The One That Got Away by Joe Clifford

The One That Got AwayThe One That Got Away by Joe Clifford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"As bad as those three days and nights locked in the basement were, as frightened as she was, Alex could list fifty memories that had hurt as bad, had inflicted as much damage. But no one cared about those. They weren't as sensational. No one notices a life lost in the cracks. People can see physical injury. Busted arms and black eyes are tangible, quantitative. Emotional wounds are abstract, subjective. Broken bones heal. The other kind of pain lasts a lifetime."

Alex Salerno was abducted when she was 17 and was rescued before she could suffer the fate of several other abducted girls from the area in which she lived. Twelve years later, she is contacted by a college reporter from a student paper and questioned about the disappearance of Kira Shanks from the same town, which occurred five years after Alex's abduction. The interview awakens something in Alex and she returns to Reine to face her demons and seek fleeting redemption by solving the disappearance of Kira.

The above quote gets to the heart of the novel and to the heart of the dilemma of Alex's life. The abduction has come to define her life and in trying to find meaning she has burned virtually all her bridges in her hometown. After four years away she returns to find she isn't the only one self medicating through booze and pills to escape their problems.

The key to this novel is the combination of it being a great character driven novel with a intriguing mystery running concurrently. As well as Alex, the supporting cast is well realised and the lives of these smaller characters is hinted at even if they aren't part of the story for long. The other thing that struck me is that there was a tenderness and compassion to the plot and writing, which stood in contrast to some of the crime fiction I've read recently.

I've listened to at least three lengthy podcast interviews with Clifford and it's a wonder it's taken me this long to get to one of his novels. This was an unfettered delight.



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Comments

  1. June Lorraine Roberts14 May 2020 at 10:08

    I'm long a fan of Joe's work. nice to hear you've tapped into it as well.

    ReplyDelete

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