Someone is following Lauren Lewis. She ducks into the office of PI Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, not to hire him, but to find out if he's the one following her. Back when they were lovers he told her if he ever decided to, she'd never know he was there.It's 1940s Panama City, Florida. The world is at war, and the growing Panhandle paradise is doing its part. Tyndall Field is training pilots. Wainwright Shipyard is building battleships. The Naval Section Base is protecting vessels in the Gulf. The Dixie Sherman Hotel is hosting celebrities such as Clark Gable.Harry Lewis, a wealthy banker, is running for mayor, unaware his wife is running for her life. With a secret to hide and a husband running for mayor in a city exploding and expanding like no other time in history, Lauren doesn't want trouble, but she's about to get a double-barrel full of it. Only one man can help her, and though it might destroy him, he doesn't mind. Better to die than be the walking wounded.

John Jordan returns to search for an escaped prisoner, a shocking murderer, and a sadist forcing his victims violate themselves--all while trying to take care of his family, friends, and the members of his very errant flock. Witness the 6th entry in what Florida Weekly called "a treasure of contemporary literature--suspenseful, provocative, and unsettling," and bestselling author Julia Spencer-Fleming says is "one of the most ambitious and unusual crime fiction series going. Read this and see what crime fiction is capable of."   

John Jordan is back—investigating eternal mysteries woven into the fabric of everyday life. Within the confines of seemingly ordinary cases, John explores the ineffable and inexplicable, the profoundly mysterious within the mundane. In this diverse collection of cases, John investigates the Shroud of Turin, a pregnant virgin, a daring prison break, a Hurricane Katrina orphan who might just be the Second Coming, a desperate woman who sleeps with one too many men, a bloody body on the rec yard, a mystery that turns on a single observation, and a murder in which John himself is the prime suspect—all this as he deals with depression and battles alcoholism. These stories are puzzles, whodunits, and enigmas, but they are much more. John Jordan doesn't just solve crime, he investigates the hidden heart of humanity and the mysterious world in which we live. Here are temporal answers and eternal questions, and at the center of it all, a conflicted man of faith and doubt, flawed, but faithful, who ministers mercy even as he thirsts for justice.

What really happened to Soldier and Lauren the night they left town? Did they survive? Will their love? What comes after saying the big goodbye? Is there anything out there in the big beyond?Someone's trying to kill PI Jimmy "Soldier" Riley. And he's inclined to let them. But before sleeping the big sleep and journeying to the undiscovered country to discover what dreams may come, there's blood work to be done.Picking up right at the thrilling conclusion of The Big Goodbye, Soldier is near death with one hell of a big score to settle and more than a few injustices to square along the way—all while searching wartime Panama City for a dangerous serial killer who combines art and murder.

From BooklistFlorida may no longer be the crime-fiction hot spot it was in the wake of Miami Vice (and the cocaine cowboys of South Beach), but perhaps the union’s most distinctive, diverse, and perverse state still boasts an impressive list of crime writers. This anthology brings together many of those writers to celebrate not only the state’s richness as a setting but also the special power of the short story. Included are James W. Hall, Tom Corcoran, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, James. O. Born, John Dufresne, and Jonathan King—names just about every fan will recognize and writers whose use of the Florida landscape is at the heart of their work. Also included are well-known writers, such as John Lutz, whose work is set in a variety of locations not limited to Florida. The quality of the stories is high across the board, making this collection of definite interest both to followers of Florida crime fiction specifically and to anyone who enjoys the hard-boiled and noir styles. --Steve Glassman About the AuthorMichael Lister is a novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright who lives in northwest Florida. A former prison chaplain, Michael is the author of the Blood series featuring prison chaplain/detective John Jordan. His second series features Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, a PI in Panama City during World War II (www.FloridaNoir.com). Michael also teaches college, operates a charity and community theater. www.MichaelLister.com

### Product Description It’s known as the Protective Management Unit. It’s a closed society within a closed society, housing Florida state inmates who wouldn’t survive in open population at Potter Correctional Institution. In it, John Jordan witnesses the most baffling crime of his career—a seemingly impossible murder he would swear could not have happened had he not seen it with his own eyes. John has come to the PM unit because of a note he received announcing a murder would take place during the Catholic Mass. As he observes the priest offering up the body and the blood, an inmate enters the unit, walks over to his cell, and is locked inside alone. A little while later, John notices a pool of blood spreading out from beneath the cell door. The inmate is dead, his body and his blood separated from one another. The inmate, a talented artist and quite possibly an innocent man, was sensitive and kind, just a few short days from parole. Who would want to kill him and why? Before John can answer these questions, he’s got to figure out how he was killed. Suspects abound, including the Catholic Priest conducting the mass, the two PM officers, the victim’s sister, who visited him just prior to his death—something she hadn’t done in four years—and a handful of inmates, one of whom was the victim’s lover. As the investigation proceeds, John uncovers crime after crime, and an openly racists family with plenty they aren’t open about. After taking a closer look at them, John’s best friend, Merrill Monroe, disappears. Attempting to balance his fragile reconciliation with his ex-wife and the high-stakes investigation, John is soon overwhelmed and wonders if the life he’s hoped for is even possible. Just when he think’s he can’t take anymore, a second disappearance brings with it the demand for a dangerous prison break and a daring exchange. When John finally figures out how the crime was committed and who’s behind it, an exciting climax follows that reveals the shocking solution, sees someone close to John shot, and carries for John the ultimate personal price—one he’s not sure he can pay.

Double Exposure A wildlife photographer’s camera traps capture the frame by frame commission of a crime. Now’s he’s running for his life deep in the river swamp. Lyrical, literary, told in poetic, photographic impressions, DOUBLE EXPOSURE is a page-turner with a soul. Includes a special Introduction by Michael Connelly!“DOUBLE EXPOSURE is absolutely riveting! Elegiac prose, insightful characterization and a wonderfully ingenious plot.” Michael ConnellyA Florida Book Award-winner, soon to be a major motion picture.Following his dad's death, Remington James returns to the small North Florida town where he grew up to assume his father's life — taking care of his dying mother and running the local gun and pawn shop.Picking up a camera again after a long hiatus, Remington returns to his first love, pursuing in earnest his lifelong dream of becoming a wildlife photographer.One fateful...

A haunting, unsolved murder.A father seeking redemption.A son committed to helping him get it.Did America’s most notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, kill Janet Leigh Lester?That’s the conclusion Jack Jordan, John’s father, reached back when he first investigated the case, but now he’s not so sure.On the same weekend Janet was crowned Miss Valentine at the pageant and Queen at the Sweethearts dance, she disappeared, her car found in an empty field, its interior covered in blood.The case, known as the Broken Heart Murder, is decades cold now, but a new clock is ticking and John Jordan has one last chance to help his father get it right.With no jurisdiction and no support and no real hope of solving such an old, cold case, John Jordan is not taking no for an answer.Once and for all, and before it’s too late, John Jordan is going to find out who’s responsible for the Broken Heart Murder and bring justice to Janet, redemption to his dad, and peace to all those still living under a cloud of suspicion and a shroud of sadness.  Poignant. Touching. Tragic. Cathartic. Blood Work is much more than a baffling mystery, it’s the story of a father and a son and the broken people they’re trying to help mend.