Genre: Crime
Fiction/Thriller /Mystery
Description:
When Jay gets a phone call telling him his older brother Chris is in
jail he’s not surprised because he’s a junkie. He’s been in and out of trouble
since their parents died in a car accident years ago. Reluctantly Jay heads to
the police station, but from then on what was slow, small town life is never
the same again.
Chris’ business partner, Pete, has been found dead. Jay is confounded,
because Chris can barely tell what time of day it is, never mind run a company.
The local police think Chris is at fault, but there’s no evidence to say so and
Jay gets his brother back on the streets. Again.
Chris tells Jay that Pete was killed because they found something they
weren’t supposed to on a computer they were recycling. But Chris has been
telling tall stories his whole life and Jay doesn’t believe him. Then Chris
disappears and suddenly everyone seems to want to find him – among them a cop
up from the city and the Lombardi’s, a local family that control everything
from investments to politics. Jay begins to wonder if there isn’t something to
Chris’ story after all…
Author:
Joe Clifford is acquisitions editor for Gutter Books and managing
editor of The Flash Fiction Offensive.
He is the author of three books.
You can learn more about the author at www.joeclifford.com.
Appraisal:
The phrase ‘slow burn’ is often used to describe a story that steadily
unfolds, usually maintaining the same unremitting pace until the final word.
With Lamentation this too is apt. To
a point. Because here Clifford has lit a fuse which leads to a rather large
bomb which, when it explodes, leaves no-one unscathed and in the process ramps
up the tension considerably in the back quarter.
At the outset this seems like an ordinary enough tale. Small town boy
who’s lost his family, has a troubled junkie brother, and is separated from
Jenny, the woman he still loves and the mother of his son, because he doesn’t
believe he’s good enough for her. Written in the first person through Jay’s
eyes we understand fully the cul-de-sac he’s driven down.
But with Pete’s murder this seemingly dead end life gets flipped
upside down. Jay, reluctantly, begins to investigate Pete’s death because he’s
doing something he’s spent his life on – looking after his waster older
brother. The plot grows in complexity as Jay’s understanding widens until he
and the reader is faced with the whole dirty picture.
Clifford is a highly accomplished writer – the evidence is clear in his
previous novels, Junkie Love and Wake The Undertaker. Lamentation is subtly different, but I
find it hard to put my finger on why. Perhaps it’s because there is a large
element of family involved. Secondly I like the fact that some of the questions
the author poses, such as whether Jay’s parent’s death was an accident, aren’t
fully answered at the conclusion. What had been a weight for Jay, he’s now able
to cast off and properly live his life. And it’s these subtleties and extra
layers that push the rating from four to five stars. If you don’t yet know Joe
Clifford, you really should.
FYI:
Some swearing.
Added for
Reprise Review: Lamentation was a nominee in the Crime
Fiction category for B&P 2015 Readers' Choice Awards. Original review ran October
21, 2014
Format/Typo
Issues:
None.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: Keith Nixon
Approximate
word count: 70-75,000 words
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