CANR
WORK TITLE: AND THE SEA BECAME BLOOD
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.michaellister.com/
CITY: Wewahitchka
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CANR 318
http://fabulousfloridawriters.blogspot.com/2011/07/michael-lister-passion-for-panhandle.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married Pam Palmer; children: Meleah, Micah, Travis.
EDUCATION:Attended Oral Roberts University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and editor. Florida Department of Corrections, chaplain, 1993-2000; Triple Horse Entertainment, Atlanta, GA, senior staff writer; freelance writer, beginning 2000; Gulf Country Breeze (newspaper), Wewahitchka, FL, owner, with Jamie Lester, and writer and editor, 2003—; Gulf Coast Community College, adjunct professor. Founder of the Direct Effect Project, Michael Lister Ministries, Pottersville Press, Pottersville Productions, and the Mother Earth Fund.
AVOCATIONS:Rock, blues, and alternative music, basketball, reading, movies, art, religion, Mustangs.
MEMBER:Apalachicola Riverkeepers (board of directors).
AWARDS:Bronze Medal for General Fiction, Florida Book Awards, 2009, for Double Exposure; Florida Book Award, 2012, for Blood Sacrifice.
WRITINGS
Also author of the short story “The Wedding,” and the novella “A John Jordan Christmas,” 2019, both part of the “John Jordan” mystery series. Contributor of short story to Delta Blues. Reviewer at Sunshine and Crime website and Written Words website. Omnibus collections include Three Killer Thrillers, 2014; Six Page-Turners with a Soul, 2016; The Remington James Box Set, 2017; and True Crime Fiction, 2019.
SIDELIGHTS
Before becoming a writer in 2000, Michael Lister was the youngest chaplain to work in the Florida Department of Corrections. He has continued his work on behalf of those who need it through his ministry and nonprofit organization, the Direct Effect Project, all the proceeds from which go to support the incarcerated, hungry, and sick, and to provide educational support for children. Lister also teaches and speaks about writing, art, life, and religion. In addition, he founded his own publishing and production companies, Pottersville Press and Pottersville Productions, the names of which were inspired by one of his favorite films, It’s a Wonderful Life. He continues to volunteer in the prison system and is involved in environmental causes.
Lister is the author more than a score of crime and suspense novels in stand-alone titles as well as popular series, including the “John Jordan” mysteries and the “Jimmy ‘Soldier’ Riley” books. In an interview on Jen’s Book Thoughts website, Lister remarked on when he knew he wanted to become a writer: “From a very, very early age I knew I was born to be a communicator, but back then—in childhood and adolescence—I didn’t realize how primary writing would be. It’s the center of all my creativity, all my communication.” Lisgt went on to note: “I knew I wanted to be a writer long before I ever actually became one—had quite a few false starts. Came close in college, but it wasn’t until I was finishing up my graduate degree that everything finally clicked and I began to write fiction pretty much every day.”
Lister began a series of books featuring the character John Jordan with Power in the Blood, called “a promising first novel” by Library Journal reviewer Rex E. Klett. Mary Frances Wilkens wrote in Booklist that “this competent, authentic tale carves a nice niche for itself.”
John is a former police detective, now a prison chaplain, a flawed man of faith who does not believe in organized religion and who suffers from depression and alcoholism. In this story he witnesses what seems to be the death of a prisoner who was trying to escape, and he investigates to learn the truth. His progress is hindered by Tom Daniels, his former father-in-law and a state prison inspector, and helped by a nurse named Strickland, classification officer Anna Rodden, and Merrill Monroe, a guard who is his best friend. John fears that he may have contracted AIDS from the blood of an HIV-positive inmate, and he struggles to control his lust for Laura, a Federal Express driver. The plot becomes more complex with the death of a local banker.
The third book in the series is Flesh and Blood and Other John Jordan Stories, a collection of seven tales about seven different cases, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted “will appeal more to a Christian audience than general mystery readers.”
In one story a young virgin nun who flees Hurricane Katrina becomes pregnant, and in another John’s ailing mother asks him to investigate the healing properties of the Shroud of Turin. In a review for the Panama City, Florida, News Herald, David Vest noted that each of the stories “provides a separate character study of Jordan. That character includes a strong current of spirituality—whether he likes it or not. The current runs outside the prison walls as well as within, often bumping up against Jordan’s skepticism and strong sense of reason.”
In the fourth book in the series, The Body and the Blood, Jordan meets Tom Daniels, the father of his estranged wife, Susan. Daniels is the inspector general of the Florida Department of Corrections, dealing with a prisoner charged with raping his wife. When another inmate, Justin Menge, a key witness in the rape trial, is stabbed to death, Daniels and Jordan work together to find the killer. In a review of the work, a Publishers Weekly contributor commented: “A plausible resolution concludes this first-rate locked-room mystery.”
The series continues with Blood Sacrifice, in which Jordan’s marriage falls apart for a second time and he takes himself off to St. Ann’s Abbey near Gainesville, Florida, for counseling. However, he finds less than solace at the abbey, for the company that owns it and surrounding land want to develop the property. Then bodies begin to crop up. The first is that of a young man found by police nearby, whom Jordan has seen at the abbey. This is followed by the murder of a young woman near the abbey. A priest becomes the prime suspect, and Jordan is pressed into service by the small-town cop handling the case who feels over his head. “Lister creates a dark and complex combination of religious and environmental mystery,” noted Stacy Alesi in Booklist. Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that “well-handled plot twists complement one of today’s more psychologically complex religious detectives.”
The next series installment, Rivers to Blood, finds Jordan facing a panoply of challenges, including an escaped prisoner, a new warden intent on getting rid of his as chaplain, his father’s difficult election as sheriff, a sexual predator at loose in the Potter Correctional Institution, and a lynching. A Publishers Weekly contributor termed this series addition a “long dark night of the soul that appears to have no end.”
In addition to the “John Jordan” series, Lister is also the author of the 2009 award-winning mystery thriller Double Exposure. Remington James has a good life complete with a stable job and a happy wife, yet he feels unsatisfied. When his father dies, he moves back home to Florida to care for his invalid mother. There he rediscovers his love of photography, and he begins regularly venturing into the woody lands he inherited in search of the perfect nature photographs. One evening, while checking one of his camera traps deep in the woods, he discovers that the camera captured a gruesome murder only minutes before his arrival. Realizing that the killer must still be close by, James has to quickly figure out how to get out of the woods alive.
Larry W. Chavis, in a GenReview website review of Double Exposure, opined: “There is more to Lister’s book than a pulse-pounding thriller.” Chavis went on to note: “Lister writes with a style and grace that makes some passages almost poetic in their feel.” “Mr. Lister’s writing is stylistically fresh, frequently alliterative, and distinctive. Double Exposure is a wholly original and ultimately haunting work, and it is highly recommended,” remarked a contributor to the Spinetingler website. A contributor to Publishers Weekly lauded the “author’s sparse prose” but worried that the “pat resolution won’t win [Lister] many new fans.” Booklist contributor Steve Glassman characterized the work as a “spellbinding page-turner.” In her Reviewer’s Bookwatch critique, Gloria Feit found that “the novel is thought-provoking, while at the same time the author deftly maintains and steadily builds suspense”
In Lister’s 2010 novel Thunder Beach, Merrick McKnight, an out-of-work journalist struggling with the recent death of his wife and his stepson, travels to Panama City, Florida, in search of Regan, a married stripper with whom he is having an affair. Instead he runs into his stepdaughter, Casey, with whom he had lost touch. Casey, whom Merrick recently noticed on the cover of Thunder Beach, a magazine associated with the local biker rally, soon goes missing. When Merrick goes on a search for Casey, he encounters all sorts of scandal, including Casey’s possible involvement with a sex slavery ring.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly found the book somewhat disjointed and noted that “the idealistic note struck at the end jars with the atmosphere of grim realism” that pervades the rest of the book. Jim Winter, reviewing Thunder Beach for the online magazine January, commented: “Probably the most skillful bit of scene-building in Thunder Beach has to do with the bikers swarming Panama City. They are ever-present, loud, rumbling, a benign interruption in the normal life of the city.” Winter considered Thunder Beach “a poignant and lyrical noir story that’s as much about redemption as it is about shattered lives.”
Lister inaugurates a noir historical series with The Big Goodbye, featuring the private investigator Jimmy “Soldier” Riley, who works out of Panama City, Florida. Riley was formerly with the local police department until he lost an arm in a shotgun blast. Now he makes his living on the private side of law enforcement, but he feels none too good about not being allowed to be in military uniform to fight in World War II. His former lover, Lauren Lewis, unsettles him when she shows up in his office one day. Her husband is running for mayor of Panama City, but that is not what she has come to see him about. Instead, she wants to know if he is the one who has been following her. He assures her he has not, and once she leaves he naturally begins to look into the matter. But when bodies start appearing, Soldier becomes a chief suspect to his former colleagues on the police force.
Booklist contributor Thomas Gaughan noted that while Riley and Lauren are “intriguing, tormented characters,” the rest of the characters appear to be “straight from central casting,” with dialogue that is “pure 1940s crime film.” A Publishers Weekly contributor had a high assessment of The Big Goodbye, noting its “hard-edged prose ranks with the best of contemporary noir fiction.”
“Soldier” Riley returns in The Big Beyond, disconsolate now that he thinks Lauren is dead. He is saved from a Nazi torturer only to be abducted by Japanese who have escaped from an internment camp and want him to find a missing Japanese teenager. Soldier is also trying to track down a deranged artist turned serial killer in this series installment marked by “fine tough-guy dialogue and fascinating bits of WWII arcana,” according to Booklist contributor Gaughan.
With The Big Hello, Soldier is still on the trail of the serial sex killer, Flaxon de Grasse, who has now taken Lauren. Aided by his one-eyed buddy, Clip, Soldier—true to his name—soldiers on despite wounds and other setbacks. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that this noir thriller contains “several bangs and numerous homicides.”
Lister turns again to stand-alone fiction in the 2012 suspense novel Burnt Offerings. Here, northern Florida is being plagued by a psychopathic serial killer who burns people alive. The first such victim is found by former serial-killer profiler Daniel Davis, now retired, and is assigned to Samantha Michaels of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who once worked with Davis. As more burnt corpses turn up, readers are taken into the point of view of the killer to discover that these hideous crimes are targeted at Davis. “The murderer’s motive is not typical, and the leads are strong enough to warrant a series,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. Similarly, a Booklist contributor found this work both “grisly and gripping.”
Lister offers another stand-alone mystery with Separation Anxiety, a novel about twins, conjoined and other. Here, famous artist Taylor Sean has the scars of separation for a surgery that separated her from her conjoined twin, Trevor. The surgery, however, took Trevor’s life. Now Taylor is the mother of twins: Savannah and Shelby. Savannah was kidnapped at the age of eight, and now eight years later Shelby goes missing. A Publishers Weekly contributor was not impressed with this effort, noting: “Lister’s inconsistency is on display in this weak mystery.” Booklist contributor Don Crinklaw voiced a similar opinion, observing that “Lister is undeniably a talented wordsmith, but this time around, he’s not at his best.”
Lister collects his blog posts on film for his nonfiction book The Meaning of Life in Movies, a blend of memoir and criticism. Lister uses his reviews to reflect on the purpose of life as depicted by the movies. Lister is “frequently elegant writer, able to use his own passion for a movie to fill us with excitement about it,” commented Booklist contributor David Pitt.
Lister has also served as editor on several books, including Florida Heat Wave. Here he gathers eighteen Florida-themed stories of crime and obsession. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that ,despite some “mediocre” offerings, there are “enough top-notch entries to satisfy crime fans.” Among the latter is a story by Lisa Unger called “Wild Card,” about a waitress who catches a murderer in the act, and the “captivating” tale by James W. Hall, “Over Exposure.” Writing in Booklist, Steve Glassman found the “quality of the stories is high across the board.”
Lister reprises the protagonist of Thunder Beach, Merrick McKnight, for his 2014 novel, A Certain Retribution. McKnight returns to his North Florida hometown, Wewathitchka, where someone is killing cops with their own guns. Unexpected romance also greets McKnight, in the form of the lovely Reggie Summers.
A Publishers Weekly contributor found A Certain Retribution a “lame sequel,” further noting that “goopy sex scenes jar with the grim and gritty story line.” Online Foreword Reviews contributor Julia Ann Charpentier had a higher assessment, noting: “Spine-tingling, creepy, and just plain dangerous, the plot is positively frightening.” Charpentier further commented: “A forceful command of language and an admirable ability to edit out unnecessary rambling will make A Certain Retribution a prime choice for suspense fans.”
Lister returns to his series featuring John Jordan in other novels. The 2015 installment, Innocent Blood, serves as a prequel to the series, with Jordan an eighteen-year-old, just out of high school and wondering if he should follow in the steps of his sheriff father or pursue a career as a minister. In Innocent Blood, Jordan becomes involved in cracking the infamous Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 to 1981, in which twenty-nine African American teens were kidnapped and killed. Jordan is advised on this initial case by fictional detective Harry Bosch, the creation of best-selling author Michael Connelly, a personal friend of Lister’s and author of the introduction to Innocent Blood. Buried under Books website contributor Gloria Feit noted of this work: “John Jordan’s dedication to the task he has set for himself results in a well-plotted, well-written mystery, the resolution of which is stunning, and one which I for one did not see coming, and the novel is recommended.” A Publishers Weekly contributor was also impressed with this installment, noting that Lister combines a “compelling account of his hero’s spiritual struggle with a top-notch whodunit.”
The eighth series installment, Blood Money, finds Jordan investigating multiple murders, from a prostitute whose body is found with his card in her pocket to a string of suspicious suicides. “Lister again blends clever puzzles with smooth character development … [in this] engrossing … mystery,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Blood Moon sees Jordan at the peak of his powers as he struggles to save his love, Anna Taunton, who has been kidnapped. Jordan soon learns of the strange ransom demand: he must break an inmate out of the prison. Ultimately, both Jordan and Anna are on the run, one step ahead of a psychopath and prison personnel trying to cover up their crimes. A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that Lister’s own experiences working as a prison chaplain “bring authenticity to the tense story of a man forced to make decisions that go against his deeply held beliefs.”
Blood Cries takes readers back again to Jordan’s early development as an investigator. Jordan is eighteen and a student in Atlanta at a ministerial college and is still obsessed with the Atlanta Child Murders. He is convinced that the police have the wrong man in the case, focuses on victims whose bodies were never found, and “ultimately gets some surprising answers about the crimes,” according to a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Lister returns to his PI hero Jimmy “Soldier” Riley in The Big Bout, from 2015. This one involves several plotlines, including a war correspondent gone missing, a strange correctional institution, and a major boxing match involving Fighting Freddy Freeman whom Riley is hired to protect. Booklist contributor Don Crinklaw has praise for this work, noting: “Lister writes some of the best hard-boiled prose going,” and further remarking that “mood, setting, and language … are spot-on.” A Publishers Weekly contributor, however, was less impressed, observing that a “bit too much is going on in Lister’s loosely plotted … crime novel.”
Jimmy Riley returns in The Big Blast, set in 1944. Here, a boyhood friend, combat veteran Orson Ferrell, wants Jimmy to aid him in tracking down the girlfriend of their mutual friend Ernie before he comes back from the war. Things get complicated when a woman last seen with Orson turns up dead and when others want Jimmy to deal with a German plot to plant bombs in Florida. A Publishers Weekly contributor note that “as usual in the best of Lister’s work, the high points are small, moving glimpses of his characters’ inner lives.”
In 2016 Lister began the new series “Cataclysmos” with the first book in the series, titled This Is the Way the World Ends. The series features Lister’s alter ego, Michael, a mystery writer who gained notoriety with a series featuring the character John Jordan. In the novel, a catastrophe has sent America into chaos, and Michael encounters friends and enemies on his way driving south to see his family. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the protagonist’s “hairsbreadth escapes from death.”
Lister also continued to contribute to the “John Jordan” mystery series. In Blood Oath, Jordan and his wife are living in Wewahitchka, Florida. When an Army Ranger named Shane disappears at a town festival, police suspect his girlfriend, Megan Stripling, of being involved. Social media users quickly began to target Megan, calling her the Apalachicola River Ripper. A brutal murder of a teenage girl leads John, who works both as a prison chaplain and county sheriff investigator, to suspect a link to Shane’s disappearance. “The clever solution will surprise most readers,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor.
Blood Work revolves around Jordan trying to clear his dying father’s name. Jordan’s father, Jack, had his reputation sullied while serving as a sheriff in Florida, where he was accused of a cover-up. He was chastised for ignoring possible suspects while insisting the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for the murder of a high school beauty queen. Jordan sets out to clear his father’s name and solve the girl’s murder. A Publishers Weekly contributor decried the novel’s “melodramatic setup” and “heavy-handed prose.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor, however, remarked: “Conflicted characters and a shocking solution add up to an enthralling experience.”
In the novel Cold Blood, Lister presents a mystery revolving around the disappearance of a young political activist named Randa Raffield in 2005. Randa vanishes after a car accident and before the police can arrive. Jordan is assigned to the reopened case 12 years later following the creation of a podcast named “In Search of Randa Raffield.” A Publishers Weekly contributor noted: “Lister cleverly uses excerpts from the podcast to lay out theories of the case.” Gloria Feit, writing for MBR Bookwatch, called the novel “difficult to put down once started.”
Blood Shot features a new take on Jordan’s earlier efforts to solve photographer Remington James’s murder in Double Exposure. The novel includes chapters from the previous book. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the effort “uneven.”
Lister’s next contribution in the series, Bloodshed, takes on the theme of school shootings. When a Potter High School resource officer and guidance counselor suspect that a school shooting is being planned. They notify school officials, which, in turn, leads to Jordan called in to investigate. A list of suspect students has been created, and Jordan believes the attack will take place on the anniversary of school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. It just so happens that it is the same day of the school play. The attack occurs, however, the next morning and is carried out by masked shooters. John arrives on the scene while the attack is underway but ends up critically wounding a student. Although cleared of wrongdoing, Jordan is suffering from intense guilt and becomes intent on finding the killers.
“Every word rings true in this disturbing demonstration of how hard it is to stop a massacre even when you know it’s coming,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: “Lister adroitly combines suspense and fair play in one of the series’ best entries.”
And the Sea Became Blood finds Jordan discovering the body of a retired priest and a friend of Jordan’s named Andrew Irwin. The priest died of antifreeze poisoning, and when Jordan finds him the priest is in his underwear holding a crucifix. The story includes the impending and eventual arrival of a hurricane. “The author has bitten off more than he can chew,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. However, a Kirkus Reviews contributor called the novel “a brutally realistic look at the devastation hurricanes cause neatly melded with a mystery that keeps you guessing.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 15, 1997, Mary Frances Wilkens, review of Power in the Blood, p. 214. September 1, 2009, Steve Glassman, review of Double Exposure, p. 43; July 1, 2010, Steve Glassman, review of Florida Heat Wave, p. 35; September 1, 2011, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Big Goodbye, p. 47; February 15, 2012, David Pitt, review of The Meaning of Life in Movies, p. 9; March 26, 2012, review of Burnt Offerings; October 15, 2012, Stacy Alesi, review of Blood Sacrifice, p. 19; May 1, 2013, Thomas Gaughan, review of The Big Beyond, p. 16; October 29, 2013, Don Crinklaw, review of Separation Anxiety; September 15, 2015, review of The Big Bout, p. 29.
Kirkus Review, October 1, 2015, review of Blood Moon; March 1, 2017, review of Blood Work; April 15, 2019, review of Bloodshed; November 15, 2019, review of And the Sea Became Blood.
Library Journal, August, 1997, Rex E. Klett, review of Power in the Blood, p. 139.
MBR Bookwatch, Januarym, 2018, Gloria Feit, review of Cold Blood.
News Herald (Panama City, FL), November 12, 2006, David Vest, review of Flesh and Blood and Other John Jordan Stories.
Publishers Weekly, July 21, 1997, review of Power in the Blood, p. 188; October 2, 2006, review of Flesh and Blood and Other John Jordan Stories, p. 42; July 6, 2009, review of Double Exposure, p. 33; March 15, 2010, review of Thunder Beach, p. 39; June 21, 2010, review of Florida Heat Wave, p. 35; July 12, 2010, review of The Body and the Blood, p. 31; July 18, 2011, review of The Big Goodbye, p. 137; February 13, 2012, review of Burnt Offerings, p. 37; August 27, 2012, review of Blood Sacrifice, p. 53; September 16, 2013, review of Separation Anxiety, p. 31; January 20, 2014, review of Rivers to Blood, p. 35; April 28, 2014, review of The Big Hello, p. 116; September 22, 2014, review of A Certain Retribution, p. 52; March 9, 2015, review of Innocent Blood, p. 55; August 3, 2015, review of The Big Bout, p. 37; September 21, 2015, review of Blood Money, p. 56; May 2, 2016, review of The Big Blast, p. 34; March 14, 2016, review of Blood Cries, p. 53; September 26, 2016, review of Cataclysmos: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller, p. 69; October 17, 2016, review of Blood Oath, p. 54; March 13, 2017, review of Blood Work, p. 62; September 4, 2017, review of Cold Blood, p. 68; April 16 2018, review of Blood Shot, p. 74; April 22, 2019, review of Bloodshed, p. 81; October 14, 2019, review of And the Sea Became Blood, p. 49.
Reference & Research Book News, August, 2008, review of David Daiches: A Celebration of His Life and Work.
Reviewer’s Bookwatch, December 1, 2009, Gloria Feit, review of Double Exposure.
Style, winter, 2009, Patrick Scott, review of David Daiches, p. 605.
ONLINE
Buried under Books, https://cncbooksblog.wordpress.com/ (July 11, 2016), Gloria Feit, review of Innocent Blood.
Double Exposure, http://www.doubleexposurebook.blogspot.com/ (September 11, 2010), “Michael Lister’s Double Exposure Wins Florida Book Award.”
Fabulous Florida Writers blog, http://fabulousfloridawriters.blogspot.com/ (July 21, 2011), “Michael Lister — Passion for the Panhandle.”
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (February 27, 2015), Julia Ann Charpentier, review of A Certain Retribution.
Gen Review, http://www.thegenreview.com/ (October 4, 2009), Larry W. Chavis, review of Double Exposure.
January, http://januarymagazine.blogspot.com/ (May 1, 2010), Jim Winter, review of Thunder Beach.
Jen’s Book Thoughts, http://www.jensbookthoughts.com/ (December 19, 2008), “A Candid Interview with Michael Lister.”
Michael Lister, http://www.michaellister.com (December 12, 2019).
News Herald, http://www.newsherald.com/ (August 16, 2016), “Michael Lister Makes New York Times Bestseller List, Releases 2 New Novels.”
Spinetingler, http://www.spinetinglermag.com/ (July 22, 2010), review of Double Exposure.
Sunshine and Crime, http://www.sunshineandcrime.com/ (December 16, 2006), author profile.
About
New York Times bestselling and award-winning novelist Michael Lister is a native Floridian best known for his acclaimed John Jordan “Blood” mystery thriller series.
Michael grew up in North Florida near the Gulf of Mexico and the Apalachicola River in a small town world famous for tupelo honey.
Captivated by story since childhood, Michael has a love for language and narrative inspired by the Southern storytelling tradition that captured his imagination and became such a source of meaning and inspiration. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology with an emphasis on story, myth, and narrative.
In the early 90s, Michael became the youngest chaplain within the Florida Department of Corrections. For nearly a decade, he served as a contract, staff, then senior chaplain at three different facilities in the Panhandle of Florida—a unique experience that led to his first novel, 1997’s critically acclaimed, POWER IN THE BLOOD. Michael's books take readers through the electronically locked gates of the chain-link fences, beneath the looping razor wire glinting in the sun, and into the strange world of Potter Correctional Institution, Florida’s toughest maximum security prison.
Michael Lister
Michael Lister is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter who lives in North Florida. He is the author of the "Blood" series featuring prison chaplain, John Jordan (Power in the Blood, Blood of the Lamb, Flesh and Blood, and the just released, The Body and the Blood), a second series featuring 1940s Panama City PI Jimmy "Soldier" Riley (The Big Goodbye), and two thrillers, Double Exposure, a literary thriller set in the North Florida river swamps deep in the Apalachicola River Basin, and Thunder Beach, set on Panama City Beach during the annual biker rally.
Genres: Mystery
New Books
October 2019
(paperback)
Blood and Sand
(John Jordan Mysteries, book 23)
December 2019
(kindle)
A John Jordan Christmas
(John Jordan Mysteries)
Series
John Jordan Mysteries
1. Power in the Blood (1997)
2. Blood of the Lamb (2004)
aka Innocent Blood
3. Flesh and Blood (2005)
4. The Body and the Blood (2010)
5. Blood Sacrifice (2012)
6. Rivers to Blood (2014)
7. Innocent Blood (2015)
8. Blood Money (2015)
9. Blood Moon (2015)
10. Blood Cries (2016)
11. Blood Oath (2016)
12. Blood Work (2016)
13. Cold Blood (2017)
14. Blood Betrayal (2017)
15. Blood Shot (2017)
16. Blood Ties (2017)
17. Blood Stone (2018)
18. Blood Trail (2018)
19. Bloodshed (2018)
20. Blue Blood (2018)
21. And the Sea Became Blood (2019)
22. The Blood-Dimmed Tide (2019)
23. Blood and Sand (2019)
The Wedding (2017)
A John Jordan Christmas (2019)
Merrick McKnight
1. Thunder Beach (2010)
2. A Certain Retribution (2014)
Soldier
1. The Big Goodbye (2011)
2. The Big Beyond (2013)
3. The Big Hello (2014)
4. The Big Bout (2015)
5. The Big Blast (2016)
Daniel Davis and Sam Michaels
1. Burnt Offerings (2012)
2. Separation Anxiety (2013)
Hitch Mystery
Dial M for Matrimony (2014)
John Jordan Omnibus
Writen in Blood Vol 1-3 (2014)
Six John Jordan Mysteries (2015)
The Atlanta Years (2015)
Written in Blood Vol 7-9 (2016)
Written in Blood Vol 10-12 (2016)
A Compassionate Cop (2016)
John Jordan's First Two Cases (2017)
Written in Blood Books 13-15 (2017)
Atlanta Monster (2017)
Written in Blood Volume 6 (2018)
Double Shot (2019)
Blown Away (2019)
The Murder Book (2019)
Clataclysmos
0.1. This is the Way the World Ends (2016)
1. Clataclysmos (2016)
2. Cataclysmos Book 2 (2016)
Jimmy Riley
1. The Girl Who Said Goodbye (2018)
2. The Girl in the Grave (2018)
3. The Girl at the End of the Long Dark Night (2018)
4. The Girl Who Cried Blood Tears (2018)
5. The Girl Who Blew Up the World (2018)
Novels
Double Exposure (2009)
Omnibus
Three Killer Thrillers (2014)
Six Page-Turners with a Soul (2016)
The Remington James Box Set (2017)
True Crime Fiction (2019)
Collections
Another Quiet Night In Desperation (2008)
Novellas
Carrie's Gift (2012)
Anthologies edited
North Florida Noir (2006)
Florida Heatwave (2010)
Non fiction
Finding the Way Again (2011)
The Meaning of Life in Movies (2012)
Meaning Every Moment (2012)
Michael Lister
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Michael Lister (born February 11, 1968) is an American novelist of Florida-based mysteries, suspense, thrillers, and noirs. He has authored 32 mystery novels, most featuring his two best-known characters, prison chaplain John Jordan (Blood-themed series) and 1940s noir detective Jimmy "Soldier" Riley (Big-themed series). He has a total of 36 books in print. He won the Florida Book Award in 2009 for his literary novel, Double Exposure.
Contents
1
Early life
2
Career
3
Works
4
Awards, Honors and Critical Review
5
References
6
External links
Early life[edit]
Lister was born in Tallahassee, Florida, and grew up in Wewahitchka, Florida. Wewahitchka, or "Wewa", as the locals call it, is a small town well known for its tupelo honey, Dead Lakes, and Apalachicola River.[1] The Florida Panhandle has a long oral history, and story-telling was an important part of Lister’s life. Stories of the South, with its rich milieu of rivers, swamps, trains, red dirt roads, and Spanish moss-lined oak trees, inspired and ignited Lister’s imagination. That same compulsion for telling stories of the South and Florida still burn in Lister today. He has extensively studied creative writing and has two degrees in theology with selective study that focused on myth and narrative.[2]
Career[edit]
Lister, in the early 1990s, became the youngest chaplain to serve in the Florida Department of Corrections. For almost a decade, he served chaplain at three different prisons in the Panhandle of Florida: Gulf Forestry Camp, Gulf Correctional Institution, and Calhoun Correctional Institution. It was Lister’s experience in Florida prisons that prepared him to write his first John Jordan novel, Power in the Blood (1997). His other John Jordan novels include Blood of the Lamb (2004), Flesh and Blood (200), The Body and the Blood (2010), Blood Sacrifice (2012), Rivers to Blood (2014) and Innocent Blood (2015). Potter Correctional Institution, considered the toughest maximum security prison in Florida is the setting of the John Jordan novels.[3] Lister has written historical suspense thrillers. They include The Big Goodbye (2011), The Big Beyond (2013), The Big Hello (2014), and The Big Bout (2015). All are set in Panama City, Florida, in the 1940s during and after World War II. They feature Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, a one-time policeman turned private detective. His James "Soldier" Riley novels include The Big Goodbye (2011), The Big Beyond (2013), In a Spider’s Web (2013), and The Big Hello (2014).[4] In addition to writing several original plays and screenplays, three of Lister's novels have been adapted for the stage, Double Exposure (2009), The Big Goodbye (2011), and The Big Hello (2014), and one for the screen, Double Exposure (2009). A screenwriter and filmmaker, Lister worked for three years as the senior staff writer for Triple Horse Entertainment, the largest production company in the South. He was also the editor of the Gulf County Breeze, an old and respected local independent newspaper. His nonfiction books include the "Meaning" Series: The Meaning Every Moment (2012), The Meaning of Life in Movies (2012), and The Meaning of Jesus (2012). Lister's short stories have appeared in such collections as Delta Blues (2011), North Florida Noir (2006) and Florida Heat Wave (2011), which he edited. Lister’s literary thrillers include Double Exposure (2009), Thunder Beach (2010), Burnt Offerings (2012), Separation Anxiety (2013), and A Certain Retribution (2014). In the past several years, Lister's mystery novels have been inspired by true crime cases, including the Atlanta murders of 1979–81 (Innocent Blood 2015), the JonBenét Ramsey (Blood Ties 2017), Maura Murray (Cold Blood 2017), Ted Bundy (Blood Work 2017), Madaleine McCann (Blood and Sand 2019), Hae Min Lee (Blood Betrayal 2017 ), and others.
Works[edit]
The Song of Suffering (1995)
Why the Worst Sinners Must Be Saints (1996)
Power in the Blood (1997)
Blood of the Lamb (2004)
Flesh and Blood (2006)
North Florida Noir (2006)
Another Quiet Night in Desperation (2008)
Double Exposure (2009)
The Body and the Blood (2010)
Florida Heat Wave (2010)
Thunder Beach (2010)
The Big Goodbye (2011)
Delta Blues (2011)
Finding the Way Again (2011)
Florida Heat Wave (2011)
Blood Sacrifice (2012)
Burnt Offerings (2012)
Carrie’s Gift (2012)
Meaning Every Moment (2012)
The Meaning of Jesus (2012)
The Meaning of Life in Movies (2012)
The Big Beyond (2013)
In a Spider’s Web (2013)
Separation Anxiety (2013)
The Big Hello (2014)
A Certain Retribution (2014)
Rivers to Blood (2014)
Innocent Blood (2015)
Blood Money (2015)
The Big Bout (2015)
Blood Moon (2016)
The Big Blast (2016)
Blood Cries (2016)
Blood Oath (2016)
Blood Work (2016)
Cold Blood(2017)
Blood Betrayal(2017)
Blood Shot (2017)
Blood Ties (2017)
Blood Stone (2018)
Blood Trail (2018)
Bloodshed (2018)
Blue Blood (2018)
And the Sea Became Blood (2019)
The Blood-Dimmed Tild (2019)
Blood and Sand" (2019)
A John Jordan Christmas (2019)
Awards, Honors and Critical Review[edit]
Lister has won two Florida Book Awards: Double Exposure (2009) and Blood Sacrifice (2012).
New York Times bestselling and award-winning novelist Michael Lister is a native Floridian best known for his acclaimed John Jordan "Blood" mystery thriller series.
Michael grew up in North Florida near the Gulf of Mexico and the Apalachicola River in a small town world-famous for tupelo honey.
Captivated by story since childhood, Michael has a love for language and narrative inspired by the Southern storytelling tradition that captured his imagination and became such a source of meaning and inspiration. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology with an emphasis on story, myth, and narrative.
In the early 90s, Michael became the youngest chaplain within the Florida Department of Corrections. For nearly a decade, he served as a contract, staff, then senior chaplain at three different facilities in the Panhandle of Florida--a unique experience that led to his first novel, 1997's critically acclaimed, POWER IN THE BLOOD. Michael's books take readers through the electronically locked gates of the chain-link fences, beneath the looping razor wire glinting in the sun, and into the strange world of Potter Correctional Institution, Florida's toughest maximum-security prison.
AWARDS
New York Times Bestseller - POWER IN THE BLOOD, BLOOD OF THE LAMB, FLESH AND BLOOD, THE BODY AND THE BLOOD, BLOOD SACRIFICE, and RIVERS TO BLOOD
USA TODAY Bestseller - POWER IN THE BLOOD, BLOOD OF THE LAMB, FLESH AND BLOOD, THE BODY AND THE BLOOD, BLOOD SACRIFICE, RIVERS TO BLOOD, INNOCENT BLOOD, BLOOD MONEY, and BLOOD MOON
2010 - Florida Book Award - DOUBLE EXPOSURE
2012 - Florida Book Award - BLOOD SACRIFICE
Lister, Michael AND THE SEA BECAME BLOOD Pulpwood Press (Adult Fiction) $27.99 12, 10 ISBN: 978-1-947606-36-4
A detective sweats to solve a murder as a killer storm bears down.
John Jordan--sheriff's investigator, prison chaplain, recovering alcoholic, doting husband and father--(Bloodshed, 2019, etc.) is called to check on Andrew Irwin, a retired Catholic priest, after an anonymous tip claims he's dead. Before he reaches Irwin's former mission church, he receives a panicked call from Carla, the babysitter whose inability to cut ties with her addict father, who drops in at will, puts both Jordan's daughters and her own son in danger. Finally arriving at the church, he finds Irwin dead and Mary, his beloved mastiff, missing. There are no signs of violence, but there's a sweet-smelling plastic cross in Irwin's mouth. The manager of a nearby hardware store who saw Irwin the day before looking dizzy and pale sent Levi, one of her employees, to walk him home. Irwin evidently died a painful death from drinking antifreeze, an odorless, sweet-tasting liquid easily masked in many drinks. Irwin was a quiet man who had few enemies, none of whom seemed to dislike him enough to kill him. But Jordan conscientiously looks into every possible suspect before the approach of Hurricane Michael sidelines his investigation. Before he can pack off his wife and children to her mother's inland home, a hysterical Carla calls to tell him that while she slept, her father took all three children with him to check on his brother in Mexico Beach. Driving through unimaginably difficult conditions to the devastated beach town, Jordan enlists help from a pair of wannabe storm chaser twins who desert him just as he finds the girls. Feeling lucky to be alive, he returns to his ravaged town to ponder a murder that seems to have no motive.
A brutally realistic look at the devastation hurricanes cause neatly melded with a mystery that keeps you guessing.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Lister, Michael: AND THE SEA BECAME BLOOD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A605549613/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=08a229a1. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A605549613
And the Sea Became Blood: A John Jordan Mystery Thriller
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $27.99 (354p) ISBN 978-1-947606-36-4
A natural disaster, Hurricane Michael, hovers over Lister's underwhelming 21st novel featuring John Jordan, a sheriff's investigator in Gulf County, Fla. (after 2018's Blue Blood). After a teasing opening in which an unidentified person muses on finding the perfect murder victim, an anonymous call to the police leads Jordan to visit the home of Andrew Irwin, a retired priest he knows. Irwin is lying dead on the floor, clad only in his underwear and cradling a large crucifix, the victim of antifreeze poisoning. Jordan's by-the-book investigation fails to engage as he searches both for a motive for the crime and the tipster's identity. A domestic crisis involving Jordan's family distracts from the case, until the arrival of the hurricane, which completely dominates the book for chapters at a time, relegating the murder to the background. When Lister does return to it, the solution will disappoint series fans who have come to expect twists that are unexpected and plausible. The author has bitten off more than he can chew. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"And the Sea Became Blood: A John Jordan Mystery Thriller." Publishers Weekly, 14 Oct. 2019, p. 49. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603318984/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=77f55da6. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A603318984
Bloodshed: A John Jordan Mystery
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $27 (310p) ISBN 978-1-947606-37-1
The tension ratchets up early in Lister's superb 19th John Jordan mystery (after 2018's Blood Trail) when Chip Jeffers, a Potter County, Fla., deputy, asks John, an investigator for the Gulf County Sheriff's Department, for help in averting a shooting at Potter High School, John's alma mater. Two of John's high school classmates, Kim Miller and LeAnn Dunne, who currently work there, fear a massacre is being planned after a janitor found a piece of paper in a trash can with apparent references to continuing the revolution that the Columbine shooters began. Agreeing that the note is not a joke, the four of them rack their brains to work out the best way of identifying its author and thwarting the murderous plans. A student play depicting such a shooting is slated to be performed at the school, leading John to believe that the actual attack will be timed to coincide with the performance--and to debate over whether to let the show go on. Tragedy ensues. Lister adroitly combines suspense and fair play in one of the series' best entries. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (June)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Bloodshed: A John Jordan Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 22 Apr. 2019, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583735863/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4a1eb227. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A583735863
Lister, Michael BLOODSHED Pulpwood Press (Adult Fiction) $27.99 6, 10 ISBN: 978-1-947606-37-1
A stark look at one of the tragedies of our time: school shootings.
Potter County deputy sheriff Chip Jeffers, Potter High School resource officer Kim Miller, and guidance counselor LeAnn Dunne agree: Someone's planning a school shooting. Notes found in the boys' bathroom remind LeAnn of Columbine. In a pre-emptive attempt to stop trouble, they notify the faculty; Chip calls on prison chaplain/sheriff's investigator/recovering alcoholic John Jordan (And the Sea Became Blood, 2019, etc.); and Kim and LeAnn compile lists of the students they think most likely to carry out such a horrible crime. The names include Tristan Ward and Denise Royal, arty goth types putting on a pretentious, badly written play, and snarky Mason Nickols and Dakota Emanuel, the only students to make both women's lists. John reasons that the attempt will take place on the day of the play, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. After police officers and teachers search the building and find nothing, the play goes off as planned. That night, at a local bar, a couple of nonalcoholic beers give John the yen for something stronger, and he falls off the wagon. The next morning, explosions and gunshots rock Potter High, and John, arriving eight minutes into the attack, rushes to help Kim, who's wounded and alone. In the smoke and confusion John and Kim are fired upon by a student who's only trying to help and whom John shoots and critically wounds. Even after an investigation clears John, he can't forgive himself, and he continues to drink. Despite warnings by his boss and attacks by the press, he won't give up his attempt to identify the masked killers.
Every word rings true in this disturbing demonstration of how hard it is to stop a massacre even when you know it's coming. The aftermath is heartbreaking and the ending a real shocker.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Lister, Michael: BLOODSHED." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A582144211/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=41617a67. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A582144211
Blood Shot: A John Jordan Mystery
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $25 (346p) ISBN 9781-947606-04-3
Lister's uneven 15th John Jordan mystery (after 2017's Cold Blood) alternates between new chapters chronicling the efforts of Florida investigator Jordan to solve the murder of photographer Remington James in the 2009 standalone, Double Exposure, and chapters from the previous book describing how James was hunted down after his camera, set up to record nighttime wildlife, recorded a murder instead. The Double Exposure excerpts suffer from too much abrupt staccato prose ("Shaking. Violently. Uncontrollably. Too cold to think. Body. Dead. Blink. Disbelief. Shock"). Jordan's present-day narrative is weakened by his sappy relationship with his fiancee and predictable melodrama when his boss, Gulf County Sheriff Reggie Summers, orders him not to look at a crime Jordan believes related to the James case--the massacre of a bunch of corrupt cops. The addition of a sociopathic hit man nicknamed Hornet, who's assigned to whack Jordan and Summers, doesn't help. Lister is capable of much better, and fans will hope for a return to form next time. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (June)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Blood Shot: A John Jordan Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 16 Apr. 2018, p. 74. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A536532716/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e740f5fa. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532716
Cold Blood: A John Jordan Mystery
Michael Lister
www.michaellister.com
Pulpwood Press
P.O. Box 35038, Panama City, FL 32412
9781888146714, $27.99, Hardcover, 299 pp.
9781888146721, $17.99, Paperback, 304 pp.
From the publisher: On Thursday, January 20, 2005, the day of George W. Bush's second inauguration, Randa Raffield, a twenty-one year old student at the University of West Florida, crashed her car on a secluded stretch of Highway 98 near the Gulf of Mexico. The location of the wreck was hundreds of miles from where she was thought to be. A witness who came upon the scene moments after the accident testified that Randa was fine and not in need of assistance. Seven minutes later, when the first Gulf County Sheriff's Deputy arrived at the car, Randa was gone, vanished without a trace. She has never been seen again.
This is Book #13 in the John Jordan Mystery series. Jordan is, oddly, senior chaplain at the Gulf Correctional Institution, as well as an investigator at the Gulf County Sheriff's Department. Jordan finds "performing both jobs fulfilling, each rewarding in a way the other is not, each providing me with opportunities I feel called to ... but I can't see being able to continue both for much longer."
Jordan goes to the site where Randa was last seen, at the edge of an area called Panther Swamp, which goes on for miles and miles, and when you're there feels like the middle of a dense pine forest. "Less than seven minutes for her to vanish off the face of the earth--and stay that way for nearly twelve years now." The investigators see four categories of what may have happened: "Homicide, suicide, accident, or she went into hiding." All possible avenues are checked out, but they are no closer to an answer. Jordan thinks "I want to hear more evidence, want to go over all the evidence, want to explore all the possibilities." But he is told "we'd expect to find a body--in the bay or in the swamp--and no remains have ever been found." It appears that "she has literally vanished off the face of the earth." As the investigation continues, it appears that Randa was "outwardly perfect and inwardly troubled," with indications of cutting, compulsive sex and perfectionism, making things much more complex. Jordan's work is cut out for him, and the resulting novel is riveting as he unravels Randa's life and tries to solve the mystery of the coldest case in the Sheriff's Department. This is a book that is difficult to put down once started; in fact, I couldn't put it down at all--finished it the same day I picked it up!
Highly recommended.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Feit, Gloria. "Cold Blood: A John Jordan Mystery." MBR Bookwatch, Jan. 2018. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A526871192/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7e06e696. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526871192
Cold Blood: A John Jordan Mystery
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $27.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-888146-71-4
An unusual concept lifts Lister's solid 13th novel starring Florida prison chaplain and sheriff's investigator John Jordan (after Blood Work). On the day of George W. Bush's second inauguration in 2005, 21-year-old liberal political activist Randa Raffield is someplace she isn't supposed to be: Florida's Gulf coast. After she crashes her car while on the phone with her mother, she refuses help from a passing trucker. By the time the police arrive on the scene, only minutes after the trucker called them, Randa has vanished. Almost 12 years later, the still-unresolved case becomes the focus of a podcast, In Search of Randa Raffield, which leads John's boss, the Gulf County sheriff, to reopen the case and assign him to it. Lister cleverly uses excerpts from the podcast to lay out theories of the case and describe the people in Randas life as John works toward the shocking, but logical, truth. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Cold Blood: A John Jordan Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 4 Sept. 2017, p. 68. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A505468066/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7e790b17. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505468066
Lister, Michael BLOOD WORK Pulpwood Press (Adult Fiction) $27.99 5, 9 ISBN: 978-1-888146-70-7
A Florida prison chaplain with investigative experience reopens an ice-cold case that will change his life forever.John Jordan's troubles start with a phone request to rescue his drunken brother, Jake, from a bar. Jake used to be a deputy for his father, Jack Jordan, sheriff of Potter County. When Jack lost his re-election bid, both father and son were thrown out of work and feeling lost. But Jack has kept himself busy looking at cold cases, most recently the matter of beautiful, popular high school senior Janet Leigh Lester, whose car was found soaked in blood but whose body was never found. John's relations with his whole family, especially his father, have been difficult, but when he learns that Jack has cancer, he agrees to help him review the case, which scarred many lives. Jack suspected but could never prove that Janet was a victim of Ted Bundy, who was rampaging through northern Florida at the time and was even spotted at a gas station where Janet stopped the night of her disappearance. Many thought her boyfriend, Ben Tillman, was the real killer, protected because his father, the sheriff of Jackson County, called on his friend Jack to take over the case. Nobody has a bad thing to say about Janet. Her friends loved her; her stepfather, Ronnie Lester, thought she was an angel; she helped Verna, her frail mother, care for Ralphie, her mentally and physically disabled brother; and she was active in school, church, and the 4-H club. Her death left behind a group of people torn by suspicion and guilt. Despite the difficulties involved in solving a 40-year-old case, John is determined to help his father, unaware of how high the price will be. Set aside a block of time to read the 12th in Lister's series (Blood Oath, 2016, etc.), for it may be impossible to put down. Conflicted characters and a shocking solution add up to an enthralling experience.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Lister, Michael: BLOOD WORK." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2017. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A482911767/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b8ccb0bb. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482911767
Blood Work: A John Jordan Mystery
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $27.99 (278p) ISBN 978-1-888146-70-7
While Lister made John Jordan's probe into the Atlanta child murders plausible in 2015's Innocent Blood, he pushes his luck by having the clergyman sleuth's father, Jack, connected to the case of serial killer Ted Bundy in this subpar 12th series entry (after 2016's Blood Oath). Jack, a retired sheriff, has always believed that Bundy, who boasted that he did in more women than he was charged with killing, was also responsible for the unsolved murder of Janet Leigh Lester, a Florida high school beauty queen. While he was sheriff, Jack was criticized for ignoring another suspect--Janet's boyfriend, Ben Tillman, another state sheriff's son. With Jack dying of cancer, John resolves to exonerate his father of accusations of a coverup and solve the case. The melodramatic setup isn't aided by heavy-handed prose ("As if the day was crying for what was about to befall little Kimberly Diane Leach, rain drops fell out of a gray sky of clouds"). Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (May)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Blood Work: A John Jordan Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 62. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A485971635/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0acaa5d5. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971635
Blood Oath: A John Jordan Mystery; Book 11
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $17.99 trade paper (300p) ISBN 978-1-888146-68-4
Lister's 11th John Jordan mystery (after Blood Cries) starts slowly, but builds to a powerful conclusion. John and his attorney wife, Anna, have settled in Wewahitchka, Fla., where he works as a prison chaplain and as an investigator for the county sheriff. A pleasant afternoon with friends at a town festival turns tragic when 19-year-old Shane McMillan, who's training to be an Army Ranger, disappears. When the ensuing search for Shane is unsuccessful, suspicion falls on his girlfriend, Megan Stripling, with whom he was about to break up. Megan later becomes a target on social media, where she's dubbed the Apalachicola River Ripper. Meanwhile, the authorities fish the brutalized body of a teenage girl, attached to a cross by barbed wire, out of the river. Jordan fears that the girl's murder and Shane's disappearance are linked. Some family drama involving John's erratic ex-wife, who threatens to take their daughter out of state, dilutes the tension. The clever solution will surprise most readers. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary. (Dec.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Blood Oath: A John Jordan Mystery; Book 11." Publishers Weekly, 17 Oct. 2016, p. 54. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A468700035/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=97d3ce1c. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468700035
Cataclysmos: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller; Book 1
Michael Lister. Pulpwood, $17.99 trade paper (274p) ISBN 978-1-888146-65-3
In Lister's derivative, self-indulgent series launch, the author's alter ego struggles to survive in an America that has suffered an unspecified disaster. A man named Michael, who, like Lister, has written mysteries featuring prison chaplain John Jordan, has recovered from the injuries he sustained in the riots of Atlanta and is now driving south to reunite with his family in Florida. On his predictable journey, he encounters friendly strangers he can't trust, has hairsbreadth escapes from death, and gets glimpses of things that may once have been human--and are too formulaic to create tension or any genuine scares. Michael's tendency to behave foolishly may grate on some readers. For example, he wears an earbud to listen to an audiobook instead of being alert to danger. Others may have trouble with the staccato prose ("Foraging. Gathering. More heavy lifting. Preparing. Securing. Thinking. Always thinking"). Fans of Lister's superior John Jordan whodunits (BloodCries, etc.) may be disappointed. Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Cataclysmos: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller; Book 1." Publishers Weekly, 26 Sept. 2016, p. 69+. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A465558210/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cef119b0. Accessed 7 Dec. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A465558210