2018-03-06
An alcoholic estate clearer without an investigator's license agrees anyway to search for a missing addict who's anything but.Halfway through his life, Jay Porter already seems to have blown it all. An ex-insurance claims investigator, ex-drinker, and ex-husband, he's fighting to stay sober and avoid becoming an ex-father to Aiden, the 6-year-old son whose custody he lost when his marriage ended. When his high school classmate Amy Lupus emerges from the shadows of an AA meeting to ask him to look for her sister Emily, who checked out of the Coos County Center against medical advice, Porter (Give Up the Dead, 2017, etc.) doesn't think of the job as another chance at redemption, or even as a fat paycheck, but as chance to stick it to Adam and Michael Lombardi, the politically ambitious brothers who run the Coos County Center. For what it's worth, he's right about the redemption part. He has no trouble figuring out that Emily was faking her addiction in order to get access to the Lombardis' facility for an exposé she was writing under the mentorship of Paul Grogan, a reporter for the Berlin Patch. But that's where the trail ends. Grogan's no longer working for the Patch; Emily is found with her neck broken at the base of Lamentation Mountain; and the only person Porter ends up getting close to is his client, with whom he enjoys some torrid interludes before she and Dan, the heroin-using boyfriend who wants to be called Hooch, are found dead of overdoses themselves. With so many of the frail ties holding him to Earth severed, Porter's chances of exposing the nasty doings of the Lombardi brothers look slimmer than ever.The lack of surprise, suspense, and even much action makes this entry more depressing than cathartic. Give Clifford an A for alcoholic rumination, B-minus for character development, and D for plotting.
An estate recycler picks up the fragments of his life by helping others to pick up theirs. What a brilliant noir concept. And Broken Ground, the newest addition to the terrific Jay Porter series, has brilliant writing to match . . . The depth of the characters. The vividness of the New Hampshire winter setting. The importance of the novel's theme. Joe Clifford’s a crime writer to pay attention to.” —David Morrell, New York Times best-selling author
“Joe Clifford's latest in the Jay Porter series is a tense, emotional tour de force ferried along on a mystery that's both timely and chilling. Don't miss this!” —Jamie Mason, author of Three Graves Full
“Clifford's edgy prose and masterful pacing, combined with flawed and profoundly human Jay Porter at the helm, make Broken Ground irresistible.” —Wendy Walker, author of Emma in the Night
“Joe Clifford writes with empathy, wisdom, and wicked wit about characters at the edge of society, sobriety, and their own tenuous sanity. Broken Ground is a feast, and Jay Porter is a unique noir hero who shines brightly in a dark world.” —Nick Petrie, author of Light It Up
Praise for the Jay Porter Series “The writing snaps. The story crackles. The characters are achingly real.” —Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winning and best-selling author
“Gritty and gripping, with prose that cuts to the bone. Joe Clifford has crafted a modern noir that pulls no punches.” —Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author
“Joe Clifford writes the kind of books that I love to read, mysteries that not only make you think, but make you feel. He is a master at creating characters that bind to your DNA and stay with you long after the last page is turned.” —Allen Eskens, USA Today best-selling author
