Beneath a Blood-Red Sky

The unsolved, real-life case of Lauren Agee is the inspiration for Lister’s excellent 26th John Jordan mystery thriller (after 2020’s Blood Pathogen). One evening in 2015, the same year Agee died, 21-year-old Blake Scott, after drinking with three people at a bar, ends up camping with them that night on a cliff near Florida’s Apalachicola River. The next morning, Blake’s companions—casual friend Bri Allen; Bri’s boyfriend, Brody Oakes; and Brody’s friend, Kieran McClellan—discover Blake is gone, though her phone, keys, clothes, and shoes have been left behind. That afternoon, her body is found floating, facedown, in a nearby river. The official verdict is accidental death, but Blake’s mother, Kathryn Kennedy, and others believe that one of the three who was with Blake that night murdered her. Years later, with the mystery unresolved, Kathryn asks Jordan, a county investigator, to reexamine the case, a fraught request given their past romantic history and her belief that Jordan’s father, who was sheriff at the time, botched the initial inquiry. As usual, Lister combines emotionally resonant characterizations with a crafty plot. This long-running series remains as strong as ever. (Jan.)