| Title | : | The One That Got Away |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1948235420 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781948235426 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 278 |
| Publication | : | First published December 3, 2018 |
It’s been twelve years since Kira Shanks was reported missing and presumed dead. Alex Salerno has been living in New York City, piecemealing paychecks to earn a livable wage, trying to forget those three days locked underground and her affair with Sean Riley, the married detective who rescued her. When Noah Lee, hometown reporter with a journalistic pedigree, requests an interview, Alex returns to Reine and Riley, reopening old wounds. What begins as a Q&A for a newspaper article soon turns into an opportunity for money, closure and—justice. The disappearance of Kira Shanks has long been hung on Benny Brudzienski, a hulking man-child who is currently a brain-addled guest at the Galloway State Mental Hospital. But after Alex reconnects with ex-classmates and frenemies, doubts are cast on that guilt. Alex is drawn into a dangerous game of show and tell in an insular town where everyone has a secret to hide. And as more details emerge about the night Kira Shanks went missing, Alex discovers there are some willing to kill to protect the horrific truth.
In the modern vein of Girl on the Train and The Bone Collector, The One That Got Away is a dark, psychological thriller, featuring a compelling, conflicted heroine and a page-turning narrative that races toward its final, shocking conclusion.
The One That Got Away Reviews
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Edgy and emotional, suspenseful mystery!
This is a story about Alex who was abducted by a serial killer and rapist at the young age of seventeen but was rescued by Detective Riley before any physical damage was put upon her body yet her emotional trauma was not so lucky as it was several days before she was found without food or water.
. ,The story evolves 12 years later, when she is contacted by a reporter who is interested in writing a story about Alex and another teen who disappeared several years after Alex was kidnapped.
Alex is barely living life drinking and doing drugs, just trying not to live in her past. Having no real friends or family left Alex is a hardened young woman wanting to live her life yet unable to embrace any happiness. When Alex visits the the reporter near her hometown where the kidnappings took place, a series of mysteries concerning the past takes Alex on a new journey and a new purpose for living by finding answers to questions that she thought she had put behind her.
This was a fast paced story which had a lot more downs than ups. A very emotional read for me. There were only a few likeable characters but that was important for the bleakness and sad coldness that was conveyed to understanding how depressive and worn down the personalities of people can become in a poor and rundown small town. I did enjoy this book as it was not predictable and it was quite a page turner. I did find some inconsistencies in the beginning of the book yet it did not affect the very good writing by this author. I would definitely read more of Joe Clifford's books.
I highly recommend this book and have rate it 4 suspenseful 🌟🌟🌟🌟 stars!!
I want to thank Down And Out Books and Netgally for the opportunity of reading this book for my own and unbiased opinion!! -
3.5 Stars
Alex Salerno is better known as the last victim of Ken Parsons ... the only one who survived. Alex has been living in New York City trying not to remember the days she spent under Parsons control and the short lived affair with the detective who rescued her.
Kira Shanks has been missing for seven years. The accused is Benny Brudzienski, who now resides in a mental institution. Reporter Sean Riley has been looking into this disappearance, and along with Alex, has doubts that Benny is guilty.
There are some people who want Alex to go away before any dark secrets are exposed. Someone is following her. She is attacked. Doesn't take long to understand that there are people willing to kill to protect the truth.
The One That Got Away is a dark, psychological thriller featuring a compelling, conflicted heroine and a page-turning narrative that races toward its final, shocking conclusion.
People from her past make an appearance .. but can she trust any of them?
There are surprising twists and turns leading to the unexpected finale. As a character, Alex didn't come across as fully defined. She was a bit unlikable for a pseudo-heroine. The story premise was a good one, although there were areas that just didn't seem credible.
Many thanks to the author / Down & Out Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own. -
Joe Clifford's 2018 crime noir, "The One That Got Away," is a blast to read. Set in a small decrepit upper New York State town of Reine, a town that was left in the cold industrial wasteland of the eighties as the union jobs left and the high-tech hipster economy high-jumped over the region, it features a story of an outsider come to town to right the wrongs and bring justice. The setting is as much a character in the story as any actual character.
As the lead character returns to the town on the first page, we are treated to the graffiti spray-painted on the overpass, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here." That is truly how it feels to enter Reine, a throwback town where those who never managed to leave are slowly being choked by the weeds growing everywhere. Forget a Starbucks on every corner, here there's a dive bar every ten feet and motels so creepy you wouldn't let your worst enemy stay there. Reine was, in fact, on the list of the ten most depressing towns in America, we are told. "There was a barren quality, an ache and emptiness germane to the region." "Most likely it was the people, with their abysmal posture and sallow complexions, men and women who walked without purpose, resigned to their fate, knowing they'd never leave this place." In the bars, the old-timers still have "huge schnoozes, gin blossoms, livers on last legs, ballooned, swollen organs so jam-packed with waste and poison they hung over belts like colostomy bags, fierce testaments to self-destruction and the pursuit of darker causes."
What Clifford does so cleverly is that his outside investigator is not some wandering gunslinger or private eye, but a wounded sparrow herself, Alex Salerno. For Alex, Reine represents another life, one that in some ways she probably wants buried an forgotten. It was here that, at seventeen, she foolishly took a ride with strangers, that ride that your parents warned you about. Like other girls who had disappeared, Alex was made captive, tied up in a basement, left for days, miserable, scared for her life. But, unlike the other girls who disappeared, Alex lucked out and was found before it was too late. Her rescuer, Police Detective Riley became her hero and her lover, making her story into a town scandal. She left it all behind and over the next twelve years, drowned her psyche in drugs, alcohol, and self-pity.
But, as Alex knows her fifteen minutes of fame were soon up as another tragedy quickly befell the small town and the town's beauty queen high school sweetheart, Kira, vanished from a sweaty bloodstained motel room on the outskirts of town. Benny, the town's giant lumbering mentally disadvantaged guy was soon blamed, found, chased by an angry mob, and what was left of him, with half his brain splattered on the roadway, caged up in a mental hospital. "When word of Benny's involvement leaked," the narrator explained, "unidentified locals chased him down, ran his bicycle off the road, shook loose whatever remaining lug nuts were rolling around his junkyard oil pan." There, Benny is locked in his mind without the power of speech, barely more than catatonic.
Alex has returned to speak to a reporter about her past and the mysterious curse surrounding this small town. She is not really wanted there by anyone and no one wants her poking around the mysteries surrounding Kira's disappearance. In that foreboding sense, Alex is similar to another of Clifford's sorta-heroes, Jay Porter, the lead character in five novels, an outsider (who is really rooted in the small town) who no one wants poking around. Twelve years is a lifetime and there isn't much left here for Alex. But then again, there never was. As Alex explains, as bad as the three days and nights locked in the basement were, she could list at least fifty memories just as bad in a childhood living with a drunken town slut of a mother who did not give a crap about her. But, "No one notices a life lost in the cracks."
Alex is not exactly the kind of lead character most authors would write novels around. She has a checkered past. She still wants to drown herself in booze and drugs. She still consorts with the wrong kind of people. But that is exactly what makes this novel sing. There's a force to the writing here that propels the reader along starting from page one and never wavering to the end. -
Thank you to Netgalley for the free e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.
4 stars
This novel definitely had an emotional component to it that went deeper than thrillers/suspense novels usually go. I very much enjoyed that and definitely thought it elevated the novel. I thought the premise of the novel was intriguing, it’s a short novel so it was a quick read, and I found myself invested in the chapters and wondering how everything would shake out.
This was more of a character driven novel- I wouldn’t say that plot is necessarily super fast-paced, but I think the character development and growth over the course of the novel was what made it enjoyable. I especially enjoyed Benny’s chapters, but they broke my heart and definitely made me feel for him. I think he’s one of those characters who will really make you think, long after the book is done.
If you are a fan of thrillers/mystery/suspense, but are looking that something that is very character driven & has an emotional component, I would definitely check this one out! -
This was great for different reasons than the Jay Porter novels were. What it lacked in emotional power, it made up for in technical proficiency, clever plotting and an atmosphere only Joe Clifford is capable of pulling off.
That said, I liked it a little less than Clifford's flagship series mostly because of its lack of nuance at times. Especially when it deals with unsympathetic characters. The Wren Brudzienski and Sharn DiDonnas sometimes sound like stereotypes and parodies of bad guys rather than complex human beings. I almost gave it 4 stars, but I try not to let the high standards I have for Joe Clifford blind me. Mysteries that pace themselves so gracefully, that don't give into hystrionics and don't overstay their welcome are few and far between.
Don't let the derivative title of The One That Got Away fool you, it's a great novel to spend your holidays with. -
At 17 Alex Salerno was abducted by a serial killer. Now she's back in town investigating the disappearance of the girl believed to be murdered after her. I don't know how I'd handle living through what she went through so I really can't judge her life being a mess years later. Through the entire book I kept thinking she needed a hug and someone to show her some real love.
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Read my Interview with Joe Clifford on his new Jay Porter novel, writing, and inspirations. | More2Read
Idlewild Motel, what really took place on that cold November morning seven years ago the one that got away must uncover, almost as a therapy to her own terrible days past.
There is Kira, missing, still no body.
The main protagonist Alex Salerno, the one that got away from being snatched and imprisoned against her will.
That time left behind many things, scars, faint scars on the undersides of her forearm and wrist, and tender things, vulnerable things.
One that got away needs to stay safe treading on familiar dark passage of time again battling all that went on and a little town she wished never existed, bad times, bad mums, bad peoples, finding truth on one suspect that seems to be in a corner.
"Blood and DNA found at the Idlewild Motel just off the interstate where Benny worked as a handyman linked him to the scene."
The first person narration of Benny was engrossing, with his complexities and point of view of what had partaken in Kira’s days alive.
There’s a rhythm to his writing, I like the cast of characters he used in this and previously read Broken Ground. At odds, truths uncovered, and rising above things, grit, flawed, his themes give revitalising lift to mystery telling.
Review and excerpts @
https://more2read.com/review/the-one-that-got-away-by-joe-clifford/ -
An interesting “who don’ it”. 12 years ago girls in the upstate New York town of Reine began to go missing. Of all the victims of a serial killer, only one got away.
Alex Salerno has been struggling these past years. Trying to put that horrible part of her past behind her. But when a reporter starts asking questions about another girls disappearance, Alex is swept into the informal investigation.
In a town where everyone has a secret best left unturned, how can anyone find out the truth?
A good psychological thriller about the secrets people would kill to keep. -
Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for sending me a free advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
I actually really liked this book. It gave me slight
Dark Places vibes, but didn't actually mirror Dark Places at all. There was just a really eerie air about the book that reminded me a lot of Gillian Flynn writing, which is an amazing feat, if you ask me.
This would be a pretty run of the mill story about the escapee who just barely missed death when kidnapped as a child/teenager but is now a drug induced mess of a person who is unsure of where he/she belongs in life, had it not been for Kira Shanks's story. I liked the way that Clifford intertwined these two crimes without actually making it about the same criminal. I also thought that adding Benny's point of view was inspired, because he really did add a lot to the story. Beyond Benny and Alex, though, all of the characters felt very two dimensional and there on need basis, if that makes sense. Everyone felt very disposable, which I suppose could have been intentional since Alex is hard to trust and easy to cut off, but it made it annoying to read about anything that didn't directly deal with Kira Shanks's disappearance.
Overall, the story itself was wonderful and though it wasn't super mysterious, it was very thrilling. You never know what exactly is going to happen next, or what is going to be uncovered. It makes for a really good, keep you on the edge of your seat type of story. -
"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. I'll need to get to the Jay Porter novels very soon.
Thanks to Down and Out for the ARC via NetGalley. -
Very entertaining stand alone. Have enjoyed Joe's books in the Porter series very much, so i couldnt wait to check out his new characters. Alex is a great character, little rough around the edges, but thats what makes her such an interesting character. really good book, Clifford keeps getting better and better, he is a must read for sure!!
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I received this book for free from Netgalley in return for my honest opinion.
In the early 2000's, there was an abduction of girls. Alex is the only one who survived. Ken parsons went to jail for the murders. No other girls were going to be abducted and murdered, but another girl does.
Twelve years ago Kira Shanks goes missing and everyone presumes she's dead. Alex goes back to where she was living when she was abducted. She meets up with a reporter and she starts to try to dig up what happened to Kira. Not everyone is happy to see Alex and Alex is walking on thin ice.
Alex digs up way too much dirt and her life is in danger now.
Pretty good read, easy enough read. -
3,5 stars
Alex Solerno was kidnapped and imprisoned by a serial killer at the age of seventeen. Unlike the previous victims she survived and was rescued by detective Sean Reillys.
The serial killer had been caught and sentenced and Alex became a local celebrity – a girl who got away. Years later she recalled the time after the kidnapping as the best time of her life. An invisible girl got suddenly all attention she longed for, not to mention a forbidden love affair with her safer. Only it didn't last long enough for her: some months later another teen girl disappeared in spite of the killer had been convicted and locked away. The publicity quickly forgot Alex turning ist attention to a new case. But the missing girl has never been found. The case has never been solved.
Seven years later Alex, who lives in the meantime in New York and has permanently a shortage of money, agrees to give an interview about the horrible experience of her young life to her hometown's newspaper that turns out to be only a local student who wants to interview her for his project. This unexpected turn of events evokes her memories and raised her curiosity. She decides to stay in her home town, in the place she doesn't feel any connection at all, to find out what really happened to the disappeared girl.
This book is really well-written, and I would rather qualify it as a literary fiction as a mystery. But I had problems to believe that the case remained unsolved in spite of police did everything to solve it, and then a woman without actual detective skills succeeded in finding out what really happened at that time. Even though 7 years already passed by and the details of the case became blur.
What kept me also from rating it higher was a main female character that I couldn't warm up with. I am not even sure if Alex was supposed to irritate or to feel compation and pity for. I just disliked her, doesn't matter what she had gone through and that I totally understand that the kidnapping didn't go without a trace and her mass life was a prove of it.
ARC provided kindly by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. -
This is the story of Alex Salerno who survived being abducted by a serial killer twelve years ago. Now she is living in New York working odd jobs. One day, she received a phone call to discuss the disappearance of Kira Shanks, the girl who vanished after her to never be seen again. If Alex could found out what happened to Kira maybe she could make peace with herself....Is there a link between Alex and Kira.....this seething story of small-town will reveal a string of macabre leads...
Alex is one unpleasant character: hostile dealing with people and no one would cooperate with her pseud-investigation. She has a hard time getting what she wants but manages nevertheless to get results. The story is mainly told from her point of view with occasional chapters from Bennie’s, the young man suspected of killing Kira now in a mental hospital. Bennie is smarter than people think but still the light is dim...His role is very touching and heartbreaking and is told with compassion.
I mildly enjoyed this story. The language is a bit rough at times and some passages are hardly believable. Would a police officer risked his job by taking advantage of a minor? Well in this drama we have one scumbag....
As the plot slowly unwinds and layer after layer are revealed, many suspenseful moments awaits us especially when Alex persists in sticking her nose in dangerous place. Ultimately some of the mysteries and secrets are resolved although by the end I was left wondering what kind of life Alex would be facing.....
In short words:
“The One That Got Away” is a dark, psychological thriller with some surprising twists and turns leading to the finale. Good story but it failed to sweep me away. -
I received a review copy from the author via BookBuzzReview and this is my honest opinion. This, at times, was a very difficult read for me. I didn't like Alex at all. Granted, she does show some humanity, empathy, and compassion, but those qualities don't show up until the last third of the book. Until then, she is antagonistic, self-centered, egotistical, hateful, and spiteful. She even has the nerve to admit that she resented the woman whose disappearance she's "investigating" because it took attention away from her and her ordeal. That's hard to like and it's hard to continue reading when you really don't like the main character. However, once I ran across Benny I was willing to put up with Alex to read more about him. The parts told from his point of view are touching, heartbreaking, and told with an understanding and compassion that no other character in this twisted story manages to have or show. I'm not sure how I feel about the story as a whole so I rounded up and gave it 3.5 stars.
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I have really enjoyed Clifford's Jay Porter series and this standalone was very good as well. Serial killer Kenneth Parsons is in jail for the abduction and murder of young girls. However one girl, Alex Salerno, was rescued and survived and the town of Reine felt safe again when Parsons was locked up.
But then another girl goes missing and a dimwitted local, now in the State Mental Hospital, is the prime suspect.......but something just seems a little off. Alex, a very complex, compelling main character, returns to the town to try and find some closure not only for the missing girl but also for herself. But what she finds is a town closing ranks, a town that doesn't want the memories of the past to be rekindled. A gritty, psychological story of grief, compassion and catharsis, this was another very good book by Joe Clifford. -
As much as I have enjoyed his Jay Porter series, It's a pleasure to have something from Joe Clifford featuring a different set of characters. Again the backdrop is bleak, but this time it's dreary upstate New York, as opposed to wintry New Hampshire. Again Clifford draws on his hard-earned insights into drug culture and the insidious effects of drugs on the human psyche. His knack for deft little observations and details is on full display too, and there's a lot of zingy dialogue.
What really set this story apart for me, though were the sequences written from Benny's point of view. They are quite powerful and reminiscent of "The Sound and the Fury" (though Benny also has much in common with Steinbeck's "Lenny" among other characters). -
This book is not your average mystery or crime thriller read. The main character, Alex, was abducted by a serial killer when she was 17 & although many other victims met their ending at the hands of this madman, Alex was able to escape. As the one who got away, Alex spends her life wondering if living was really a better ending than suffering death like all of the other victims. She is a complicated character who suffers with a lot of hard-hitting demons from her past.
When asked back to her hometown 12 years after being abducted for a newspaper interview, Alex cannot turn it down. Although tragic, her abduction is in some way the only thing that has made her really ever feel significant in her life. She hopes the interview will somehow reignite that feeling of being something and someone—remind people she exists. However, once she meets with the interviewer, she understands the intentions are less about her story and more about a girl who vanished after Alex had been rescued. In a lot of ways, Alex feels as if this girl is her rival, as her disappearance stole from Alex’s infamous notoriety and took her spotlight. In an attempt to hunt down the truth and face her own demons, Alex sets out to finally get answers about this other girl, Kira’s, disappearance. First for selfish reasons to set her own mind at ease and collect a paycheck, Alex dives into investigating the strange unsolved case of Kira. However, as the story progresses and Alex is faced with more and more challenges and questions about Kira’s disappearance, the mission morphs into a personal journey not only to uncover the truth, but to also free Alex from her own crippling past and traumas so she can hopefully look forward to a future of her own for once.
This story is made enjoyable by the complexities of Alex and the easy style in which the book is written. The book is written in a way that makes you feel very much a part of Alex, her past and the small town in which she grew up. You very much feel like a local fly on the wall throughout this book, making it a story you feel very personally invested in because you feel such a part of the events.
There is a bit of a rushed ending, although there aren’t too many loose ends per se. Perhaps the ending is perfectly suited for such an unsettled character as Alex. There is a realness to the ending that coincides with the sincerity portrayed throughout the storytelling and writing style of the novel. Life doesn’t always wrap up nice and neat and such is the way this story ends.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me a free advanced copy of this novel to enjoy. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in the least.
For anyone who enjoys a twisty mystery with a true crime feel, you should definitely read this book when it comes out in December 2018. -
This book is not not your normal mystery or crime thriller. I really enjoyed this book I finished it one day! The main character Alex was abducted at the age of 17 by a serial killer she was rescued , but the other victims where all brutally murdered. As the one that got away she always wondering if living was really better than suffering death like all the other victims she’s constantly in fear but puts on a front that she’s tough and doesn’t care. When asked back to her hometown Reine 12 years later to be interviewed by a college newspaper she takes it’s a chance for some easy money. Once she’s there she realizes the interview is less about her but more about a beautiful girl Kira who vanished after Alex had been rescued. In an attempt to hunt down the truth and face her own demons, Alex sets out to finally get answers about the other girl Kira’s disappearance. A murderer was arrested even though Kira’s body has never been found. However the more Alex investigates she starts to realize things aren’t what they seem and the suspected killer a mentally challenged man named Benny has been wrongfully accused. The best part of this book for me was the journey you take with Alex as she faces her issues head on and she is far from perfect and that just made me admire her more and relate to her. I found myself rooting for her to get her own life on track but there were also times I seriously just wanted to yell at her and ask her what she was thinking! The ending felt rushed only because I wanted more and didn’t want the book to need! So mark your calendars for December 3rd!!
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This is a great suspense/mystery thriller! The story revolves around Alex Salerno who was kidnapped when she was 17 and held in an underground basement for three days before she was found--found before she was raped and killed by her captor who is arrested and sent to prison. Alex had a brief affair with the married police officer who rescued her and now her life is kind of a mess--she drinks and does drugs to ease her pain from the kidnapping long ago....seven years after her kidnapping, another young girl was found dead in a hotel room, beaten and raped. All the evidence in this case, Kira Shanks, points to a mentally disabled gentle giant named Benny who is sent to a mental hospital because he has been beaten most likely by townspeople looking for vigilante justice on their own. Alex in the present day answers a call from a reporter doing a story on Kira Shanks and agrees to meet him, going to her her hometown in upstate New York from the city where she lives. She ends up staying in town after the reported suggests a connection between her kidnapping and Kira's death even though they are years apart and Benny is still in a mental hospital. Alex starts researching and putting the information together about what really happened to Kira because she starts to believe that Benny didn't do it either--a couple chapters are written from Benny's point of view, to the world he is basically a zombie unable to do anything for himself and unable to speak but his mind is still working and able to process thoughts giving clues as to what happened to him and to Kira. This is a really page turner that I could not put down until I got to the end. Great writing, interesting story with lots of twists and an ending that I did not expect. Thoroughly enjoyed this book! Definitely worth your time! Thanks to NG for the ARC!!!!
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“The One that Got Away” by Joe Clifford starts with a terrifying prologue, a girl locked underground, and then moves to “now” centered around Alex Salerno, the girl who got away from a killer. Alex tells herself that she has moved on from her traumatic experience, but she really has not. Holes in her memory form Swiss-cheese excerpts of the past, and the terror always comes back. She has returned to Reine, her hometown into in Upstate New York town because a reporter wants to tell her story again. The reporter, Noah Lee, promises that the focus will be on her, her struggle, her victory, the one good thing she has done with her life: she has survived. The narrative centers on Alex as she struggles to finally overcome her own trauma. She is also troubled by unanswered questions in the murder of another girl from Reine, and the possibility that Benny Brudzienski, the person who was accused of her murder, is innocent. Is there a conspiracy? Benny Brudzienski is institutionalized, incapacitated, and yet has secrets to share.
Clifford skillfully creates characters that are flawed, human, and compelling. Alex is at the same time helpless and forceful, haunted and liberated, and always truth seeking. Readers fear for her safety and applaud her determination. Is there a killer roaming free, or is Alex only hearing what she wants to hear? The town, Reine, barren and empty, is as much of a character as is Alex. Readers sense the malevolent curse that hangs over the town, harming everything and everyone.
The haunting trail of clues leads to a startling truth in the end. This book will keep readers turning the pages and yet fearing what might come next. I was given a copy of “The One that Got Away” by Joe Clifford, Down & Out Books, and NetGalley. Readers will not soon forget this book. -
Thanks to Net Galley, Down & Out Books and Joe Clifford for a chance to review this book.
The One That Got Away is one hell of a mystery thriller, the prologue itself causing terror in our hearts. The story focuses on Alex Salerno who even after many years has not been able to get over the trauma of having been captured and locked into an underground box from where she was rescued. And that's exactly what all the people in her hometown refers to, 'The One That Got Away'. Her captor is in prison but the town of Reine has experienced another murder of Kira Shanks almost 7 years back and a college kid's research questions sends Alex to a whole new discovery of things in her town where no one is as it seems. There is a darkness permeating the story especially when the main character Alex is set about destroying her 2nd chance at life with drinks and drugs to keep the edge off of her daily life. Her character is not warmth inducing most times utterly unlikable to all the people helping her. The ending was a surprise and the chapters with Benny's thoughts were really heartbreaking. -
This stand-alone from Joe Clifford has an interesting premise so I was looking forward to sitting down with this one. The main character Alex survived an abduction by a serial killer and years later is brought back to town by a student hoping for help with a paper. Years after her experience another girl went missing in an unrelated case and that case seemed to be closed when a mentally challenged individual was put away for that crime. Alex starts digging into this and that's when things start to get dicey. Clifford is a good writer but my main problem with the story was Alex was not a very likeable character. it was hard to keep rooting for her when most of her behaviour was unlikable. I understand she's been through a lot but it was hard to excuse all of her behaviours. And while I guess the ending was supposed to be a bit like real life, it was a bit lackluster and this is fiction after all.... I guess I was hoping for more in the resolution for this type of story.
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The One That Got Away by Joe Clifford is a gritty, dark crime thriller. Alex Salerno was abducted 12 years ago at age 17 and held captive underground. Luckily, she was rescued before the serial killer who took her could finish her off. Alex was rescued by Sean Riley, a married cop she ends up having an affair with. Cut to the present--Alex returns home to Reine, NY because a reporter wants to interview her. A few years ago another girl went missing and is presumed dead. Are the cases connected? Alex is determined to find out. This book was very dark and most of the characters were deeply flawed. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the revelations that kept coming. I will definitely check out the author's previous works now! Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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This author can set a mood! The setting was so bleak and Alex is so damaged. She felt the abduction was actually a good thing because of the attention she got after she was found. The town is run down, tired.
The story itself was interesting. The chapters from Benny’s perspective made the story for me. There were some twists and that ending was something else!
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Author Guide for a copy in exchange for a review. -
The One That Got Away is a must-read mystery with a beautiful weaving of poetry and literary quality.
But I want to talk about the feels I got reading it.
I never expected to find a book that could lyrically render Upstate New York. Having been there many times to visit family, it was always difficult to put into words the feeling I had in that particular environment. But Clifford has captured that feeling perfectly, and surprisingly, beautifully, in a way that makes me rethink the memories of being there and recast them in a more delicate, more complex manner. The One That Got Away is a righteous mystery, involving a complex female lead, one of beautiful melancholy, much like the poetic environment Clifford creates. She's not good. She's not bad. She's not in-between. She's not trying too hard; she's not easy-going. She's all kinds of humanity. And man, does she have a story to tell.
Perhaps I read too much into the story, I do tend to do that. But one major aspect I related to was one that was a bit of a philosophical/psychological question: WHY is our main character pursuing this mystery? Sub and side and supporting characters all ask her this question, why? They argue that the mystery she seeks to unravel has nothing to do with her. So why?
And as it is, it made me consider how many times I have been asked why I am pursuing certain things. Sometimes only we can know why and many times that reason is something we can't quite articulate. But inside of us, as with this character, there is a burning, unrelenting need to dig in to a certain something and pursue it relentlessly. It gives us life, this thing. Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is, the way Clifford wove in this dimension to the main character, her actions, the questions about her motivation, and the sometimes very personal why of it, made me think. It was a profound way of presenting her.
There are also chapters from the POV of a brain-injured individual, who has been sadly institutionalized following a degenerative mental condition and physical brain injury layered on top. As his chapters tolled up, I found myself incredibly moved by him. I won't say more, for fear of giving away any spoilers, but I will say his chapters were also profound, educational, frightening, and yet deeply heartfelt.
There are too many passages that I found beautiful, enough to dog ear numerous pages and/or re-read certain lines several times. Here's one I loved: "The currency of sympathy in the face of tragedy is a strange thing." Here's another, "Parsons was a bruise among scars."
I also loved Clifford's sly ripping on sub-par coffee, a topic dear to me. Such as, "In a town fueled by watered-down Dunkin' Donuts swill and burnt gas station brew..." Ding!
A line about the upstate NY town in the book, "Even the way the traffic here flowed was depressing, everything mismatched and unappealing, like poor people picking out glued-together ribeye at the dollar store."
I really loved this seemingly simplistic thought, but entirely poetic passage, coming from the POV of the brain-injured character, who has flashes of coherent thoughts, but is trapped in a broken body: "I do not know why those big black birds do not fly away. The whole sky is open. They can go anywhere they want. But they just sit on those power lines. They do not even try."
Again, the scenes were so nicely vivid, the landscapes, the structures, the weather, which is to say a lot when writing about upstate New York, which to my mind's eye, is gray on brown. Here was one such scene set-up I was very surprised by and loved, especially for the dance with a taste of gothic (my fave): ..."Alex recognized this wasn't a residence that had been designed this way. Rather, it had been erected piecemeal, part and parcel, extensions and new wings added after the fact. The closer she got, the more she saw a Frankenstein house. The outline of modest brick quarters remained but the rest had clearly been augmented, like a low rider tricked out, gaudy and garish, with fifteen-inch rims and colors too bold. Not that it didn't still look nice--it was probably the nicest house Alex had ever seen in Reine-but there was a grotesque, monstrous element to the home as well, like its architects had the means to do whatever they wanted but lacked the aesthetic acumen to pull off the job tastefully. Colors didn't quite match; styles didn't quite gel, the top floor tacked on, giving the house a childish, tree-fort feel."
Read it. Highly recommended. -
Okay guys, this is a good one- mark December 3rd, 2018 on your calendars because that’s when this fantastic book comes out, The One That Got Away by Joe Clifford. This is a book getting a lot of positive buzz right now and after finishing it this morning, I can absolutely see why. It’s a gritty, slow-burn of a thriller that follows Alex Salerno, the sole survivor of a string of abductions and murders in the early 2000s. Reine, a small, rough-around-the-edges town in upstate New York is the silent starring character, alongside Alex, in this story. Clifford’s descriptive writing about a town that has seen its fair share of substance abuse, tragedy, and crime over the last several decades was extraordinary and so real.
Alex returns to her hometown after being away for several years when a young college reporter asks to interview her about her past abduction for a school paper. This interview snowballs into Alex investigating a seemingly unrelated murder case in Reine, where a beautiful teenage girl has been missing for years, and though a body was never found, a man suspected of her murder was identified and shipped off to a mental hospital. However, things aren’t as they seem, and Alex begins to think the suspected killer, a mentally-challenged man named Benny, has been wrongfully accused.
For me, the best part of this book was the journey, literally and internally, that Alex, reluctantly at first, forced herself to embark on in order to find the truth. Alex is a deeply flawed person who had a difficult childhood and had the most traumatic experience as a teenager, which then led her to make tough choices as an adult. I couldn’t help but root for her to get her life on track. She also frustrated me to no end and I found myself silently yelling at her while reading (“NO, you do NOT go there!!!”). Haha.
The ending for me seemed so sudden, and I wished we got to see more of the aftermath following the final events, but there was a good ending, and I feel like all my questions were answered in the end. If you’re into mysteries, psychological thrillers, or books that just creep you out, this one is definitely for you!
4 out of 5 stars for The One That Got Away from Joe Clifford, which comes out on December 3rd, 2018.
Thank you to NetGalley, Down & Out Books, and the author for the opportunity to read and provide my honest review for this book. -
What an interesting book. This is my first time reading Joe Clifford. I love the writing style, very accessible.
Alex Salerno is the one that got away. A series of abductions 12 years ago led to the deaths of young women in Reine, NY. Alex was rescued and her life has been a mess since. She has moved to NYC trying to leave the past which she can't escape, behind. She is called by a reporter asking her to come to Reine to interview her. She goes and finds he's actually a student using her to get a passing grade in his journalism class. He offers to pay her and Alex will pretty much do anything for a buck. He wants her to get answers from a local policeman about Kira Shanks case. Years after Alex is rescued another young woman has gone missing in Reine. Alex, as complicated as she is, feels that this has stolen her limelight. The body of Kira, the other girl has never been found. Alex becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her.
Alex goes from sympathetic to not back to being sympathetic. She is a complex, hard to understand character. Her history, her relationships back in Reine are complex. The author does a very good job of showing us the hardscrabble life of residents of Reine and their lives. . -
This novel is a character driven thriller. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, keeping me more invested in the already intriguing story. This is a short novel and a relatively quick read. As this was a character driven book, the pacing isn't fast but getting to know Alex and Benny over the course of the novel made it enjoyable.
Thank you to Down & Out Books and NetGalley for the free review copy, in exchange for my honest feedback.
