Jesse Damon Crime Novel

After serving nearly 20 years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon has been released, a home detention monitor strapped to his ankle. Determined to make it and mindful of his parole restrictions, he struggles with life outside prison. He finds a basement apartment, a job on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication plant and a few people who treat him like anybody else. Especially Kelly, a woman who works in the shipping department. He seems to be making it. Until Mitch, forklift driver on the shift, is found murdered in the warehouse. Investigating detective doesn't want to look any further than Jesse to close the case He's not fussy about the methods he uses to gather evidence. If Jesse isn't going down for this, he will have to be the one to figure out who killed Mitch-and why.

Jesse Damon has spent most of the last twenty years in prison on a murder conviction. Now paroled, he's trying to beat the odds and walk the straight-and-narrow with a pair of overactive cops watching him for mistakes. He's got a one-room apartment, a job working the overnight shift at a factory, and a sometimes girlfriend named Kelly. If he can just stay out of trouble, he may even be able to join the union. But when he pays his last respects to Mrs. Coleman, his foster mother, he discovers her death is being investigated as a murder. And he's the prime suspect. Jesse's life is getting complicated fast, with a group of religious fanatics in saffron robes opening a tabernacle in the abandoned pizza parlor over his apartment, problems at work, and Kelly's custody battle with her ex. It's a lot to deal with while he tries to find out who really killed Mrs. Coleman - and get the cops off his back!

Everybody knows snitches get stitches. Or worse. After years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse's trying to make it on the street, but nothing comes easy. He's always broke and the police figure he's a natural suspect for almost anything, even without Aaron trying to set him up. Jesse can't catch a break. His forklift at work is wrecked. His sometimes-girlfriend is furious with him. His basement apartment has a few feet of water in it. And it's still raining. Wait until his parole officer finds out he's been caught driving Aaron's pickup truck. Without a license. That alone might violate his parole and send him back to prison. Then when Aaron's body is found floating in the flooded stairwell of his apartment, prison looks like a forgone conclusion, unless Jesse can manage to steer the police in another direction.

The cops say surveillance video doesn't lie. But could they be mistaken? After nearly twenty years in prison, Jesse Damon is just trying to make it on parole. But nothing comes easy. The cops say they have a video of him breaking into an ATM. He's in trouble at work over a toxic chemical spill. A runaway wife shows up on his doorstep, dead broke and needing somewhere to stay. And his sometimes-girlfriend Kelly seems to have met someone new. Sydney. At an AA meeting, of all places. When Jesse goes to Sydney's office and finds his dead body, he's pretty sure the guy has been murdered. And that he will be the prime suspect.