm, fluffy pajamas. Her cell phone service is down, and a centimeter of dust is on her dash. Adding to her confusion, she is parked on the wrong side of the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge, 225 feet over the Little Miami River, facing south on the northbound shoulder.
What happens next is seemingly guided by unseen spirits as Nadonis learns a hard lesson about life through a series of unfounded events.
Act I serves as her wake-up call, as Leap Day 2024 rewinds itself seven times-aka the Groundhog Day effect-until her guardian angel, Grandma Haddox, whispers to her from the great unknown and guides her into action to solve Mitchell's murder and her would-be killer.
Act II is about reconnecting with lost friends and family as she wrestles with the fact that she is officially (on paper) deceased. Her Social Security number is invalid, her bank accounts are closed, and her identification has expired. She does not exist, yet somehow, here she is. Her children don't even recognize her, and Cecil has remarried a mysterious and vindictive woman named Jocelyn Sebastian To make matters worse, the mismatched detective duo Shiloh Zarantos and Fendi Alexanders analyze her every move regarding how she fits into the suspicious death of her partner, Mitchell, as the cold case reopens, with her now as the prime suspect for possible murder. So, what else is there to do? She must utilize her skills to reckon with these life-changing events as she seeks justice to solve this whodunit alone
Act III: Nadonis teams up with her sister Athena Haddox and college best friend Lisa Melvoin to stay one step ahead of the police. Time is running out as she gets closer to the truth while also fending off several more attempts on her life. Additional bodies start turning up dead as she receives unexpected help from renegade tabloid journalist Malala Shafi, hapless hero and local jazz musician Dwight Jukebox Jr., and her estranged brother Horus Haddox, who provides a glimpse into his outrageous journey.
Returning to their grandmother's house, where it all started, Nadonis and her team face the ghosts of her past, the secrets that won't die, and the larger conspiracy lurking behind them. Meanwhile, an unknown assailant stalks them from across the river.

In life's journey from dawn to dusk, a chosen few experience a reset, a rewind, a reemergence from the dark.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DSCY6RZS
• ISBN13: 9798305495775
• Release Date: January 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"