MISSISSIPPI LIBRARY ASSOCIATION AWARD WINNER - BEST FICTION
A wrongfully imprisoned son. A grandfather with nothing left to lose. And a conspiracy buried deep in the Mississippi Delta.
When 79-year-old Shell Ferguson walks into a private prison to deliver the worst news of his life - his wife, granddaughter-in-law, and great-granddaughter are dead in a house fire - he expects grief. What he finds instead is a doorway into something far larger: a domestic terrorism plot stretching from the levees of the Delta to the bridges spanning the Mississippi River itself.
His grandson Cal, a wrongly convicted preacher serving time in a brutal for-profit prison, becomes both suspect and target. As Shell digs through arson evidence, prison politics, and a governor's office suddenly paying close attention, father and grandson are pulled into a race against extremists who will stop at nothing - including a daring prison escape - to protect their secret.
Written by a licensed psychologist and former prison chaplain, The Prison moves with the authenticity of lived experience and the atmosphere of classic Southern literary fiction - in the tradition of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy, filtered through a fast-paced conspiracy thriller. It's the story of what a family will risk to protect its own, and what one old man is capable of when everything else has already been taken from him.
A standalone sequel to the award-winning Land Where My Fathers Died, but a complete story on its own.
Perfect for readers of: Southern literary fiction, faith-inflected family drama, and slow-burn conspiracy thrillers.