Thursday, February 1, 2018

Broken Ground (Jay Porter) by Joe Clifford

Divorced from his wife Jay Porter now spends his days as an estate cleaner and at AA meetings. At such a meeting he is asked by a recovering addict to track down her sister who's last known address was a rehab center. When it turns out she didn't use drugs he finds out the real reason she went missing and encounters his old arch enemies once again.
Jay is one unique PI. He's an unlicensed one, more of a guy doing favors for friends like Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder, but at least Scudder was an ex-cop. Jay gets his edge from his anger, not his police background. In fact, it's that undertone of anger and frustration that makes Jay's voice such an interesting one to read about. Beware, this voice is so well-written you might get drawn into the story too much. Whenever I was reading it I felt a craving to smoke or drink, just like Jay. I had to be careful to be nice to my wife. There were times when I looked at my son and almost cried at the idea of having to be without him.
This is something special. And if you read or listen to interviews with Joe Clifford you will find out just how special. He really infused this novel with his own experiences and I have the deepest respect for how this man took his painful past and managed to create this wonderful novel from it and managed to start a wonderful family, holding on to all Jay lost.

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