Hands Up

Officer Manny Jackson knows the streets of Baltimore inside and out--he grew up on them, badge or no badge.

For years he chased the rush of police work: undercover buys, gunfire, close calls, and the fierce loyalty of the brothers and sisters in blue who became his family. Then came one command he can never take back: "Stop! Hands up!"

In a split second of chaos, Manny fires. When the smoke clears, there's no gun in the dead man's hand--only a cell phone, a grieving family, and a question that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Indicted. Convicted. Locked behind the same bars he once guarded from the other side, Manny loses everything he thought defined him: his badge, his freedom, his family's trust. But in a prison cell, stripped down to nothing, he comes face-to-face with a Savior who never once looked away.

Told with the unflinching honesty of a man who lived every page, Hands Up is a gripping, true-to-life story of one officer's fall--and the relentless grace that met him there. From the chaos of the streets to the silence of a cell, this is a story about what happens when the hardest hands to raise are the ones lifted in surrender to God.

If you've ever wondered whether redemption can reach the darkest places, Manny's story will answer that question--and stay with you long after the last page.

-- John Lastner