Lamentation
Jay Porter Novel #1

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About Lamentation

How much should one brother sacrifice for another?

In a frigid New Hampshire winter, Jay Porter is trying to eke out a living and maintain some semblance of a relationship with his former girlfriend and their two-year-old son. When he receives an urgent call that Chris, his drug-addicted and chronically drunk brother, is being questioned by the sheriff about his missing junkie business partner, Jay feels obliged to come to his rescue.  

After Jay negotiates his brother’s release from the county jail, Chris disappears into the night. As Jay begins to search for him, he is plunged into a cauldron of ugly lies and long-kept secrets that could tear apart his small hometown and threaten the lives of Jay and all those he holds dear.  

Powerful forces come into play that will stop at nothing until Chris is dead and the information he harbors is destroyed.  

Praise

"Lamentation is a noir saga of the America that isn’t in TV commercials, wrenching, yet somehow infused with an uplifting spirit of a brother’s love and redemption. Original, insightful, energetic, an intriguing examination of small-town, modern lives and perils." —James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor

"Clifford paints true-to-life characters with the same gritty touch as the best of Dennis Lehane. Straightforward and edgy, Lamentation gnaws with nail-biting tension on every page. A must-read for contemporary hardboiled mystery fans who appreciate the type of terse dialogue and real life conflicts and settings Elmore Leonard so richly brought to life." —Robert Dugoni, New York Times best-selling author

"From its compelling opening through its stunning climax, Lamentation is deftly plotted, immensely readable and artfully executed. This story is as chilling as a winter day in Northern New Hampshire. Jay Porter is a character worth rooting for, and we will be hearing much more from Joe Clifford. Highly recommended." —Sheldon Siegel,  New York Times best-selling author of the Mike Daley/Rosie Fernandez novels

"In Lamentation, Joe Clifford displays the same muscular prose, unsparing insight and generous heart he exhibited in his stunning debut, Junkie Love. This is a tale of small-town secrets and the troubled, unfathomable, unbreakable bond of brothers." —David Corbett, award-winning author of The Art of Character

"Some books live on in your mind long after you put them down, and Lamentation is one of them. The pervasive atmosphere of psychological suspense ratchets up a notch with each page turned." —Hilary Davidson, best-selling author of Her Last Breath