BLOODSHED

A stark look at one of the tragedies of our time: school shootings.

Potter County deputy sheriff Chip Jeffers, Potter High School resource officer Kim Miller, and guidance counselor LeAnn Dunne agree: Someone’s planning a school shooting. Notes found in the boys’ bathroom remind LeAnn of Columbine. In a pre-emptive attempt to stop trouble, they notify the faculty; Chip calls on prison chaplain/sheriff’s investigator/recovering alcoholic John Jordan (And the Sea Became Blood, 2019, etc.); and Kim and LeAnn compile lists of the students they think most likely to carry out such a horrible crime. The names include Tristan Ward and Denise Royal, arty goth types putting on a pretentious, badly written play, and snarky Mason Nickols and Dakota Emanuel, the only students to make both women's lists. John reasons that the attempt will take place on the day of the play, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre. After police officers and teachers search the building and find nothing, the play goes off as planned. That night, at a local bar, a couple of nonalcoholic beers give John the yen for something stronger, and he falls off the wagon. The next morning, explosions and gunshots rock Potter High, and John, arriving eight minutes into the attack, rushes to help Kim, who’s wounded and alone. In the smoke and confusion John and Kim are fired upon by a student who's only trying to help and whom John shoots and critically wounds. Even after an investigation clears John, he can’t forgive himself, and he continues to drink. Despite warnings by his boss and attacks by the press, he won’t give up his attempt to identify the masked killers.

Every word rings true in this disturbing demonstration of how hard it is to stop a massacre even when you know it’s coming. The aftermath is heartbreaking and the ending a real shocker.