Sweet Hell on Fire: A Memoir of the Prison I Worked in and the Prison I Lived In

With a gritty, raw, and engrossing voice, debut author Lunsford splays out the facts of her dramatic life as a corrections officer at an all-male maximum security state prison. She’s separated from her husband and living in her parents’ house with her two girls when she accepts a job at a corrections facility that makes the TV show Lockup look tame. A self-proclaimed bad mother, daughter, and wife, Lunsford lives for a brutal job where she teaches the inmates not to mess with her. Disappointed in herself, she drinks herself into oblivion at night and then doggedly heads back to the prison. Full of expletives, slang, humor, and horror, she recounts her daily mishaps and near misses with sex offenders, serial killers and cold-blooded killers. This collection of transfixing essays turns into a tragic story when the author hits a violent breaking point that forces her to change the course of her life. Not for the easily offended or fainthearted, Lunsford’s daring book will thrill and titillate willing readers. (Nov.)