Blood Shot: A John Jordan Mystery

Lister’s uneven 15th John Jordan mystery (after 2017’s Cold Blood) alternates between new chapters chronicling the efforts of Florida investigator Jordan to solve the murder of photographer Remington James in the 2009 standalone, Double Exposure, and chapters from the previous book describing how James was hunted down after his camera, set up to record nighttime wildlife, recorded a murder instead. The Double Exposure excerpts suffer from too much abrupt staccato prose (“Shaking. Violently. Uncontrollably. Too cold to think. Body. Dead. Blink. Disbelief. Shock”). Jordan’s present-day narrative is weakened by his sappy relationship with his fiancée and predictable melodrama when his boss, Gulf County Sheriff Reggie Summers, orders him not to look at a crime Jordan believes related to the James case—the massacre of a bunch of corrupt cops. The addition of a sociopathic hit man nicknamed Hornet, who’s assigned to whack Jordan and Summers, doesn’t help. Lister is capable of much better, and fans will hope for a return to form next time. [em]Agent: Amy Moore-Benson, AMB Literary Management. (June) [/em]