Give Up the Dead

April 3, 2017
In Clifford’s unrelentingly bleak third Jay Porter novel (after 2016’s December Boys), the 34-year-old New Hampshire estate clearer spends a lot of time bemoaning his fate. Porter doesn’t have a lot going for him—he’s divorced; his best friend, Charlie Finn, is a boozer; and his abrasive personality doesn’t endear him to competitors like Sheriff Rob Turley, a former schoolmate. A stranger calling himself Vin Biscoglio shows up at Porter’s door and says he works for wealthy Ethan Crowder. Crowder wants to hire Porter to locate his 16-year-old son, Phillip, who may be at an addiction rehab place called Rewrite Interventions at his mother’s behest. When Porter’s boss, Tom Gable, is attacked and left in a coma, Porter becomes a suspect. Porter gets embroiled in both cases, which turn out to have a common genesis. Readers may struggle to relate to Porter, an unwilling sleuth who gets banged around but keeps plodding forward in this dreary outing. Agent: Elizabeth Kracht, Kimberly Cameron & Associates.

May 1, 2017
Fans of unheroic hero Jay Porter from Lamentation (2014) and December Boys (2016) will be happy to meet him again here. But they should know that the rude boy has softened. As he makes his way through his latest adventure, there are no flare-ups. Moroseness is his style now. He pops lorazepam and spins noirish one-liners: The American dream is terrific as long as you don't wake up. Jay is clearing houses for estate sales when a strange man with a head polished shinier than an apple appears and offers Jay a lot of money to track down the missing son of a wealthy family. While Jay broods on the proposition, his boss takes a savage beating. Any connection? His search for an answer has the novel moving through scenes of tough love, addiction therapy, and a farm that produces maple syrup. The wandering plot, along with Jay's glum introspection, can make reading a chore, but Clifford knows to evoke mood. This one's for anyone who's at home down Pity Street, by way of Woe Is Me Lane. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)