The Four Stages Of Cruelty

When an inmate goes missing inside a maximum security penitentiary, Corrections Officer Kali Williams is forced to come to terms with the cruelty and corruption around her. Ditmarsh Penitentiary holds many secrets in its walls, and contains every breed of hatred, self-destruction, greed and regret. Its inmates aren’t the only ones who grapple with these emotions. Under constant threat, yet given absolute authority, the guards routinely cross the divide between law enforcement and criminality.

Kali Williams takes pains to avoid the complicated traps of inmates and guards alike. But through the unreliable stories of a young inmate named Joshua, Kali comes to believe that an elaborate comic book drawn by the missing inmate contains information in its pages that has been the cause of the increasing violence throughout the prison. Following Joshua’s clues, Kali enters a labyrinthine world inside the prison with unexpected connections to the outside world. Along the way, she uncovers the most bewildering secret of all—the mystery of human compassion, the twisted forms it can take, and the violence and redemption it makes possible.

This morally complex, tensely plotted story leads to an explosive ending with no easy answers.