Taking a sharp detour from his Jay Porter series, Joe Clifford’s stand-alone novel, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, follows the dark journey of Alex Salerno—a woman snatched by a serial killer—in her upstate rural hometown of Reine, NY. Unlike his earlier victims, horrified Alex escapes his brutal clutches: her bastard abductor is thankfully caught and sentenced to life in prison.
Hoping to escape the trauma, Alex moves to New York City. Despite the change in scenery and the miles she’s left behind, a trail of tortured memories and damaged emotions linger. And Alex finds herself behaving in unhealthy destructive ways.
But to the surprise of many, while years have lapsed and Alex’s abductor remains in prison, a similar crime occurs in Reine of all places. A hometown journalist contacts Alex: perhaps her sinister experience can help him find some answers to this disturbing crime? Besieged and overwhelmed, Alex finds herself again in the troublesome town that spawned her living nightmares—
Clifford’s characters felt real to me. This novel kept me thinking long after I closed the book.
Highly Recommended.
