Audiobook review: 
A dual timeline winter season domestic thriller ominous with darker tones and a noir-feel, this standalone tale had me returning to an author who drew me into the world of his story once again. I’ve only read one previous book by Joe Clifford, but had plans to pick up more of his work. I liked the stark, chilling settings, characters with shade and depth, and twisting, complex plotting he brings to a story and this was all present once again enhanced further by the dual narration work of familiar Eric Michael Summerer and new to me narrator, Jennifer Jill Araya.
Told in alternating timelines with Summerer taking Robert’s present day time and Jennifer portraying the missing nineteen year old half-sister, Brooke in the 1998 time line, the story builds from a tragic runaway or kidnapping cold case to a warmer present day mystery when Robert is confronted by a young woman claiming to be Brooke’s daughter. There is so much uncertainty and a sense that so much has been covered over and hidden for a long time and it will not be pretty when it all spills out.
I confess that for all my anticipation, this one took a bit to draw me fully in as it set up and got started. I could set it aside for other books though I always came back to it. Then, it finally caught hold. I shivered in my blanket as this dark, edgier story particularly Brooke’s end unfolded and Robert’s life really went off the deep end. Truthfully, Robert’s past, his oddities, and what comes after was sad to me. Everyone in this book either started or ended flawed so that human nature at its twisted worst was really on display. The local law enforcement have the past case down to a serial killer who was working the area at the time and the case was handed off to the State Police. However, the FBI still have an open case and Robert is also doing his own investigating with Lily showing up. He’s got his suspicions about her and there’s Brooke’s old bestie Aaron and her loser boyfriend Mike still around to dredge up those past days once he goes looking.
Meanwhile, Brooke’s last days and hours are playing out in the past thread. She wants something more than being a dead end town statistic dead junkie prostitute behind a bar though with a dad dealing with his addictions and problems, a mom abandoning her and bringing along a half-brother after returning then getting sick with cancer and leaving again, and her own flirting with drugs, abusive boyfriend, bad decisions…odds are against her.
All in all, this is a dark winter thriller and it gets horrific by the end so that I had to listen by the light of day. Summerer and Araya took Clifford’s fantastic words and all came together for a book that gripped sensations and emotions all together. This is for those who want a chilling, edgier noir-style mystery.
My Ratings
Story: B+
Narration: A
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
One snowy night in 1998, Brooke Mulcahy’s car slides off the road in rural Vermont. Her car is discovered. She is not. Twenty-one years later, Robert Kirby, Brooke’s stepbrother, is paid a visit from a young woman (Lily), claiming to be Brooke’s daughter. Since a tumultuous upbringing, Robert, formerly known as “Bobby,” has enjoyed considerable success. Now an esteemed professor at a private Upstate New York university, Robert has just received a significant NEH grant. After Lily’s visit, Robert’s life is upended.
His wife Stephanie reveals she is unhappy in the marriage and takes their teenage son to visit her sister. Brooke’s former best friend, Aaron Reardon, still devastated from Brooke’s disappearance, offers to help. And forever lurking in the background is Mike Rakowski, Brooke’s ex, a possessive, abusive drug addict.
As Robert’s world unravels, he revisits that night twenty-one years ago where everything went wrong, unearthing a horrible, bone-chilling secret. In the vein of Simone St. James’s Sun Down Motel, All Who Wander mines the depths of past transgression, begging the question: do past sin automatically negate future happiness?
Author: Joe Clifford
Narrators: Eric Michael Summerer, Jennifer Jill Araya
Series: Standalone
Genre: Thriller
Audiobook Release Date: November 12, 2024
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Length: 8 hours 53 minutes
Source: publisher
Audio Speed: 1.25x
Purchase info:
Audible/Amazon (affilate link)