Troublemaker
Esther Blackfeather has written 534 names in twenty-three years.
The prison keeps subject numbers, retinal scans, and transfer manifests. Esther keeps names, in black composition books from Dollar General.
When Black Hollow Correctional consolidates ninety-three federal witnesses under one roof, the machinery starts moving. A seventy-two-hour medication hold. A research study that forbids intervention. Thirty ceremonial knives handed out in the chapel.
Marcus Thompson is forty-two hours without his lithium. DeShawn Martinez decides to stand between him and whoever comes. Dr. Elena Volkova watches it all on sixteen monitors, with a report she hasn't sent.
Three taps on a tablet. A HOLD light counting down.
For readers of The Nickel Boys and Just Mercy.
Someone has to remember the names.
Content Note
Contains prison violence, a stabbing death, and depictions of untreated mental illness.
Featured Excerpt
“The prison keeps subject numbers, fingerprints, retinal scans, intake histories, transfer manifests, housing assignments.Esther keeps names.”
— from Troublemaker
Listen to Chapter One
Hear the opening chapter of Troublemaker, narrated in Gene Scott’s own voice.
Gene Scott's audiobooks are narrated using a licensed digital model of the author's own voice, created from his recordings and approved by him for each production.
