This is a great suspense/mystery thriller! The story revolves around Alex Salerno who was kidnapped when she was 17 and held in an underground basement for three days before she was found--found before she was raped and killed by her captor who is arrested and sent to prison. Alex had a brief affair with the married police officer who rescued her and now her life is kind of a mess--she drinks and does drugs to ease her pain from the kidnapping long ago....seven years after her kidnapping, another young girl was found dead in a hotel room, beaten and raped. All the evidence in this case, Kira Shanks, points to a mentally disabled gentle giant named Benny who is sent to a mental hospital because he has been beaten most likely by townspeople looking for vigilante justice on their own. Alex in the present day answers a call from a reporter doing a story on Kira Shanks and agrees to meet him, going to her her hometown in upstate New York from the city where she lives. She ends up staying in town after the reported suggests a connection between her kidnapping and Kira's death even though they are years apart and Benny is still in a mental hospital. Alex starts researching and putting the information together about what really happened to Kira because she starts to believe that Benny didn't do it either--a couple chapters are written from Benny's point of view, to the world he is basically a zombie unable to do anything for himself and unable to speak but his mind is still working and able to process thoughts giving clues as to what happened to him and to Kira. This is a really page turner that I could not put down until I got to the end. Great writing, interesting story with lots of twists and an ending that I did not expect. Thoroughly enjoyed this book! Definitely worth your time! Thanks to NG for the ARC!!!!

This was a creepy good fast paced thriller that I enjoyed reading . It reminds you of a murder mystery on ID network
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY by Joe Clifford is probably one of the best books I have read in some time. This should be made into a movie. The protagonist, Alex Salerno, was kidnapped when she was 17 and held captive. There were others that were kidnapped as well but Alex was able to get away. Her captor, Ken Parsons, is arrested and sentices to prison. There were rumors spreading after another young woman went missing that a man who was in a mental hospital was to blame. An easy target right? Well, as Alex moves on with her life to the best of her ability, a journalist wants to interview her. It opens wounds that were meant to be closed. However, it also get Alex thinking about finding out what happens to Kira Shanks. The girl that went missing after her. Alex learns new things after talking to her old friends and those that she went to school with. The rumors may not be true after all. The writer does an excellent job of keeping the elders attention by keeping them guessing. It is a very easy read and the characters are believable. I was not able to put this one down. I cannot wait to read more by this writer.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

5++ ⭐️ out of 5

The One That Got Away by Joe Clifford is a gritty, dark crime thriller. Alex Salerno was abducted 12 years ago at age 17 and held captive underground. Luckily, she was rescued before the serial killer who took her could finish her off. Alex was rescued by Sean Riley, a married cop she ends up having an affair with. Cut to the present--Alex returns home to Reine, NY because a reporter wants to interview her. A few years ago another girl went missing and is presumed dead. Are the cases connected? Alex is determined to find out. This book was very dark and most of the characters were not deeply flawed. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the revelations that kept coming. I will definitely check out the author's previous works now! Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Joe Clifford book and I am enjoying it so far! Love the writing style and the story was fast paced, which left you wanting to know more.

Alex Salerno was abducted 12 year ago, kept in a basement for three days. She's the one that got away, before her abducteur could rape and murder her. Since then, her life has been a mess. Doing drugs and drinking to numb the pain, she is called by a reporter who wants her help to get a passing grade. Noah offers to pay her for information and Alex will do almost anything to get money. Years after Alex was rescued, another young woman (Kira) went missing and Noah, the reporter, wants answers regarding this case. Kira's body was never found and Alex finds herself obsessed in finding out what happened.

Alex is a complex and hard to understand character but the author does a great job in showing us the hardship of Alex's relationships and the residents in Reine.

What an interesting book. This is my first time reading Joe Clifford. I love the writing style, very accessible.

Alex Salerno is the one that got away. A series of abductions 12 years ago led to the deaths of young women in Reine, NY. Alex was rescued and her life has been a mess since. She has moved to NYC trying to leave the past which she can't escape, behind. She is called by a reporter asking her to come to Reine to interview her. She goes and finds he's actually a student using her to get a passing grade in his journalism class. He offers to pay her and Alex will pretty much do anything for a buck. He wants her to get answers from a local policeman about Kira Shanks case. Years after Alex is rescued another young woman has gone missing in Reine. Alex, as complicated as she is, feels that this has stolen her limelight. The body of Kira, the other girl has never been found. Alex becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her.

Alex goes from sympathetic to not back to being sympathetic. She is a complex, hard to understand character. Her history, her relationships back in Reine are complex. The author does a very good job of showing us the hardscrabble life of residents of Reine and their lives. .

Okay guys, this is a good one- mark December 3rd, 2018 on your calendars because that’s when this fantastic book comes out, The One That Got Away by Joe Clifford. This is a book getting a lot of positive buzz right now and after finishing it this morning, I can absolutely see why. It’s a gritty, slow-burn of a thriller that follows Alex Salerno, the sole survivor of a string of abductions and murders in the early 2000s. Reine, a small, rough-around-the-edges town in upstate New York is the silent starring character, alongside Alex, in this story. Clifford’s descriptive writing about a town that has seen its fair share of substance abuse, tragedy, and crime over the last several decades was extraordinary and so real.

Alex returns to her hometown after being away for several years when a young college reporter asks to interview her about her past abduction for a school paper. This interview snowballs into Alex investigating a seemingly unrelated murder case in Reine, where a beautiful teenage girl has been missing for years, and though a body was never found, a man suspected of her murder was identified and shipped off to a mental hospital. However, things aren’t as they seem, and Alex begins to think the suspected killer, a mentally-challenged man named Benny, has been wrongfully accused.

For me, the best part of this book was the journey, literally and internally, that Alex, reluctantly at first, forced herself to embark on in order to find the truth. Alex is a deeply flawed person who had a difficult childhood and had the most traumatic experience as a teenager, which then led her to make tough choices as an adult. I couldn’t help but root for her to get her life on track. She also frustrated me to no end and I found myself silently yelling at her while reading (“NO, you do NOT go there!!!”). Haha.

The ending for me seemed so sudden, and I wished we got to see more of the aftermath following the final events, but there was a good ending, and I feel like all my questions were answered in the end. If you’re into mysteries, psychological thrillers, or books that just creep you out, this one is definitely for you!

4 out of 5 stars for The One That Got Away from Joe Clifford, which comes out on December 3rd, 2018.

Thank you to NetGalley, Down & Out Books, and the author for the opportunity to read and provide my honest review for this book.

I have really enjoyed Clifford's Jay Porter series and this standalone was very good as well. Serial killer Kenneth Parsons is in jail for the abduction and murder of young girls. However one girl, Alex Salerno, was rescued and survived and the town of Reine felt safe again when Parsons was locked up.
But then another girl goes missing and a dimwitted local, now in the State Mental Hospital, is the prime suspect.......but something just seems a little off. Alex, a very complex, compelling main character, returns to the town to try and find some closure not only for the missing girl but also for herself. But what she finds is a town closing ranks, a town that doesn't want the memories of the past to be rekindled. A gritty, psychological story of grief, compassion and catharsis, this was another very good book by Joe Clifford.

I actually really liked this book. It gave me slight Dark Places vibes, but didn't actually mirror Dark Places at all. There was just a really eerie air about the book that reminded me a lot of Gillian Flynn writing, which is an amazing feat, if you ask me.

This would be a pretty run of the mill story about the escapee who just barely missed death when kidnapped as a child/teenager but is now a drug induced mess of a person who is unsure of where he/she belongs in life, had it not been for Kira Shanks's story. I liked the way that Clifford intertwined these two crimes without actually making it about the same criminal. I also thought that adding Benny's point of view was inspired, because he really did add a lot to the story. Beyond Benny and Alex, though, all of the characters felt very two dimensional and there on need basis, if that makes sense. Everyone felt very disposable, which I suppose could have been intentional since Alex is hard to trust and easy to cut off, but it made it annoying to read about anything that didn't directly deal with Kira Shanks's disappearance.

Overall, the story itself was wonderful and though it wasn't super mysterious, it was very thrilling. You never know what exactly is going to happen next, or what is going to be uncovered. It makes for a really good, keep you on the edge of your seat type of story.

This author can set a mood! The setting was so bleak and Alex is so damaged. She felt the abduction was actually a good thing because of the attention she got after she was found. The town is run down, tired.

The story itself was interesting. The chapters from Benny’s perspective made the story for me. There were some twists and that ending was something else!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Author Guide for a copy in exchange for a review.

Joe Clifford has hit the ball out of the park with The One That Got Away. Riveting from page one. A rare trick in true noir, Clifford not only evokes the requisite sense of doom, but manages to evoke fully fleshed out characters without sacrificing pace. Highly recommend to fans of the dark side..

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! It was definitely a book that kept you thinking! I would definitely recommend this book to fellow readers. Thank you!

This book is not your average mystery or crime thriller read. The main character, Alex, was abducted by a serial killer when she was 17 & although many other victims met their ending at the hands of this madman, Alex was able to escape. As the one who got away, Alex spends her life wondering if living was really a better ending than suffering death like all of the other victims. She is a complicated character who suffers with a lot of hard-hitting demons from her past.

When asked back to her hometown 12 years after being abducted for a newspaper interview, Alex cannot turn it down. Although tragic, her abduction is in some way the only thing that has made her really ever feel significant in her life. She hopes the interview will somehow reignite that feeling of being something and someone—remind people she exists. However, once she meets with the interviewer, she understands the intentions are less about her story and more about a girl who vanished after Alex had been rescued. In a lot of ways, Alex feels as if this girl is her rival, as her disappearance stole from Alex’s infamous notoriety and took her spotlight. In an attempt to hunt down the truth and face her own demons, Alex sets out to finally get answers about this other girl, Kira’s, disappearance. First for selfish reasons to set her own mind at ease and collect a paycheck, Alex dives into investigating the strange unsolved case of Kira. However, as the story progresses and Alex is faced with more and more challenges and questions about Kira’s disappearance, the mission morphs into a personal journey not only to uncover the truth, but to also free Alex from her own crippling past and traumas so she can hopefully look forward to a future of her own for once.

This story is made enjoyable by the complexities of Alex and the easy style in which the book is written. The book is written in a way that makes you feel very much a part of Alex, her past and the small town in which she grew up. You very much feel like a local fly on the wall throughout this book, making it a story you feel very personally invested in because you feel such a part of the events.

There is a bit of a rushed ending, although there aren’t too many loose ends per se. Perhaps the ending is perfectly suited for such an unsettled character as Alex. There is a realness to the ending that coincides with the sincerity portrayed throughout the storytelling and writing style of the novel. Life doesn’t always wrap up nice and neat and such is the way this story ends.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me a free advanced copy of this novel to enjoy. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in the least.

For anyone who enjoys a twisty mystery with a true crime feel, you should definitely read this book when it comes out in December 2018.

This is one of my favorite galleys I received from NetGalley. The story kept me guessing the entire time. One girl was found kidnapped, bound yet alive while another girl was kidnapped a few years later and was never found again. Alex is the survivor & returns to her hometown to find out what happened to the second girl. The problem is everyone in this town has a secret.