A former homeless junkie, Joe Clifford has dedicated his life to education and the craft of writing and helping other ex-junkies find a voice and a platform for their creative energies. He is a graduate of Central Connecticut State University and holds an MFA degree from Florida International University. He is the acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and the producer of Lip Service West, a gritty reading series in Oakland, California. Clifford is the author of several acclaimed books―two of which were Anthony Award nominees: Lamentation, his first novel in the Jay Porter series, and his anthology (editor) Trouble in the Heartland. Broken Ground: A Jay Porter Novel (Oceanview Publishing) is the fourth novel in his Jay Porter series. At an AA meeting, handyman and part-time investigator Jay Porter meets a recovering addict who needs his help. Amy Lupus’ younger sister, Emily, has gone missing from the Coos County Center, the newly opened rehab run by Jay’s old nemeses, Adam and Michael Lombardi. As Jay begins looking into Emily’s disappearance, he finds that all who knew Emily swear that she’s never used drugs. She’s a straight shooter and an intern at a newspaper investigating the Center and the horrendous secret hidden in it―or beneath it. The deeper Jay digs, the more poisoned the ground gets, yielding a toxic truth with local fallout―and far-reaching ramifications. From the cow fields of Connecticut to the streets of San Francisco, Joe Clifford’s Junkie Love traverses the lost highways of America, down the rocky roads of mental illness to the dead ends of addiction. Part road story, part resurrection tale, Junkie Love (Battered Suitcase) finds a way to laugh in one’s darkest hour, while never abandoning its heart in search of a home. Clifford is also the author of The One that Got Away (Down and Out Books). In the early 2000s, a string of abductions rocked the small upstate town of Reine, New York. Only one girl survived: Alex Salerno. The killer, Ken Parsons, was sent away. Life returned to normal. No more girls would have to die. Until another one did. 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.
