Ellery Queen Magazine review of THE BODY AND THE BLOOD
By Jon L. Breen
*** Michael Lister: The Body and the Blood, Five Star, $25.95. Florida prison chaplain and consulting detective John Jordan, a complex man of God who can be as violent as Mike Hammer (well, almost), investigates impossible murder in a locked and constantly observed cell. Meanwhile, he attempts reconciliation with his estranged wife even while yearning for his platonic girlfriend. The novel is solidly contemporary in its determination to pile more and more miseries on the hero but delightfully retro in its classical puzzle plotting, which will appeal to fans of John Dickson Carr, Edward D. Hoch, and other locked-room masters. Lister is one of the most individual and talented newer writers on the crime-fiction scene, with vivid style, ready wit, and a marriage of plot and theme.
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