Michael Lister Books In Order

Publication Order of John Jordan Mystery Books

Publication Order of Burke and Blade Mystery Thriller Books

Publication Order of Clataclysmos Books

Publication Order of Daniel Davis and Sam Michaels Books

Publication Order of The Girl Books

Publication Order of Hitch Mystery Books

Publication Order of Jimmy "Soldier" Riley Mysteries Books

Publication Order of The Search for Meaning Books

Publication Order of Merrick McKnight Mystery Books

Publication Order of Remington James Books

Publication Order of Sawyer Payne and Kace Mason Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Michael Lister was born on February 11, 1968 in Tallahassee, Florida, and grew up in Wewahitchka, Florida. He is a screenwriter, novelist, and essayist who lives in North Florida. He writes mystery novels.

From the time he was young, he was captivated by story, and has a love of narrative and language that captured his entire imagination. Storytelling was an important part of his life, with the Florida Panhandle’s long oral history. It became a source of inspiration and meaning for him. He has graduate and undergraduate degrees in theology with emphasis on narrative and myth.
Like his character John Jordan, he worked as a prison chaplain, and was the youngest to serve in the Florida Department of Corrections. For close to ten years, he was a chaplain at three prisons in Florida’s panhandle. It was a unique experience that led to him penning “Power in the Blood”, his debut novel.

He has won two Florida Book Awards, one for “Blood Sacrifice” in the year 2012, and another for “Double Exposure” in 2009.

“Power in the Blood” is the first novel in the “John Jordan” series, which was released in the year 1997. Sometimes the difference between an accident, murder, or suicide can be indistinguishable.

Former cop, John Jordan currently works as a prison chaplain in the Florida Panhandle where he witnesses the bloody death of Ike Johnson, a Potter Correctional Institution inmate. What did he witness exactly? Suicide, accident, or murder? Jordan finds that in this closed society of captors and captives no act goes unwitnessed and no one takes kindly to a cop in a collar. He quickly finds his reputation, and his career, as well as his life, even, are at stake.

“Blood of the Lamb” is the second novel in the “John Jordan” series, which was released in the year 2004. John Jordan’s hunt for the peace that has eluded him for a long time is interrupted by a murder. He tries to be a good guy in a horrible place while he also tries to maintain his shaky sobriety. John investigates the killing of a seven year old adopted daughter of Bobby Earl Caldwell, an ex-con who became a televangelist. It was a murder that happened in John’s own locked office when Bobby Earl conducts a service inside the Potter Correctional Institution.

The unspeakable act, along with the investigation that follows it, is going to make John face his own beliefs and fears, causing this man of mercy to thirst for justice. Torn between the duality of both of his roles, cop and cleric, John has to attempt to figure out his identity and the killer’s identity. His past keeps haunting him in the form of troubling thoughts of failing and his ex-wife, Susan’s resurfacing.

Setting aside his distrust of the slick televangelist and his seductive wife, John has to ignore intimidation and resist all manipulation to locate a killer among a few unusual suspects. The list includes a teacher who has something to hide, a child molester, two killers, Bobby Earl himself, whose act of exposing his kid to such a risk makes him suspect him right at the start.

With all the private crises and the torturous experiences of a thoughtful and sensitive man who works in such a pitiless place, nothing short of death itself is going to end John’s hunt for the person who killed Nicole Caldwell. John looks to be pardoned from the self-inflicted life sentence he has been serving and exoneration from the burden of regret he is bearing.

“The Body and the Blood” is the third novel in the “John Jordan” series, which was released in the year 2010. Could you ever betray yourself for somebody that you love? Will John be able to solve an impossible murder committed in a locked cell right before his own eyes? Is he going to be willing once he learns the price he will need to pay?

John, in one of his most confounding murder cases in all of his career, sees the murder of Justin Menge, an artist, happen. He still has no idea who killed him or how.

John tries to balance the fragile reconciliation with Susan and the high-stakes investigation, and soon wonders if the life he was hoping for is possible. As the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, he is shocked, disturbed and faced with an impossible decision that is going to determine his future for him. Will John solve this case as well as pay the price asked of him?

“Blood Sacrifice” is the fourth novel in the “John Jordan” series, which was released in the year 2012. John, after a rather costly and brutal case, heads to a remote retreat center and comes across one of the most haunting cases in his career. The suspicious death of a young lady undergoing an exorcism.

While fighting a losing battle against loss and violence, he ends up on the shore of a coastal town called Bridgeport at St. Ann’s Abbey. It is a retreat center carved out of the slash pines of the Florida Panhandle. Leaving behind his regular duties, he is looking to find serenity here. He finds anything but in the place. The place is dedicated to religion, art, and psychology. The place is operated by Sister Abigail (a witty and wise middle-aged nun who supervises the counseling center), Kathryn Kennedy (who is an acclaimed novelist that is responsible for artistic conferences and studies), and Father Thomas Scott (a devout and earnest middle-aged priest).

During counseling with Sister Abigail as a result of his self-destructive behavior and depression, John resists his urge to investigate when a young boy’s body, one who was staying at St. Ann’s, is found in the Gulf. Sister Abigail convinces him that it is not his career or his pride or even his marriage that he is trying to save, but his soul.

Father Thomas, the only one who appears could have killed her, says that Tammy’s murder was the work of the demons inside of her. A skeptical Jordan believes it was a human culprit with a much more earthly motive.