Lamentation-Joe Clifford

Lamentation

Joe Clifford

Oceanview, Oct 7 2014, $25.95

ISBN 9781608091331

In the frigid weather near Lamentation Mountain, New Hampshire, Jay Porter clears out the two-hundred year old unheated farmhouse of recently deceased Ben Saunders while thinking back two decades to the tragedy that changed his life and that of his older brother Chris; the deaths of their parents when their car ended in Echo Lake.  Jay tries to finish the job so he can see his son Aiden before his former girlfriend Jenny puts the toddler to sleep. 

His boss Tom Gable informs Jay that Rob Turley wants to see him because Chris is being held at the Ashton Police Station.  Expecting the usual drug addicted village idiot scene, Turley explains Chris had a fight with his e-recycling Computer Solutions store partner Pete Naginis whose mama Betty says her son vanished soon afterward.  Losing his chance to see his child, Jay calls Jenny who rips him for once again putting up with Chris’ crap.  When Pete is found dead, the police suspect Chris; but he insists to his sibling he is innocent and a throwaway hard drive contains proof of wrong doing by a town icon who he believes either killed or arranged Pete’s homicide, and wants him disposed of too.  Jay assumes the drugs finally fried Chris’ brain.

Lamentation is a dark relationship crime drama starring an incredible protagonist struggling with a helpless depressed life in which his brother is the prime cause of his lament.  The keys to this riveting bleak storyline are the cast starting with Jay whose life has been flushed down the toilet by his constant cleaning up his addicted relative and the unexpected but realistic climax.  Not for everyone, Joe Clifford provides a powerful New Englander.

Harriet Klausner