One snowy night in 1998, Brooke Mulcahy's car slides off the road in rural Vermont and, although her car is found, she isn't. Twenty-one years later Brooke's half-brother Robert (Bobby), now an esteemed professor at a private Upstate New York university, is paid a visit by Lily, a young woman claiming to be Brooke's daughter.

This book is from my backlog and was published in September 2023. The past story is told mostly from Brooke's point of view and in the present mostly from Robert's point of view. It took me a while to get into the book but eventually I became very engrossed as we learn the truth about what happened to Brooke Mulcahy. All in all, not bad but it was a bit longer than it needed to be in my opinion. 3.5 stars rounded down.

TW. Drug and alcohol use/abuse is a strong theme in the book as well as sexual activity and foul language. This may be just a me thing but there was one part in the book where Brooke confronts a drug dealer who suffers from "cocaine nose" and the description literally turned my stomach. Also, harm to a dog.

Thank you to Square Tire Books via Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book is a thrilling mystery novel that is bound to keep readers engaged until the very end. It follows the story of Robert Kirby, who attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his stepsister, Brooke Mulcahy. According to the FBI, Brooke may have been kidnapped by a serial killer who resided in the vicinity where she was last seen. However, everything takes an unexpected turn when a woman named Lily comes forward to claim that she is Brooke's daughter.

What sets this book apart from others in the same genre is the author's adept interweaving of Brooke's story in 1998 and Robert's present-day investigation. The characters are multi-layered and complex, and the bleak New England setting adds an extra layer of intrigue to the story.

Although this book has some similarities with other mystery novels, it delves deeply into the psyche of its characters, going beyond surface-level storytelling. Readers will get to know Brooke and Robert intimately and see how they perceive each other differently.

In conclusion, this captivating read is a must-read for anyone who enjoys a good mystery. Readers will find it hard to put down until they uncover the truth about Brooke Mulcahy's disappearance.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. An intriguing mystery if there ever was one. Perfect for a snowy winter's weekend to get you even more into the story. This had me in it from the first chapter.

This was a good domestic psychological thriller. It makes the reader curious about the mysterious disappearance, and keeps you engaged till the end when you find out what happened.

I enjoyed this book very much. It’s a mystery about Brooke, who one day just disappears. She gets in her car and just starts driving. She has no specific place she is going to. Her car runs off the road in a snowstorm and she is never seen again. As her brother tries to find her years later, he talks to people who knew her when she was young. Nothing or no one is as they seem. The book will keep your attention.

Joe Clifford is back with an incredible story that just keeps unraveling the longer you sit and turn the pages. Told from two separate points of view, Brooke and Bobby, stepsiblings and their sad stories that just clash, no thanks to their separate upbringings but also due to their age. Brooke gets into a car accident and disappears without a trace. Robert (Bobby grown up) can't seem to move past this point in his personal life as his professional life takes off. Events unfold that leave Robert chasing leads to hopefully, finally, be able to put his past to rest. Page turning with twists one doesn't see coming.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

I was pleasantly surprised with this novel. I do love the past and present telling of the story for those different perspectives. The different narratives kept me guessing until the final few chapters. In saying that, I’m not sure how I felt about the ending, it did leave a little bit open. I think some could have been expanded on in the present, but I guess it’s up for interpretation.

Obviously, I felt more invested in the past narrative because it followed Brooke, the missing young woman, and her story. She does have a sad story and you just hope her story has a HEA and doesn’t end like everyone thinks it is going to. The present, which featured her half brother, left a lot of questions during and at the end. I would have liked to know a bit more about some of the help he had received between the timelines. He’s an interesting character.

I enjoyed the way the story was told and it seemed an appropriately pace. I think I would have liked an expansion on some topics that were brought up but I don’t think it’s completely detrimental to the story. This was my first read by the author, and I would be interested to check out his other works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Square Tire Books for the opportunity to read this book. All opinions are my own.

I read the first few pages and couldn't bring myself to make it any farther. I did not like the writing style. It felt choppy, and it made the part I did read quite boring. There were also quite a few curse words (more than I anticipated), and though I don't always have a huge problem with that, there were just too many for me to be comfortable with. I did not find the main character to be interesting or compelling, either. I DNF'd All Who Wander. This book may be a good fit for some people, but from what I did read, it was not a good fit for me.

I personally did not like this book very much, the general idea is fine. I liked the writing but the characters and the pacing just weren't for me. It felt really slow for the majority of the book, to the point that I skimmed some parts, it just felt like it wasn't getting to the point very fast and I feel like it could've been at least 50 pages shorter than it was

This was a very dark and twisted storyline, I love thrillers and for me even this one was a little darker than I am used to. I would recommend this book to others.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, and I am leaving my review voluntarily and the opinion expressed here are my own.

Brooke Mulcahy leaves home in a dilapidated car during a snow storm at night in Vermont. Her car is later found, but she isn't, leaving her family with no closure. Her family was dysfunctional in the extreme, and her boyfriend was even worse. Drug use, alcoholism, and abuse was common among her family members and in her school. She had a younger brother Bobby (Robert) that she called 'fecto', meaning that he was defective. He did have a physical defect which was remediated with surgery.

Fast forward around 20 years, and Brooke's story is published, bringing it to public attention and digging up old skeletons. In its wake, her brother Robert's stable life where he was a respected college professor begins to fall apart. I wondered at times if perhaps Robert had a psychiatric disorder himself, since he seemed so disassociated from his younger, pre-surgery self.

The ending was a surprise - I didn't see that coming. I received an e-arc from the publisher Square Tire Books via NetGalley. These are my opinions of the book.

I wanted to read All Who Wander because some of it takes place in Vermont. This was a quick paced mystery. I didn’t guess the ending!

A woman disappears and this book goes from past to present to work out what happened. This is a dark and thrilling read about Brooke (who disappeared), Brooke's daughter and Brooke's brother. There are so many thrills and such suspense surrounding the past and now the present.

I enjoyed this book as it kept me enthralled with twists and turns, its darkness and the family problems such as guilt, addiction and trauma which lends a depth to the story. I really enjoyed this deep and dark story and look forward to finding out more about this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Square Tire Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

It's been over two decades since 20-year-old Brooke Mulcahy disappeared. Her body never found, rumors about her fate have plagued her younger half-brother Bobby's life. He was only a kid at the time she went missing, living with Brooke's alcoholic father following their mother's death. Detested by Brooke, uncared for by her dad, and abused by her boyfriend, his childhood was a nightmare no kid deserved. It wouldn't have been a shock if he'd turned to alcohol and drugs to cope like those around him. But he didn't. Instead, he rose above it.

Now known as Robert with a wife and child of his own, he's a successful professor at Uniondale University and the winner of a coveted NEH grant. His life is pretty sweet. His wife is gorgeous. His son's thirteen and a great kid. He lives in a nice house in the suburbs and drives a Porsche. Although he goes to therapy to try to find closure from his childhood and Brooke's disappearance, he's lived his adult life as a stable, proud, and happy man. However, his life quickly starts to unravel when a young woman named Lily shows up at his office one afternoon claiming to be Brooke's daughter.

Suddenly, the past is literally at his doorstep, breaking into his house and mutilating his dog. His wife leaves him without warning and takes his son with her. A red car starts stalking his house. Robert has no choice but to go back to the night Brooke disappeared and figure out exactly what happened. However, nothing that he uncovers about that night is as horrific as the truth about their lives leading up to her disappearance -- or the unraveling of Robert's life in present-day.

Chilling, gritty, and twisty, "All Who Wander" by Joe Clifford is just what you expect from this author. It's brilliant. Unputdownable. And filled with a darkness that you can feel as if it were your own. Joe Clifford has a knack for creating characters that you don't just get to know. You get to "feel" them too. It's almost like you can hear them breathing and read their thoughts. There's a depth to them that you don't find with every author, even the mega popular and talented ones.

This is especially true with Robert's "character". He's a heavy character who I couldn't like, no matter how much was written into the story early-on that should have made me feel otherwise. Brooke was cruel to him when he was a kid, but she was troubled too and just wanted out of her unloved, unhappy life. She was written to be unliked, but I couldn't quite get there. Did Clifford want me to dislike her? Definitely -- if you judge by the words he wrote. However, you get gut feelings about Joe's characters like you would people in real life. Your gut feelings are very likely not to be the same as mine because in real life (again) we aren't always going to like the same people.

There's a lot going on in "All Who Wander". Although the book follows Robert as he searches for the truth about what happened to his half-sister Brooke, other characters and revelations about the past deliver a much more complex storyline. It's well-written and completely engrossing right up until the conclusion when he reveals Brooke's fate and what happened before she disappeared. It's a satisfactory final twist that you'll either have you shocked or saying "meh". It didn't knock my socks off, but it did lower them to my ankles. That's good enough for me. Not every ending has to be a jaw-dropper, especially when the book as a whole is as addicting and good as this one.

All Who Wander is told in a then-and-now narrative that follows the disappearance of Brooke, a troubled young adult with addiction issues and terrible taste in men who is presumed dead, and her half-brother, Robert, aka Bobby, who is the present-day main character. The university-level professor has come a long way from his traumatic childhood and has secured a major grant. He believes his is a happy marriage and is a good father, but what’s the truth of it? The arrival of a “niece,” the daughter of his missing half-sister, pulls the current-day success toward past failures. Why did Brooke leave that night, and what did Bobby know about it?

The story starts promisingly enough, if not a bit heavy-handed. The author does an excellent job keeping Robert’s voice that of an intelligent professor while writing Brooke’s chapters as far more casual, but the entire novel in both points of view is exposition-heavy for my taste and weighed down with backstory.

I assumed Brooke was alive from the outset because that's a popular "twist" on missing persons. I wanted to be concerned what happened to her, but she isn't a sympathetic character. Brooke calling Bobby “fecto” and the casual use of the word “retard,” while time-period appropriate, are cringe-worthy. It is hard to engage with someone mean regardless their background, and Brooke was all the reader was given to care about. Everyone else is flawed and unlikeable. Add animal cruelty, scenes of domestic violence, drug addiction, and incest, and this story just didn’t entertain me. I read as a form of escapism. All Who Wander took me to a terrible place with less effect than other similar stories with a stronger redemptive message that made enduring the hard stuff worth it.

This is the story of a mixed-up woman who disappears during one of the Northeast's wicked snow storms. It is told in two different timelines - 1998 and Present. This is a very dark and stunningly twisted story. There were a few times that I thought it was a little too dismal for my taste. But Joe Clifford's writing saved it for me.

Honestly I’m not sure what to classify this one? A mystery? Not quite a thriller.

Interesting read and well thought out plot however the ending didn’t settle any of the questions.

Who was lily? Why did Brooke lie? How would a blood test have solved anything is lily wasn’t the daughter? Why add on the wife leaving?

There was a lot going on which muddled the story and there were characters that really didn’t need to be in the story.

Over twenty years ago, Robert's sister, Brooke, disappeared after crashing her car never to be seen again. Now in present day, Robert is approached by a young woman claiming to be Brooke's daughter. This prompts Robert to investigate what happened to his sister.

I really liked the first 3/4 of this book but then the last 1/4 really lost me. There was a storyline that thankfully didn't actually happen but that the premise of it seemed unnecessary anyway. Trigger warning for potential incest on that front. I also feel like Robert's storyline doesn't really get resolved. He seems like is on the verge of a breakdown and then the epilogue pans to "Jill" aka Brooke. Also trigger warning for animal abuse.

I also think the synopsis should be changed from Robert and Aaron investigating together. Aaron is both a small and large part of the book, but in terms of page time, he is a more minor character and definitely does not team up with Robert. I also think this is more about uncovering reality and dealing with trauma more than it is an actual mystery or thriller.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Past- It’s 1998 in and it’s a snow storm, Brooke Mulcahny is determined to leave her hometown in the rearview mirror. She’s escaping a horrible relationship and that’s only part of the dangerous situation she has found herself in. As she’s driving and crossing the border from Massachusetts to rural Vermont, her car hits some icy roads her car crashes. From that night Brooke is never seen again, a man had stopped by and offered to help that fateful night but she declined and was last seen walking away from her car.
As we read we are taken into Brookes past how her mother left her and returned with a half brother named Bobby. When her mother dies of cancer Brooke feels lost, she doesn’t get along with Bobby, she looks for love in all the wrong places and she tries drugs, we soon discover what leaves Brooke to leave and then go missing.
PRESENT: Now, twenty-one years later, Bobby is grown up and is now called Robert, he’s an esteemed professor at a private Upstate New York University. He just received a grant. Married and with a teenage son Robert has always wondered what happened to Brooke. When a young woman named Lily appears, she claims to be Brooke's daughter. Roberts world soon becomes unraveled as he investigates further into who Lily is and he is determined to find out what happened to Brooke. This was such a dark atmospheric read. I was glued to the pages, the author does an incredible job creating characters who seem so real and who are flawed. I read this book in a day! Joe Clifford is a must read for me!

This is the first book I've read by Joe Clifford. I had never heard of this author but I will be looking at more of his books in the future. I went into it blind, just choosing by the mysterious snowy cover that sets the scene very well. This book is told dual timelines and POV to uncover what happened the night Brooke disappears. Brooke narrates the past and Robert the present. Through its many twists and turns I was pleasantly surprised to find a dark book with themes of family, guilt, addiction and trauma. Four stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my review.