Prison Fiction

Today in history - March 21st, 1963 - Alcatraz Prison closes.  Here are 10 works of fiction involving prisons and prisoners.

All Chained Up by Sophie Jordan - There are bad boys and then there are the men of Devil's Rock . . .
Some men come with a built-in warning label. Knox Callaghan is one of them. Danger radiates from every lean, muscled inch of him, and his deep blue eyes seem to see right through to Briar Davis's most secret fantasies. But there's one major problem: Briar is a nurse volunteering at the local prison, and Knox is an inmate who should be off-limits in every way.
Knox feels it too--a shocking animal magnetism that drives him to risk his own life to protect Briar's. Paroled at last, he tries to resist her. She's too innocent, too sweet, and she has no idea what Knox is capable of. But a single touch can lead to a kiss--and a taste . . . until the only crime is denying what feels so right . . . Book 1 of 5 in the Devil's Rock series 

Black River by S. M. Hulse - When Wes Carver returns to Black River, he carries two things in the cab of his truck: his wife's ashes and a letter from the prison parole board. The convict who held him hostage during a riot, twenty years ago, is being considered for release.
Wes has been away from Black River ever since the riot. He grew up in this small Montana town, encircled by mountains, and, like his father before him and most of the men there, he made his living as a Corrections Officer. A talented, natural fiddler, he found solace and joy in his music. But during that riot Bobby Williams changed everything for Wes -- undermining his faith and taking away his ability to play.
How can a man who once embodied evil ever come to good? How can he pay for such crimes with anything but his life? As Wes considers his own choices and grieves for all he's lost, he must decide what he believes and whether he can let Williams walk away. 

Criminal Zoo by Sean P. McDaniel - Like millions of children, Samuel Bradbury comes from a broken home. Yet he still enjoys the everyday activities of being a kid: playing basketball, shooting his air rifle, and hanging out. Something else, however, exists inside Samuel--something that sets him apart from other children. He enjoys killing.
Samuel's murderous impulses follow him into manhood and his lethal actions ultimately land him in the Criminal Zoo--society's final answer to a problem as old as mankind. His days are filled with suffering, as visitors with revenge in mind are allowed physical interaction with the inmates. He exists in torturous misery and all hope is lost. Death, an unattainable early release, becomes his only desire. An unexpected guest, however, changes everything; a surprise visit will decide Samuel's fate. 

The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris - On a cold night in October 1937, searchlights cut through the darkness around Alcatraz. A prison guard's only daughter--one of the youngest civilians who lives on the island--has gone missing. Tending the warden's greenhouse, convicted bank robber Tommy Capello waits anxiously. Only he knows the truth about the little girl's whereabouts, and that both of their lives depend on the search's outcome. Almost two decades earlier and thousands of miles away, a young boy named Shanley Keagan ekes out a living as an aspiring vaudevillian in Dublin pubs. Talented and shrewd, Shan dreams of shedding his dingy existence and finding his real father in America. The chance finally comes to cross the Atlantic, but when tragedy strikes, Shan must summon all his ingenuity to forge a new life in a volatile and foreign world. Skillfully weaving these two stories, Kristina McMorris delivers a compelling novel that moves from Ireland to New York to San Francisco Bay. As her finely crafted characters discover the true nature of loyalty, sacrifice, and betrayal, they are forced to confront the lies we tell--and believe--in order to survive. 

Life or Death by Michael Robotham - Why would a man serving a long prison sentence escape the day before he's due to be released? Audie was sentenced to ten years for a Texas robbery in which four people died, including two members of his own gang. Seven million dollars have never been recovered from the robbery, and everybody believes Audie knows where the money is. For a decade Audie has been beaten, stabbed, and threatened by inmates and guards, all desperate to know the secret. The day before he is due to be released, Audie suddenly vanishes. The hunt for Audie, and the money, is on. But Audie's not running to save his own life--instead, he's trying to save someone else. In what promises to be his most popular thriller yet, Michael Robotham has created the ultimate underdog hero, an honorable criminal shrouded in mystery and ready to lead readers on a remarkable chase. 

A Pound of Flesh by Sophie Jackson - Haunted by nightmares of her father's street murder fifteen years ago, Kat Lane decides to face her fears and uphold his legacy of helping others by teaching inmates at a New York prison. There she meets arrogant Wesley Carter, who's as handsome as he is dangerous, as mysterious as he is quick-witted, and with a reputation that ensures people will keep their distance.
As teacher and student, Kat and Carter are forced to leave their animosities at the door and learn that one should never judge a book by its cover. As Carter's barriers begin to crumble, Kat realizes there's much more to her angry student than she thought, leaving them to face a new, perilous obstacle: their undeniable attraction to one another.
When Carter is released and Kat continues to tutor him on the outside, the obstacles mount. Can they fight the odds to make their relationship work? Will Kat's family and friends ever accept her being with someone of his background? And will Kat's discovery of Carter's role on the night her father died force them apart forever...or unite them?  Book 1 of 3 in the Pound of Flesh series

The Row by J. R. Johansson - When Riley was six, her father was sentenced to death for the murders of three women. Eleven years of appeals later, Riley has never doubted he was wrongly convicted-until he admits his guilt to her during a prison visit. Is he telling a white lie to help her move forward, or is he finally coming clean? With weeks left until his execution, Riley embarks on a mission to finally confront the truth of these murders and hopefully exonerate her father. Assisted by Jordan, a boy whose family is also connected to the atrocities, she unearths family secrets and as many hints to her dad's guilt as to his innocence. (Summary from School Library Journal)

The Sanctuary by Ted Dekker - THE SANCTUARY is the gripping story of vigilante priest, Danny Hansen, who is now serving a fifty year prison term in California for the murder of two abusive men. Filled with remorse, Danny is determined to live out his days by a code of non-violence and maneuvers deftly within a ruthless prison system.
But when Renee Gilmore, the woman he loves, receives a box containing a bloody finger and draconian demands from a mysterious enemy on the outside, Danny must find a way to escape.
They are both drawn into a terrifying game of life and death. If Renee fails, the priest will die; if Danny fails, Renee will die. And the body count will not stop at two.  Book 2 of 2 in the Danny Hansen series

The Sentinels of Andersonville by Tracy Groot - Near the end of the Civil War, inhumane conditions at Andersonville Prison caused the deaths of 13,000 Union soldiers in only one year. In this gripping and affecting novel, three young Confederates and an entire town come face-to-face with the prison's atrocities and will learn the cost of compassion, when withheld and when given.Sentry Dance Pickett has watched, helpless, for months as conditions in the camp worsen by the day. He knows any mercy will be seen as treason. Southern belle Violet Stiles cannot believe the good folk of Americus would knowingly condone such barbarism, despite the losses they've suffered. When her goodwill campaign stirs up accusations of Union sympathies and endangers her family, however, she realizes she must tread carefully. Confederate corporal Emery Jones didn't expect to find camaraderie with the Union prisoner he escorted to Andersonville. But the soldier's wit and integrity strike a chord in Emery. How could this man be an enemy? Emery vows that their unlikely friendship will survive the war--little knowing what that promise will cost him.As these three young Rebels cross paths, Emery leads Dance and Violet to a daring act that could hang them for treason. Wrestling with God's harsh truth, they must decide, once and for all, Who is my neighbor?

The Son by Jo Nesbø - Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny's been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don't know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit--or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he's serving time for other peoples' crimes.
Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest--all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo's crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he's happy to play the criminal and the prison's in-house savior.
But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison--and from the person he'd let himself become--and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first--the criminals or the cops?