John Shannon is a petty thief on the run. A three-time loser framed for a murder he didn't commit, he knows the cops are closing in on him and that he's facing life in prison-or death by lethal injection. Then, as if out of nowhere, a bizarre text message draws him to a meeting in the dark of night. A foreigner who calls himself the Identity Man offers Shannon an incredible chance to start again: a new face, a new home, a new beginning. Soon Shannon finds himself living a life he never dreamed possible. In a ruined city trying to rebuild, he finds work as a carpenter and a wood carver. He meets the beautiful Teresa Grey and for the first time falls in love with the sort of woman who could make him a better man. It seems too good to be true-and it is. It turns out this ruined city is crawling with corruption. There are crooked politicians, gangsters, dirty cops everywhere-and, for some reason he doesn't understand, all of them seem to want Shannon dead . . .
