A story of recovery and redemption. "A voice filled with sincerity, salvation, and splendor. A voice as stark, unforgiving, and mesmerizing as blood backing into the needle." ~ J.A. Kazimer, The Ampersand Review 
From the cow fields of Connecticut to the streets of San Francisco, Joe Clifford’s Junkie Love traverses the lost highways of America, down the rocky roads of mental illness to the dead ends of addiction. Based on Clifford’s own harrowing experience with drugs as a rock ’n’ roll wannabe in the 1990s, the book draws on the best of Kerouac &amp; the Beats, injecting a heavy dose of pulp fiction as it threads a rollicking narrative through a doomed love triangle, lit up by the many strange characters he meets along the way. Part road story, part resurrection tale, Junkie Love finds a way to laugh in one’s darkest hour, while never abandoning its heart in search of a home. Junkie Love by Joe Clifford is an original ride through the down-and-dirty underside of the drug and music scene, inspired and propelled by Jack Kerouac’s youthful dreams of an American nirvana, translated to a later, darker generation. Clifford is its passionate spokesman. Buy now and get a free Kindle book with paperback via Kindle Matchbook! Praise for Junkie Love "Joe Clifford’s Junkie Love portrays high-heeled heroin amour, beautiful and vicious, full of front seat hot sex and brutal cop raids, secret rehab gropes and smack-fueled crime sprees. In prose that speeds like a stolen car, Clifford does for opiated romance what Michael Herr did for war and F.X. Toole for prize fights: brings mind-blowing news from hells beyond imagining." - Alan Kaufman, author of Jew Boy and The Outlaw Bible of American Literature "No one writes this good the first time out, do they? Joe Clifford’s Junkie Love is a literary achievement of the first order. Junkie Love is both harrowing and haunting, hypnotic and hilarious. Clifford can flat-out tell a story. He’s savvy, insightful, and fearless. Trust me, here’s a world that’s more vivid, unnerving, and compelling than the one you’re living in, written with the exhilaration and abandon of an improbable survivor." - John Dufresne, author of Requiem, Mass (a People magazine’s Book Pick of the Week) "Joe Clifford reminds us that even in the most punishing circumstances, the human heart doesn’t just struggle or abide, it points the way home. Junkie Love is a savage, funny, ravishing gift of a book, strangely gentle and beautifully strange. Like Jimmy Santiago Baca’s A Place to Stand, it reveals that man in extremis is the man in the mirror, and that our own humanity resides precisely in the willingness to see the irreparable fault lines in our own souls, to witness despite the impenetrable darkness: to love." - David Corbett, author of Blood of Paradise and Do They Know I’m Running?

Junkie Love

Biographies & Memoirs

Clifford, Joe

Arts & Literature

Battered Suitcase Press

Clifford’s debut short story collection Choice Cuts mines the fractured territory of the marginalized, misanthropic, and short-changed. From morally bereft television producers desperate for a hit, to veterans suffering psychotic splits, Clifford delves into the madness and desperation that plague those living on the edge, while never surrendering the search for the light that guides us all. In these fast-paced, hard-hitting tales of ne’er-do-wells, addicts, and gangsters, two predominant themes emerge throughout the collection: human life frequently reduced to little more than pieces of meat, and the bad choices we often make to escape that fate, however good our intentions. Echoing the pulp past of Thompson and Keene, with the sardonic worldview of Caulfield and Durden, Clifford’s style is lean, mean, and unforgiving.

Choice Cuts

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

2015 Anthony Award Nominee for Best Mystery Novel
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 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.

Lamentation (The Jay Porter Series)

Literature & Fiction

United States

Oceanview Publishing

Jay Porter, the newest employee at NorthEastern Insurance in New Hampshire, is investigating an accident claim when he learns the teenager behind the wheel was arrested for minor drug possession and sentenced to a hardcore behavioral modification center. At the county courthouse, Jay meets Nicki, a young college intern, who tips him off to a possible scandal―first-time juvenile offenders being shipped to private institutions for political kickbacks. He learns that long-time family nemeses, Adam and Michael Lombardi, may have a stake in the scheme. Is Jay’s mission to help these kids a legitimate crusade? Or is his thirst for revenge driven by the guilt he feels over his own junkie brother’s death? These questions conspire to tear apart tranquility and drive a wedge between Jay and his wife Jenny. With help from new friend Nicki, and a couple of old friends, Jay finds himself thrust back into a past he had hoped to leave behind, putting everything―and everyone he loves―at risk in pursuit of the truth.

December Boys (The Jay Porter Series)

Lamentation: A Novel (Jay Porter Series)

Three years have passed since estate-clearing handyman Jay Porter almost lost his life following a devastating accident on the thin ice of Echo Lake. His investigative work uncovering a kids-for-cash scandal may have made his hometown of Ashton, New Hampshire, a safer place, but nothing comes without a price. The traumatic, uncredited events cost Jay his wife and his son, and left him with a permanent leg injury. Jay is just putting his life back together when a mysterious stranger stops by with an offer too good to be true: a large sum of cash in exchange for finding a missing teenage boy who may have been abducted by a radical recovery group in the northern New Hampshire wilds. Skeptical of gift horses and weary of reenlisting in the local drug war, Jay passes on the offer. The next day his boss is found beaten and left for dead, painting Jay the main suspect. As clues begin to tie the two cases together, Jay finds himself back on the job―and back in the line of fire.

Give Up the Dead (The Jay Porter Series)

• Fourth in Joe Clifford’s Jay Porter Series • Jay Porter is a flawed handyman struggling to keep his life together while standing up to forces he perceives as evil • The author is a former homeless heroin addict—now the father of two boys, and an MFA graduate; his authenticity is unquestionable • Author has been compared to Dennis Lehane, Don Winslow and Paula Hawkins • Will appeal to readers who appreciate deeply flawed characters fighting to walk the righteous path • Very atmospheric setting in rural New Hampshire • Timely topic within the political scene and dissatisfaction with the state of American politics • The plot line borrows from the real-life criminal case involving former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort • As with all Jay Porter books, themes of addiction, recovery, and the elusive search for the American dream are prevalent • The novel is a topical examination of the failure of the War on Drugs • Lamentation, the first book in the Jay Porter series, was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best Novel • The Jay Porter novels have had favorable reviews from Publishers Weekly (starred), Library Journal, Mystery Scene Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Midwest Book Review, and many others • The Jay Porter novels have blurbs from many best-selling authors. Among them James Grady, Robert Dugoni, Sheldon Siegel, David Corbett, James Hall, Allan Leverone, Sara Henry, Reed Farrel Coleman, Eileen Cook, and others • Author is a frequent speaker at conferences, libraries, and book events • Author has a large following in the San Francisco Bay area and Connecticut • Author’s personal story of addiction, living on the streets, and recovery is poignant and a popular platform for widespread publicity • Give Up The Dead book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D05pkeVYoHU

Broken Ground (The Jay Porter Series)

December Boys: A Jay Porter Novel (Jay Porter Series)

2018 Anthony Award Nominee The American Dream is great as long as you don't wake up. Three years have passed since estate-clearing handyman Jay Porter almost lost his life following a devastating accident on the thin ice of Echo Lake. His investigative work uncovering a kids-for-cash scandal may have made his hometown of Ashton, New Hampshire, a safer place, but nothing comes without a price. The traumatic, uncredited events cost Jay his wife and his son, and left him with a permanent leg injury. Jay is just putting his life back together when a mysterious stranger stops by with an offer too good to be true: a large sum of cash in exchange for finding a missing teenage boy who may have been abducted by a radical recovery group in the northern New Hampshire wilds. Skeptical of gift horses and weary of reenlisting in the local drug war, Jay passes on the offer. The next day his boss is found beaten and left for dead, painting Jay the main suspect. As clues begin to tie the two cases together, Jay finds himself back on the job and back in the line of fire.

Give Up the Dead: A Jay Porter Novel (The Jay Porter Series)

Rag and Bone (The Jay Porter Series)

Nominated BEST NOVEL by International Thriller Writers One Man's Personal Crusade Against Corporate Greed Having spent ten months on the run after he was framed for the murder of an estate-clearing associate, handyman Jay Porter returns to his hometown of Ashton, New Hampshire. During his time as a fugitive, he searched for a hard driveâevidence that would put his longtime nemeses Adam and Michael Lombardi behind bars. But he came up empty handed. He has nothing. No hard drive, no hope. He hasn't spoken to his ex-wife and son in almost a year and he's broke. With his reputation tarnished and employment opportunities nonexistent, Jay takes a charity assignment from old friend/flame Alison Rodgers and learns of a fire at Alison's former rehab farm. Jay is convinced that the Lombardis started a fire as a scare tactic to pressure Alison to sell. As Jay begins to look into the origins of the fire, he hopes he will finally be able to put away his enemies. But he soon discovers that evil isn't so easy to define, and that sometimes we need to take the law into our own hands if we want justice. Perfect for Fans of Dennis Lehane While all of the novels in the Jay Porter Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is: Lamentation December Boys Give Up the Dead Broken Ground Rag and Bone

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