The Body and the Blood

📖 The Scoop

It's known as Protective Management, and it houses Florida state inmates who wouldn't survive in open population at Potter Correctional Institution. In it, ex-cop turned prison chaplain 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.While observing Catholic Mass in PM, watching 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, Justin Menge, is dead, his body and his blood separated from one another - just like a note sent to John had foretold.Justin, 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 first figure out how the crime was committed.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. When he 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 gunned down in the street, and carries for John the ultimate price - one he's not at all sure he will be able to pay.Michael Lister is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter who lives in North Florida.

Genre: Fiction / Literary (fancy, right?)