Showing results by author "Michael Lister" in All Categories

Detective John Jordan thought he had put murder investigation behind him for good — his own good. Leaving Atlanta, he returns to Florida in search of the serenity that has so long eluded him. Until he witnesses the shocking and bizarre death of an inmate in state prison custody and is asked to find a missing mom by her young children. John realizes he can't run from his true calling any longer.

January 16, 1999: It was a magical night for a group of high school seniors in Panama City, Florida. They listened to Maya Angelou read poetry. They danced. They celebrated life. By the time they noticed their friend Angel Diaz was missing, it was too late - she was never seen again. Her boyfriend, convicted of her murder, has been in prison for 18 years. Their friends have never looked at each other the same way again.

The murder of retired priest Andrew Irwin begins like any other homicide investigation for sheriff’s Investigator John Jordan. But it is soon interrupted by an existential superstorm of apocalyptic proportions that threatens to destroy both John and his family. Can John catch a killer under such extreme and extraordinary circumstances? Will he live long enough to even be able to try?

A group of forty-something AAU moms have an adult slumber party to celebrate one of their birthdays in a mansion on Panama City Beach. The next morning, one of them is found dead face down in the backyard. Was it a drunken accident? Suicide? Or murder? Burke and Blade--are called in to do what the authorities couldn't--find the truth and bring a killer to justice, but to do so, they're going to have to use all their experience and wits and survive attacks from an unhinged Russian mobster, a corrupt Panhandle sheriff, and the influential people who want the truth to remain hidden. Can they ...

Four drunken young people climb a high bluff to their cliffside campsite on the Apalachicola River in the middle of the night. The next morning only three are still alive. How did the outgoing, fun-loving, and beautiful Blake Scott die? Was she murdered by one of her so-called friends to cover up being sexually assaulted, or did a jealous lover exact revenge? Though Blake’s suspicious death was ruled accidental by a sheriff's investigator working his first case, her family and friends believe she was murdered. But after five long years of failed private investigations and a stalled ...

Was Harper Ellis murdered or was it suicide? Harper Ellis had everything to live for—a promising career as a beloved elementary school teacher, a tight-knit group of friends, and a dream wedding on the horizon with her fiancé, Daniel Kessler. Life in her beachfront condo in Panama City Beach, Florida, should have been the start of her happily ever after. But on the evening of January 26, 2021, Harper was found dead—brutally stabbed twenty times in her own home. Daniel swears he left her alive just thirty minutes earlier. When he returned, the condo was locked from the inside, the ...

As John continues his investigation into the Atlanta child murders, he interviews Wayne Williams, investigates the disappearance of Cedric Porter, and uncovers a series of murders with devastating consequences. Can John Jordan unmask the cunning killer before he strikes again?

On the same weekend Janet Leigh Lester 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 is decades cold now, but a new clock is ticking, and John Jordan has one last chance to get it right. With no jurisdiction, no support, and no real hope of solving such an old, cold case, John isn’t taking no for an answer.

Can John Jordan solve an impossible murder committed in a locked cell right before his very eyes? Will he be willing to once he learns the price he’ll have to pay to do it? In one of the most baffling murder cases of his career, John Jordan actually witnesses the murder of artist Justin Menge and still has no idea how it was done or who did it. Attempting to balance his fragile reconciliation with his ex and this high-stakes investigation, John soon wonders if the life he’s hoped for is even possible. But as the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place, John is shocked and ...

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, The Big Beyond finds Soldier 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.

Someone close to legendary detective John Jordan is murdered and now he is . . . OUT FOR BLOOD! Lister’s sterling new novel, featuring empathic chaplain-turned–sheriff’s investigator John Jordan, finds Jordan nearing a turning point in his storied career. His longtime boss and close friend, Sheriff Reggie Summers, has lost a reelection bid and has just weeks to go in her tenure—and Jordan’s not a fan of her successor. Meanwhile, he’s thrust into a high-profile case. While investigating the brutal attack of two teenage girls, Ava Branch and Olivia Colvin, Jordan uncovers the ...

John has been like a father to her since she was 16. Now she is missing. He’s still grieving the loss of a close friend and co-worker and he’s not prepared for this. Carla Pearson vanishes from a river camp cabin after her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Mason Hayes, leaves her there following an argument. The cabin is only accessible by boat and beyond it are thousands of acres of jungle-like swamps and dense, nearly impenetrable woods. What happened to Carla and who is responsible for her disappearance? Is it Mason Hayes? Is it her ex, Easton Stevens? His jealous wife? Or someone John ...

John Jordan's first two cases in one box set. When John Jordan was 12 years old, he came face-to-face with the man who went to prison for the Atlanta child murders. Six years later, John returns to Atlanta to discover the truth. Innocent Blood is both a standalone thriller and the true first book in an electrifying series. And in Power in the Blood, John Jordan, now a prison chaplain in the Florida Panhandle, witnesses the bloody death of Potter Correctional Institution inmate Ike Johnson. But what exactly did he witness? Murder, accident, or suicide?

Find out Soldier and Lauren's fate in the thrilling conclusion to Michael Lister's landmark Big noir series. Walk the mean streets of wartime Panama City with Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, a wounded, woman-haunted knight errant in Michael Lister's resonant new noir series.

Atlanta Monster is a box set of two thrilling murder mysteries set in Atlanta during and after the Atlanta Child Murders. INNOCENT BLOOD John Jordan’s very first case is his most shocking and devastating. Discover the secret that haunts this legendary detective to this day. When John Jordan was twelve years old, he came face-to-face with the Atlanta Monster, Wayne Williams, the man who went to prison for the Atlanta Child Murders. Unconvinced Williams was responsible for all the murders, John returns to Atlanta six years later to discover the truth. As John battles his demons and embarks ...

A midnight call. A violent storm. A race to save a life before it’s too late. From award-winning author Michael Lister comes THUNDER BEACH—a high-voltage thriller set on the neon-lit, storm-lashed strip of Panama City Beach. The call comes in the dark A girl is in trouble. Terrified. Running out of time. Merrick McKnight picks up the phone—and can’t walk away. A former reporter with a past he can’t outrun, Merrick knows this feeling: the story that changes everything. This time, it’s not just a story. It’s life or death. The beach is packed. The storm is coming. The danger is ...

Tiana Capri, a young pre-teen girl from a good family goes missing on Christmas Eve. She vanishes without a trace from her locked house while her mom and brother sleep nearby, leaving no clues and little hope of finding her alive. Can John Jordan find her before it's too late? For the first time in his career, he enlists the help of his daughter, Johanna Jordan, who is a friend of Tiana's and who might just hold the key to discovering what happened to Tiana and the sinister forces behind her disappearance. Can the two Jordans save Christmas for Tiana and her family or will tragedy strike ...

It's a very John Jordan Christmas. When young mother-to-be Emma Oliver vanishes on Christmas Eve, her disappearance sends shockwaves through the quiet town of Pottersville, Florida. Sweet, beautiful, seemingly adored by all, Emma’s sudden disappearance raises more questions than answers. At the center of the storm is her seeming unaffected husband, Brady Oliver, whose refusal to make public pleas for her safe return quickly turns suspicion on him. Soon his composed exterior begins to crack. Why did he abruptly change his alibi? Why was his boat spotted near the desolate shores of St. ...

In the heart-pounding thriller Gone in the Night, seasoned investigators Burke and Blade confront their most personal case yet: the decade-old disappearance of their sister, Kaylee Walsh. On April 9, 2014, Kaylee, a promising 21-year-old psychology student at the University of Florida, vanished without a trace. After fabricating a family emergency, she left campus, only to disappear from a rural Georgia road that night. Witnesses saw her car crash into a ditch, but within minutes, she was gone—never to be seen again. For ten years, Kaylee's disappearance has remained one of the most ...

A VERY John Jordan Christmas! It's the most wonderful time of the year. And the most stressful. But John Jordan is determined to give his friends and family a very merry Christmas. In order to do so, he'll have to be the man his family and friends have come to expect him to be--a kind, wise, compassionate counselor, and an attentive father, son, husband, and friend--all while his own life lies in ruin. Can John bring joy to those he loves? Can he save Christmas and help his best friend to have a romantic and meaningful Christmas wedding? Find out in A John Jordan Christmas.